"disc error occurred" ctrl, alt, del

:confused

4 year old Dell INspiron 9100 - New hard drive installed 10/08.
Old HD 60G New 250G IDE

From the getgo Bios would only see New HD as a 137G
However once OS loaded and running system read it correctly.

Things ran smoothly for 45 days then one morning only Bios would load no OS
It would load to a BLACK screen with the blinking cursor

Ran all diagnostics- ATP, took it to BB where I bought the HD, Geeks ran diag - ATP

Recommended a fixboot to no avail. Wipe/Install after that.
Ran again for for about 30 days, Norton update required reboot.

Then the infamous "disc read error occrred" - ctrl, alt, del to restart.
Same thing over and over...

Took it back to BB they ran all the tests - ATP again.
They said maybe the controller was bad on the MB.

Does anyone or everyone agree with this summation?

I Booted from CD to run diagnostics - ALL tests passed

I am not a GEEK but feel fairly confident, any suggestions?

Thanks in advance...

drmglfr

 

Just a quick clarification--Were you getting a similar error on the old HD? Why did you replace the HD--needed more space or wouldn't boot?

 

The old just crapped out... it wouldn't boot the OS and failed test.

Thanks