"A Disk Read Error Occured" error source

Mr. Frazzlebottom · Jan 10, 2006

I have encountered several times lately the boot-time error message "A
Disk Read Error Occured".

Does anyone know the source of this error, i.e. is it the BIOS, or is
it the IDE's boot code?

Rod Speed · Jan 10, 2006

Mr. Frazzlebottom said:
I have encountered several times lately the boot-time
error message "A Disk Read Error Occured".

Does anyone know the source of this error,
i.e. is it the BIOS, or is it the IDE's boot code?

Why does it matter ?

If it actually says
A Disk Read Error Occurred. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart
its coming from the bios.

Mr. Frazzlebottom · Jan 11, 2006

Why does it matter ?

Umm... because I am trying to fix the problem?

Rod Speed · Jan 11, 2006

Mr. Frazzlebottom said:
Rod Speed (e-mail address removed) wrote

Umm... because I am trying to fix the problem?

Irrelevant if its the bios or the boot code that's generating
that when you are trying to fix the problem. Whatever is
saying that is saying that its having problems with the drive.

dannysdailys · Jan 11, 2006

Mr. Frazzlebottomwrote:
I have encountered several times lately the boot-time error message
"A

Disk Read Error Occured".

Does anyone know the source of this error, i.e. is it the BIOS, or is
it the IDE's boot code?

You don't mention your OS. Have you made any hardware changes lately?
Added a RAID card or something like that?

Did you have a sudden power on shutdown? Has your power gone out?

If any of the above are true, you may have screwed up your Master Boot
Record (MBR) and it's showing it.

If you're running a 9x OS, boot from a DOS disk and at the a prompt,
type fdisk.exe /mbr and hit the enter key.

Pull out the floppy and reboot. That should do it if the MBR is the
problem.

With XP, you'd need a utility like "Partition Data Doctor"
at http://www.ptdd.com/

I bought this program and it's saved me a few times.

This is what it sounds like.

Mr. Frazzlebottom · Jan 13, 2006

Rod said:
Irrelevant if its the bios or the boot code that's generating
that when you are trying to fix the problem. Whatever is
saying that is saying that its having problems with the drive.

Now you are confusing me which is an easy thing to do with diagnosing
PC errors I will grant you that, but, if, what you say is true, that,
"Whatever is saying that is saying that its having problems with the
drive." then perhaps one needs to know what is saying that in order to
help with fixing the drive.

Mr. Frazzlebottom · Jan 13, 2006

dannysdailys said:
You don't mention your OS. Have you made any hardware changes lately?
Added a RAID card or something like that?

Did you have a sudden power on shutdown? Has your power gone out?

The error is caused by XP (Home & Pro) with NTFS. It has happened to me
during two new installs. Reinstalling with FAT32 does NOT cause the
error. (Note: _caused by XP_ is what I meant.)

If any of the above are true, you may have screwed up your Master Boot
Record (MBR) and it's showing it.

The question regarding the source of the message was my thinking, "Is
this an MBR issue or a BOOT code issue or a hardware issue?"

Rod Speed · Jan 13, 2006

Mr. Frazzlebottom said:
Rod Speed wrote

Now you are confusing me which is an easy thing to do with diagnosing
PC errors I will grant you that, but, if, what you say is true, that,
"Whatever is saying that is saying that its having problems with the
drive." then perhaps one needs to know what is saying that in order to
help with fixing the drive.

Its saying its having problems reading the drive.

That can be due to a variety of possibilitys, the hard drive is dying,
the ribbon cable needs changing, the controller is dying, the
motherboard is dying, the power supply is inadequate, etc etc etc.

You've just got to go thru the possibilitys systematically
to work out what the problem actually is.

See what the drive SMART data says using Everest.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181
or smartctl from the knoppix CD if Everest doesnt show the SMART data.

Post the SMART data here.

Run the hard drive manufacturer's disagnostics on the drive.

That should tell you if the problem is one of the first 3 possibilitys.

If those look fine, its pretty cheap to try another power supply.

Check the motherboard for failed caps, those are the usually
blue or black plastic colored posts stucking up vertically from
the motherboard. The tops should be completely flat. If any of
them are bulged or leaking, the cap has failed and you need a
new motherboard.

Rod Speed · Jan 13, 2006

Mr. Frazzlebottom said:
dannysdailys wrote

The error is caused by XP (Home & Pro) with NTFS. It has happened
to me during two new installs. Reinstalling with FAT32 does NOT
cause the error. (Note: _caused by XP_ is what I meant.)

Likely that's just because the hard drive is failing and the
stuff used during the boot phase is located differently
when the drive is formatted FAT32 and with NTFS.

The question regarding the source of the message was my thinking,
"Is this an MBR issue or a BOOT code issue or a hardware issue?"

Its always a hardware issue. Whatever is saying that is
saying that its having a problem reading the hard drive.

Eric Gisin · Jan 13, 2006

The message comes from the NTFS boot sector loader.

It can indicate incorrect CHS values passed to BIOS.
If it is not consistent, it means marginal bad sectors in NTLDR.

Mr. Frazzlebottom · Jan 13, 2006

Eric said:
The message comes from the NTFS boot sector loader.

Which is what I concluded, too. But at first I was not sure. (And
mostly I was simply curious.)

It can indicate incorrect CHS values passed to BIOS.
If it is not consistent, it means marginal bad sectors in NTLDR.

By testing, and by threads on

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/19004/?o=0

I have determined that the problem is most like with XP itself.

Why do I say that? Because XP installs, boot and operates as it usually
does when I have XP use FAT32 on the drives. It is when I have XP use
NTFS on the drives I see this error. This happens on two different
drives, and two different boxes. FAT32 okay, NTFS error.

But also, I am using a recent make (PC Chips) MOBO and older Seagate
drives (Medalist, 6GB and 8GB). So, it is also quite possible that XP's
NTFS implementation in combination with these old drives are not quite
a good match in some manner.

The PC Chips' Award BIOS settings are a bit minimal; I can only find a
setting of "PCI IDE Busmaster" which might effect operation. I have it
disabled.

I wonder also what cable quality has to do with this.

Rod Speed · Jan 13, 2006

Mr. Frazzlebottom said:
Eric Gisin wrote

Which is what I concluded, too. But at first I was
not sure. (And mostly I was simply curious.)

You know what that did to the cat dont you ?

By testing, and by threads on

I have determined that the problem is most like with XP itself.

Very unlikely indeed.

Why do I say that? Because XP installs, boot and operates as it
usually does when I have XP use FAT32 on the drives. It is when I
have XP use NTFS on the drives I see this error. This happens on two
different drives, and two different boxes. FAT32 okay, NTFS error.

But also, I am using a recent make (PC Chips) MOBO and
older Seagate drives (Medalist, 6GB and 8GB). So, it is also
quite possible that XP's NTFS implementation in combination
with these old drives are not quite a good match in some manner.

Nope, I use it fine on drives even older than that.

The PC Chips' Award BIOS settings are a bit minimal;
I can only find a setting of "PCI IDE Busmaster" which
might effect operation. I have it disabled.

Are the two boxes using the same PC Chips motherboard ?
If so, try flashing the motherboard with the latest bios.

I wonder also what cable quality has to do with this.

Shouldnt have any effect. Cant see why that would only
affect a boot from an NTFS drive and not a FAT32 drive.

Mr. Frazzlebottom · Jan 18, 2006

Rod Speed wrote:
....

You know what that did to the cat dont you ?

....

Yep. I have lost three lives already. But, I just gotta figuring things
out sometimes no matter what road the pursuit of knowledge results in.
(Even though some roads are pretty bad.)

....

Very unlikely indeed.

Yes, very unlikely. Since I have such limited data with which I used to
make that conclusion; i.e. error with NTFS and no error with FAT32.

I have one computer that would fail with the above mentioned error with
XP formatted for NTFS, but is working fine with XP formatted for FTA32.

(My second computer that had the same initial result has had subsequent
OS crashes and I used a third HDD -- which now works, not well, but
works, with NTFS -- but it is yet s dfferent model drive.)

....

Shouldnt have any effect. Cant see why that would only
affect a boot from an NTFS drive and not a FAT32 drive.

I am just curious about how cables can -- if they can -- effect
operation.

I have seen a case where overclocking caused Windows to fail at a
consistent point during install (at the end of formating).

Overclocking is not a cable, of course, but timing issues -- mismatched
BIOS settings, memory types, etc. -- can effect the operation of
software. I am just wondering out loud, and not making any case one way
or the other, if cables can indeed effect operation.

Rod Speed · Jan 18, 2006

Mr. Frazzlebottom said:
Rod Speed wrote

You clearly dont, it killed the cat.

Yep. I have lost three lives already. But, I just gotta figuring
things out sometimes no matter what road the pursuit of knowledge
results in. (Even though some roads are pretty bad.)

Yes, very unlikely. Since I have such limited data with which I used
to make that conclusion; i.e. error with NTFS and no error with FAT32.

I have one computer that would fail with the above mentioned error with
XP formatted for NTFS, but is working fine with XP formatted for FTA32.

And the layout of what NTLDR uses will obviously vary
with the format, where particular files are on that drive etc.

(My second computer that had the same initial result has had
subsequent OS crashes and I used a third HDD -- which now works,
not well, but works, with NTFS -- but it is yet s dfferent model drive.)

What matters is whether you are still getting that particular error message.

I am just curious about how cables can -- if they can -- effect operation.

Yes they can, you can get CRC errors with a bad cable.

Mr. Frazzlebottom · Jan 25, 2006

Rod said:
You clearly dont, it killed the cat.

Ah, yer fergettin dat cats 'ave nine lives dude!

What matters is whether you are still getting that particular error message.

Yes. On one of the computers.

But it really does not matter, as the errors are not consistant with my
other hardware. There are so many variables... Could be this... could
be that... could be combinations of this and that...

whatever...

Rod Speed · Jan 25, 2006

Mr. Frazzlebottom said:
Rod Speed wrote

Ah, yer fergettin dat cats 'ave nine lives dude!

Nope, the saying is 'curiosity killed the cat', dud.

Yes. On one of the computers.

But it really does not matter, as the errors are not consistant with
my other hardware. There are so many variables... Could be this...
could be that... could be combinations of this and that...

whatever...

Thats no way to resolve a problem.