Re: A Disk Read Error Occured. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart

If the hard drive has bad sectors, they usually tend to grow. Every time you
start your computer may be the last time you start it. Repairing the Master
Boot Record is not going to solve for bad sectors. Backup what you can NOW.
Get a new hard drive. Because of the possibility of lost files you may have
to perform a repair install, even after you clone the old drive to the new
drive.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

"Lee Beck" <LeeBeck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:85948E24-039B-4BEC-903F-4AD49812188B@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Thanks, Richard.
>
> the software that you cite is a little pricey for my pocketbook, but hear
> what you say about it being worth it of you do a lot of data recovery.
>
> I do have one final question. If I try to repair my MBR (this is a NTFS
> drive) do I run the risk of losing data that is on the HDD?
>
> Thanks
>
> "Richard Urban" wrote:
>
>> Answers in-line:
>>
>>
>> "Lee Beck" <LeeBeck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> news:9AC7046C-E5E1-4D61-BAF4-5FCE59378CAF@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> > First, I'm not trying to post multiple copies of this query. I
>> > origianlly
>> > posted this on the WIN Media Center OS by accident. I'm running XP
>> > Pro.
>> >
>> > I got the cited message a week or so ago and came here and did a
>> > search.
>> > The respondents to other similar queries seemed to indicate that my
>> > hard
>> > drive had gone bad (after checking that there was not a disk in the
>> > drive,
>> > etc.) I ran Seagate's HDD diagnostics and it says that the drive is
>> > okay.
>> > So this leads me to probably a software problem (e.g., my XP Pro). I
>> > also
>> > ran a software download called GetDataBack which allows you to see if
>> > there
>> > is readable data on the HDD by installing it as a slave in an operating
>> > computer. I can see my data. Also, Device Manager says that the drive
>> > is
>> > operating normally, but clicking on the "Properties" tab shows no
>> > capacity
>> > (0
>> > GB used 0GB available).
>> >
>> > Before purchasing the GDB software and getting data back (but not
>> > programs)
>> > I'd like to try a few more tricks, since the next step after attempting
>> > to
>> > get data off the drive is to reformat it and reinstall windows. I have
>> > a
>> > few
>> > questions:
>> >
>> > 1. Of course my first question is whether any of you computer experts
>> > can
>> > lead me down a road to a solution. I'm at the point of doing whatever
>> > might
>> > work since my next steps will lose my data/programs anyway.
>> >
>> > 2 Is there any chance that performing a Windows utility might repair
>> > the
>> > drive? I've already tried the "Repair" utility on the XP setup CD. It
>> > found
>> > some bad sectors and said that it repaired them, but I continue to get
>> > the
>> > cited error message with every boot try. Maybe I have a damaged MBR?
>> > Is
>> > there some way to check that out, or would that give a different error
>> > message?
>>
>>
>> ******************************
>> If you find mention of "bad sectors" when running the chkdsk utility, it
>> is
>> time to start thinking of a new hard drive - yesterday!
>>
>> Use any of the good data recovery programs to strip what you can from the
>> present hard drive and store the files somewhere else. I would suggest an
>> external hard drive or CD's.
>>
>> Bad sectors can NOT be repaired. They are a physical defect in the hard
>> drive. Chkdsk will try to recover information from the bad sectors and
>> remap
>> the drive so you can access the "recovered" information. Chkdsk is not
>> always succssful and the recovered information may well be incomplete and
>> unusable.
>> ******************************
>>
>>
>> > 3 Should I reinstall XP? At this point, the computer is not even
>> > getting
>> > to
>> > the OS. I get the message right after the BIOS screen.
>>
>>
>> ******************************
>> You will have to perform a new install of Windows XP on your new hard
>> drive.
>> After the operating system is up and running (with all current critical
>> Window Updates installed) you can "copy" the saved information (that was
>> stripped from the bad drive) to wherever you want it to reside on the new
>> drive.
>> ******************************
>>
>>
>> > 4 I have Norton SystemWorks and have kept my virus definitions
>> > up-to-date.
>> > I did a virus check and no viruses were found. Is there a Norton
>> > utility
>> > that will help?
>>
>> ******************************
>> NO!
>> ******************************
>>
>>
>> > 5 Would you recommend a data recovery utility other than GDB? The
>> > software
>> > costs $50 and seems a little squirly. Maybe it's because I'm using the
>> > free
>> > download that only checks data availability, but it freezes my machine
>> > after
>> > finding the data (the HDD continues to churn away using all available
>> > system
>> > memory).
>>
>>
>> ******************************
>> I personally use Easy Recovery Professional (available at
>> http://www.ontrack.com/easyrecoveryprofessional/), and have been doing so
>> for the past five years. It is EXPENSIVE, but in my mind - worth every
>> penny. When you create the bootable floppy disk you can use it on "any"
>> computer - if you have purchased the most expensive version. It is a way
>> to
>> get back some of the cost of the program. Mine has more than paid for
>> itself
>> over the years.
>> ******************************
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Richard Urban
>> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
>>
>> Quote from George Ankner:
>> If you knew as much as you think you know,
>> You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
>>
>>
>>


.

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