A disk read error occurred

Hey Everyone. I would like to thank you all in advance for any help/advice that I receive. I have a Compaq presario 2100.

So here's what happened. I was on the computer, then all the sudden it crashed and restarted itself. When it restarted, it came up the the A disk read error occurred, Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart So I did so, and it kept doing the same thing. So, what I did next was put in my Operating System disk and try to repair XP. That didnt work, so I just decided to re-install it. That took about 10 hours or so, but then it actually worked... That is, until I shut it down.. Now what happens is instead of it taking a few mins to get to my logon screen, it takes about 30 mins, and a little white progress bar comes up on the bottom of the screen until it completely loads.. Does anyone know why it now does this?
I also went into my Setup menu (F2) I believe, ran a check on the hard disk, and it says that Hard disk #1-7 failed. I have no idea what that is either. Lastly, I didnt delete any partitions, because I am basically computer illiterate (hence my name), because I wasn't sure if by doing that I would further mess up the computer.

Thanks everyone,
Matt

 

Compaq Presario 2100 Specifications

Is this the computer you're running XP on? This is grossly underpowered for your operating system! I wouldn't expect much speed from this setup.

Also, from your problem description, it sounds like you're hard drive is dying.

The white bar is normal. You will see it sometimes even on a higher-end computer, particularly if coming out of standby or hibernation. I wouldn't sweat it.

 

Mada_Milty:

Thanks for the input. My friend actually gave me this laptop a few weeks ago and she never had any problems with it. It was running and operating fine. Believe it or not, XP was on the main Operating System Disk that came with that computer. Maybe I am just mistaken and it may be a newer model than the 2100.
Any suggestions for upgrading my hard drive? I also plan on putting Dreamweaver CS3 on here. But, I was leaning towards getting an external hard drive and storing all of my DW CS3 info on there..

Thanks

 

The difficulty of replacing a hard drive in a laptop runs the gammut from simple to brutally difficult.

The first thing I would advise is to confirm the model number. Presario 2100 is actually a desktop, so I think we may have made a mistake there.

With this information, we'll be able to do a little research on the machine, and advise you more accurately.

 

FOUND IT!!

Compaq Presario 2100 Notebook (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&tool=softwareCategory&product=385190&os=228#)

Hope this helps..

Thanks again