disk read error on XP install

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jim C
  • Start date Start date
J

Jim C

My original 40 gig hard drive died and I was fortunate to have installed a
2nd drive last year and installed windows XP on one of 3 partitions on the
new disk, this installation disk is a purchased upgrade, (not the OEM
copy)..I am in the process of putting everything back together on that
drive...
I now have a new WD 300 gig second hard drive, I am trying to install
windows XP home as a new installation for a back up. or to use the larger
disk as my main drive.
After changing my bios settings for this disc to boot I can start the
installation of XP. All goes well except after formatting drive and copying
disc files, it restarts, then comes back and tells me
( A DISK READ ERROR OCCURRED) all I am able to do then is go through the
same procedure over and over with the same results.. disk read error. any
ideas from you will be appreciated
thanks
 
Jim said:
My original 40 gig hard drive died and I was fortunate to have
installed a 2nd drive last year and installed windows XP on one of 3
partitions on the new disk, this installation disk is a purchased
upgrade, (not the OEM copy)..I am in the process of putting
everything back together on that drive...
I now have a new WD 300 gig second hard drive, I am trying to install
windows XP home as a new installation for a back up. or to use the
larger disk as my main drive.
After changing my bios settings for this disc to boot I can start the
installation of XP. All goes well except after formatting drive and
copying disc files, it restarts, then comes back and tells me
( A DISK READ ERROR OCCURRED) all I am able to do then is go through
the same procedure over and over with the same results.. disk read
error. any ideas from you will be appreciated
thanks
Click to expand...

SATA or IDE drive? If SATA did you install the drivers at the F6 prompt?
 
FOLLOW UP........
Returned the 320 GIG WD and purchased a 160 GIG WD..Installation went
well...my immediate feeling is that 320 drive was defective or not
compatible with my computer..thanks everyone for the inputs
 
Likely your BIOS only supports 28-bit LBA. Unless you can get a flash update
that solves the problem, the solution is to partition your drive such that
boot partition is no larger than 128GB (2^17 MB). Partitions greater than
256GB will always fail (as you saw). Your 160GB partition is probably fine,
but search the forum on my name (noca2plus) to find the awful hell I went
through with my 200GB drive before I saw the light.

Having paritions greater than 128GB should be no problem, so long as the
boot partition doesn't exceed that.

-Noca
 
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