racefan Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 My daughter called today & said her laptop (Dell XP with Windows 7) is getting a disk read error. She said she was watching a Netflix movie (I'm not sure if it was a DVD or streaming) & had a recipe window open when she got the error. & It said to hit clt,alt delete to reboot. The problem is that does nothing. I had her put the installation disk in & boot up hitting the f8 key but it gives the same message. Any ideas on where to go next? My problem is, she lives in Seattle & I'm trying to do this over the phone. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matty Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 I am not computer savvy at all but this link seems to have a lot of info on the subject: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/250364-32-solution-disk-read-error-occurred Good luck. I hate computer issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racefan Posted April 8, 2012 Author Share Posted April 8, 2012 That's the problem, everything I've found (repair wise) involves rebooting it, which it will not do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racefan Posted April 8, 2012 Author Share Posted April 8, 2012 Now that I think about it I think she has Vista not windows 7 not sure if that matters Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matty Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 So if she holds down f8 it doesn't even give the option of booting in safe mode? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyInside Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 A disk error like that is the hard drive faulting and is stuck in that error, what works for me 95% of the time is pulling the cmos battery and letting it reset it's self, then putting it back in after a few min. This involves taking the case apart to get to the motherboard though.. which for me only takes a few min but for her/you might take a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianB Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 If it's giving a disk read error. Alot of times that can mean the windows OS is corrupt. On a dell she needs to put.in the windows install dvd.. Reboot the computer and when she see's the dell logo tell her to tap F12 several times. This should bring up a one time boot menu. From there have her boot from dvd/cd.drive. This will load a windows menu from the disk. There will be several options. Have her choose the repair my computer option. If that doesnt fix the problem she may need fully reinstall windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racefan Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 OK. We got it to boot up with the install disk & tried the repair option, that did not work so she reinstalled Windows. Now when she boots it up she gets "windows did not shut down correctly" then gives her the options of safe mode, safe w/ networking, start windows normally.etc. She tried "start windows normally" & it said "windows has stopped working" & went to a black screen. Next I had her try to boot to safe mode with networking, same results. Not sure of what to try next. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianB Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 I worked on one like that last week. Sounds like a bad hdd.. I wouldnt know for sure without running diags on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyInside Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 I worked on one like that last week. Sounds like a bad hdd.. I wouldnt know for sure without running diags on it. Yep sounds like it is damaged, thankfully HD's are cheap these days and ez to install Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racefan Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 I worked on one like that last week. Sounds like a bad hdd.. I wouldnt know for sure without running diags on it. Is there any way I can run diagnostics on it? Also if I have to change the HD will she lose all the data on the old one? She backed it up recently so she wont lose too much if that's the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianB Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 If she already tried to reinstall windows. Then all data is already gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racefan Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 I'm going to pick it up from her this weekend (she lives in Seattle) think I'd better just get a new drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Replace it with a solid state drive if it's in the budget and the computer is worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianB Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Its a dell with vista, solid state isnt the way to go... Get a WD black series drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racefan Posted April 15, 2012 Author Share Posted April 15, 2012 So I got ahold of her laptop this weekend. I booted it up hitting F8 & went to the diagnostics screen & clicked on System tree then picked cannot boot the os. It failed the smart long test & the verify test. I got too many error codes to count that all said "can't read,replace disk or remove write protection" that pretty well confirms the hdd is is bad correct? Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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