Start up Error

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Guest

I read the prior post, but I don't have all the problems that "Echy" has.
Basically, When I turn my laptop on (hp pavilion ze4600* athlon xp-m) I get
the error -
A disk read error occurred
Press ctrl-alt-delete to restart
I can put in my Operating System CD and after a few times it will start up
and my computer runs a usual.
I have checked for virus (full system scan) I have also used the virus/worm
scans on microsoft.com. Nothing. All clear.
My hard drive completey crash prior to this, in december of 2005. So this
hard drive is barely even 6 months old.
This problem has just occurred recently with-in the past week.
And it happens every time I turn it on.
I am scared that I am going to wipe my computer out.
I use this for work, and I don't want to loose everything. I have backed up
what I can, but is there anyway of just back up the entire computer? or do I
need to sit here and burn disk after disk of information from different
programs?
( I am not very computer savy, as you notice)
What should I do?
Can anyone help?
 
Brooke said:
I read the prior post, but I don't have all the problems that "Echy"
has. Basically, When I turn my laptop on (hp pavilion ze4600* athlon
xp-m) I get the error -
A disk read error occurred
Press ctrl-alt-delete to restart
I can put in my Operating System CD and after a few times it will
start up and my computer runs a usual.
I have checked for virus (full system scan) I have also used the
virus/worm scans on microsoft.com. Nothing. All clear.
My hard drive completey crash prior to this, in december of 2005. So
this hard drive is barely even 6 months old.
This problem has just occurred recently with-in the past week.
And it happens every time I turn it on.
I am scared that I am going to wipe my computer out.
I use this for work, and I don't want to loose everything. I have
backed up
what I can, but is there anyway of just back up the entire computer?
or do I need to sit here and burn disk after disk of information from
different programs?
Click to expand...

Since this is a new hard drive, I would do this:

1. Download a hard drive diagnostic from the drive mftr.'s website and
do a thorough scan. If the drive shows any physical problems it needs
to be replaced. The newness is irrelevant; in fact if hardware is going
to fail it will usually do so pretty quickly or go for years.

2. If the hard drive tests physically healthy, then your motherboard is
faulty. Call HP tech support for repair/replacement. This is a hardware
problem and you cannot fix this yourself.

Make sure you back up your data often. Here is a general article about
backing up:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Backing_Up

Malke
 
Malke said:
Since this is a new hard drive, I would do this:

1. Download a hard drive diagnostic from the drive mftr.'s website and
do a thorough scan. If the drive shows any physical problems it needs
to be replaced. The newness is irrelevant; in fact if hardware is going
to fail it will usually do so pretty quickly or go for years.

2. If the hard drive tests physically healthy, then your motherboard is
faulty. Call HP tech support for repair/replacement. This is a hardware
problem and you cannot fix this yourself.

Make sure you back up your data often. Here is a general article about
backing up:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Backing_Up

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
Click to expand...


Thanks Malke
I was scared that some one was going to reply with big technical words that
I just wouldn't understand.... you were very very helpful, thanks : )
 
Brooke said:
Thanks Malke
I was scared that some one was going to reply with big technical words
that I just wouldn't understand.... you were very very helpful, thanks
: )
Click to expand...

You're welcome.

Malke
 
I had this happen once after playing with some linux distros and
re-wrote the master boot record several times trying to get GRUB to
work...you may need to boot to recovery console, by booting from the
Windows XP disk (although with HP computers this probably wont be
terribly easy as their recovery disks, if you even get them, suck)
But once in recovery console, I would run the command fixboot to
rewrite the boot sector, followed by the command fixmbr to rewrite the
master boot record.

Since you have an HP computer, I hope you have a floppy drive so that
you can use floppy disks to boot to recovery console. Download the
floppy boot disk set from here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994/en-us
You will need 6 floppy disks for this. basically, what the error is
telling you, is that the computer cannot find the hard drive, but since
the drive works if you boot from cd, then I wouldn't be surprised if
the master boot record was corrupted.
 
Sorry for the double post, but Malke, I visited your website, and loved
it...funny as hell :) I hope your kids have the shoes they need :)
 
Bones said:
I had this happen once after playing with some linux distros and
re-wrote the master boot record several times trying to get GRUB to
work...you may need to boot to recovery console, by booting from the
Windows XP disk (although with HP computers this probably wont be
terribly easy as their recovery disks, if you even get them, suck)
But once in recovery console, I would run the command fixboot to
rewrite the boot sector, followed by the command fixmbr to rewrite the
master boot record.

Since you have an HP computer, I hope you have a floppy drive so that
you can use floppy disks to boot to recovery console. Download the
floppy boot disk set from here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994/en-us
You will need 6 floppy disks for this. basically, what the error is
telling you, is that the computer cannot find the hard drive, but since
the drive works if you boot from cd, then I wouldn't be surprised if
the master boot record was corrupted.
Click to expand...
 
No, Bones, I don't have a floppy disk.
I called the place that put my new hard drive in (they were cheaper than
sending it to HP) They were absolutly no help. They didn't even know who the
manfc was. They had to tell me where to find out on my computer.
I guess you get what you pay for and learn from experience.
I haven't had a chance to look it up on the internet yet. I have just left
my computer on. (which I know isn't good, but I had no choice)
Since I don't have a floppy drive, do you have any other suggestions?
 
You could try to borrow an XP disk from a friend and use that to boot
to recovery console.
 
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