"Disk Read Error on Startup

Ok. My computer was making a very loud noise so I shut it down. I immediatly tried to start it back up and there was no power to it. I let it sit for a few days and tried again. It booted up fine, and my passwords were still in tact. It was still loud though so I shut it down again. It never started back up.

Since then I found that parts of the mother board were corroded. Instead of sending it in for repair or just buying a new pre-built computer I bought a barebone kit from Tigerdirect. The Kit Everything installed fine. The computer is now running. But I get this "Disk Read Error" message, it tells me to press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to reboot the computer. When i reboot it takes me to the same message.

The cords are all connected correctly. I've tried making the harddrives both master, one master and slave, one CS and slave, one CS and master and both CS. And swapping them around. I can't get anything to work.

Can anyone give me a suggestion on what could be wrong, or how to fix it? I'm hoping the drives will still be good as they were still working when last I shut the old computer down.

Thanks

 

Hi Wolf,

This won't help much, but maybe will help someone. Some cables support only, Master/ Slave, some M/S and CS (Cable select) and some only CS. If M/S the jumpers on the drives will determine which is master and which is Slave. If CS both drives must be plugged CS and Master is determined by position on the cable. Master is usually on the end and slave in the center. Some CS cable are printed with postion and some are only color coded.

Good Luck, Jim

 

Will it boot OK from your OS CD?

If it does and you are sure all the cables are OK then it's likely the drive is starting to fail.

 

That's kinda what I was afraid of. I noticed about an hour ago that the harddrive has a squeeling sound coming out of it.

 

In that case I'd start saving anything you want from that disk straight away if you don't already have a current backup.

 

Yeah I don't have one. . . and I can't get into windows to back it up. I'm gonna leave it off 'till I can get a new harddrive to put windows on, then try to back it up with that.

 

Sounds like a good plan. Let us know if succeed.

 

I was going to say noise is usually the HD or a fan. Crunchy noises is definitely the HD.

I would keep the HD unplugged until I was ready to transfer. You only get so many times to access a failing HD and they usually work best when it is completely cool. Good Luck!