Disk read error on new 250GB boot drive

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Guest

I've attempted to troubleshoot this myself by searching KB's at Dell, Western
Digital, Adaptec, and Microsoft... but to no avail. Nothing that I found
that I thought might work has worked.

My operating system and applications had previously been installed on a 40GB
hard drive (WD400BB). About a month ago, I replaced this with a 250GB hard
drive (WD2500JB) and reinstalled everything including all updates.
Everything worked great.

However, last week I transferred GB's of data (video files) back and forth
from this primary 250GB hard drive, another internal 250GB hard drive, and a
hard drive in an external enclosure. There were no problems encountered. At
the end of the day, I shut off everything. Prior to this day, I had about
38GB of data on the primary hard drive. Now I have about 124GB of data.

The next day when I turned on the PC, I received the following error after
the BIOS POST routine... "A disk read error occurred." None of the following
has helped... CHKDSK /R, FIXBOOT, FIXMBR, BOOTCFG /REBUILD

After reading about some sort of 120GB hard drive limit for my system, I
installed an Adaptec ASH-1233 ATA Adapter. However, after the BIOS POST
routine, I just get a black screen and a blinking cursor. I know this new
adapter works since I can swap out the hard drive and boot to the previous
40GB hard drive.

I assume the 250GB hard drive still works since I can access data from it if
I install it as a slave drive.

No virus has been detected (I update my virus definitions daily).

Western Digital's Diagnostics and Microsoft's Disk Management report no
problems with the hard drive.

Can this be an issue with the drivers for the new adapter? I was able to
install the drivers on the 40GB hard drive since I could actually boot to it.
How can I get the drivers installed on to the 250GB hard drive since I
cannot boot to it... or would that even make a difference at this point?
When I boot to the WinXP disk to use Recovery Console, I am able to load the
drivers... but is that actually installing them to the hard drive?

What else can I try?

Is a Windows XP repair install my only hope?

Any assistance would be truly appreciated.

Thanks,
Stephen


Dell Dimension 4100
A11 BIOS
Windows XP Pro, SP 2
Pentium III, 996 MHz
512MB of RAM
NTFS file system
 
Have you updated to the latest BIOS for your computer..?
Make sure you have the latest BIOS update from the Dell site for your
specific model.. Might be a good idea to check for other updates too..
j;-j
 
Wow, I didn't see your specs at the bottom of the post, sorry..
Looks like you have loaded that old rig to the max and may need to upgrade
your rig, to a P4.. It may be totally underpowered for all you apparently
want to do with it.. A PIII under 1GB doesn't really have the kick larger
drives may need or that XP was designed for, ie..P4's, not to mention the
rig's PSU, it may be struggling too..
You might try updating the PSU, have you replaced the CMOS battery lately..?
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp
Use the above link to calculate the full wattage load on your PSU..
j;-j
 
If I understand correctly, there are 3 possible fixes here, though I'm not
sure if they would address what needs to be addressed. I'm just trying to
eliminate me going on any more wild goose chases in trying to fix this.

1. P4 vs P3 - Would this account for everything working fine with the large
boot drive until the day of the disk read error? Also, I've used other
systems running on a P3 and XP with large hard drives, and I haven't seen any
issues.

2. PSU - Would a too small of a PSU account for everything working fine
until the disk read error? This is something I looked into prior to adding
things on to my PC, but perhaps I made a mistake in the calculations.

3. CMOS battery - This has never been replaced... but would it account for
everything working fine until the disk read error? My system still works
fine if I put the old 40GB boot drive back in.

Thanks for the help,
Stephen
 
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dzuul/specs.htm#power
Did you use the wattage calculator on your 200w PSU..?
http://wiki.ehow.com/Diagnose-and-Replace-a-Failed-PC-Power-Supply
You may not be able to upgrade the PSU.. I don't see ATX compatible PSU in
the Dell 4100 specs..? Some Dell computers are designed to use an odd
connector..
You say your CPU is a 996mhz, don't see that in the specs either..?
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dzuul/syssetup.htm#boot_screen
I assume you set it up in the BIOS correctly, right..?
The drive was showing the full 250GB's (233.76gb) in disk management, right..?
j;-j
 
StephenMCE said:
If I understand correctly, there are 3 possible fixes here, though I'm not
sure if they would address what needs to be addressed. I'm just trying to
eliminate me going on any more wild goose chases in trying to fix this.

1. P4 vs P3 - Would this account for everything working fine with the large
boot drive until the day of the disk read error? Also, I've used other
systems running on a P3 and XP with large hard drives, and I haven't seen any
issues.
Click to expand...
Newer AMD or P4 CPU's vs PIII , no contest PIII can't cut the mustered or
even come close in benchmark tests.. It's not even fair to compare, in my
opinion..

If your CPU was originally a 1ghz or 1.1ghz and is now showing up as a
996mgz, then it might be the culprit or possible reason.. Remember, the large
video files you were transferring at the time too, may be a related factor..
2. PSU - Would a too small of a PSU account for everything working fine
until the disk read error? This is something I looked into prior to adding
things on to my PC, but perhaps I made a mistake in the calculations.
Click to expand...
Remember, as you add hardware to your computer your increasing the wattage
load, large HD's or any HD for that matter needs pure uninterrupted power..
If the power drops out or fluctuates during a long write process, you can get
an error..
This may affect the CPU as well..
3. CMOS battery - This has never been replaced... but would it account for
everything working fine until the disk read error? My system still works
fine if I put the old 40GB boot drive back in.
Click to expand...
It could, in combination with the above may have or not..? It's a possible
quick and inexpensive solution, not to mention just good preventative
maintenance..
j;-j
 
- Would an issue with the PSU account for the drive booting with no problems
for so long and then suddenly not after I had transferred data to it?

- If yes, then I should be able to take take out unneccesary hardware, put
in the non-booting 250GB hard drive thus lowering the power requirements, and
then it should boot with no problem... correct?

- Should the CPU's MHz affect anything? The Window's System Properties
General tab says it is 996 MHz. The BIOS says it is 1 GHz.

- Which BIOS settings are you referring to when you ask if I have "set it up
in the BIOS correctly"? As for the hard drives, I have the BIOS set to
"auto". The BIOS recognizes any hard drive over 137GB as 137GB. However,
any disk management utilities within Windows (Microsoft's as well as Western
Digital's) recognize the drives at their correct capacity. Even Recovery
Console from a WinXP install disk recognizes the correct capacity.

Thanks for the help,
Stephen
 
Did you use XP's disk management to partition and format the C: partition,
setting it as active..? Or did you use the WD app..? Or did you use the XP
installation CD just before installing the OS..?
I avoid the OEM HD disk utilities when partitioning & formating a new
drive.. Why, because they allow you to much space and not enough buffer
space.. My 250gb shows up as 233.76gb in disk management with 16.24gb + or -
as being alloted by windows as a buffer/breathing room..

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/howto/install_xp_disk_mgmt.html
The above site is a reference for using disk management in XP..
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp
See how to use the XP install CD to partition & format the hard drive..

http://support.intel.com/support/processors/tools/frequencyid/sb/CS-007623.htm
Use the tool from the above site to check your CPU to be certain..

If the Bios sees the 250gb drive as 137gb and you have the latest Bios
update from Dell (A11) and XP SP1-SP1a or SP2 installed, you might try
posting to their forum or contacting Dell customer support for their
definitive answer.
http://search.dell.com/results.aspx...&k=forum&img=False&sum=True&ssum=False&qmp=10
You may be out of luck if there isn't a newer BIOS update..?
j;-j

StephenMCE said:
- Would an issue with the PSU account for the drive booting with no problems
for so long and then suddenly not after I had transferred data to it?

- If yes, then I should be able to take take out unneccesary hardware, put
in the non-booting 250GB hard drive thus lowering the power requirements, and
then it should boot with no problem... correct?
Click to expand...

Other factors may be involved. you could try it, though you may need to save
any data and reformat the drive if there are errors with the disks file
system..
- Should the CPU's MHz affect anything? The Window's System Properties
General tab says it is 996 MHz. The BIOS says it is 1 GHz.
Click to expand...

Use the Intel Freqency ID Utility to be sure..
 
I know this doesn't help much, but I'm having exactly the same problems on
the same machine. I'm thinking that perhaps the motherboard bios is at issue
here as I cannot figure out how to fix it. At least I haven't lost the data.
 
I recently had the same problem and tried troubleshooting every
possible solution until I finally gave up. Now since I do this for a
living, you would think I could figure it out myself. Apparently there
is a problem with WinXP and large disk support. I had to order a new
XP disk preloaded with SP 2 from Microsoft. I didnt have to purchase a
new license I just had to format with a version that had SP2 already
installed NOT WinXP and then loading SP1 and SP2 seperately, IT HAS TO
BE AN XP SP2 disk.
 
I recently had the same problem and tried troubleshooting every
possible solution until I finally gave up. Now since I do this for a
living, you would think I could figure it out myself. Apparently
there
is a problem with WinXP and large disk support. I had to order a new
XP disk preloaded with SP 2 from Microsoft. I didnt have to purchase
a new license I just had to format with a version that had SP2 already
installed NOT WinXP and then loading SP1 and SP2 seperately, IT HAS TO
BE AN XP SP2 disk.
Click to expand...

Erm... if you do this for a living you should know that you didn't need
to order a "new XP disk preloaded with SP2". You simply needed to
slipstream SP2 into your installation media. See:

How to slipstream sp2 into XP
http://www.simplyguides.net/guides/using_autostreamer/using_autostreamer.html
- AutoStreamer
http://www.msfn.org/articles.php?action=show&showarticle=49
http://www.windows-help.net/windowsxp/winxp-sp2-bootcd.html
http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd.htm
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/slipstream.htm

Malke
 
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