HD or MB????

The computer I built is telling me read disk error.I believe maybe HD or MB.Have been in BIOS and looked at different stuff= all ok.Just had to be C drive wont go into windows.Before crash=Tried to defrag,Would not,Gave error message .What is prob??????????????????Please?? Thanxx!!!!Jody.

 

Visit your HD manufacturer's web site. Download and run their diagnostic tool. It sounds to me like the HD is indeed failing. However, disk read errors can come from messed up boot.ini files, corrupt boot sectors, or corrupt master boot records, all of which can be fixed from the WinXP Recovery Console.

hopperdave2000

 

I would agree with Hopperdave, - if it found difficulty defragging, you can try running CHKDSK from the Windows recovery console, which might help to get back into Windows, and run more checks.

 

Thanking You..!!However Machine will not go into Windows.Just Bios stuff..Once again thanx in advance..!!!Help ????????? Please???

 

here is something for you to do to check and see if it is your ram that is the problem. there is a little program called ram checker that you could download onto a friends computer. after downloading it format a floppy disk to boot from and have that program on it. put it into your computer and power up. now depending on your boot sequence the floppy should boot first and run ram checker. give the program about a half an hour and it'll run like a half a million tests on your ram and it'll tell you if your ram is dead or not. if ram checker doesn't say it's toast, it's time for a new hard drive. :major

 

If none of the suggestions work, you could try putting your hard drive in another computer, as a slave drive, to see if you can recover any data you might need, by looking in computer managemet console.
If this is not possible, boot from your XP disc , and you could run CHKDSK from the recovery disc.

 

Here are some links from Microsoft. The second link is about installing the the Recovery Console and how to use it, but you can't install it in your current situaution, so to get to the Recovery Console, boot to the WinXP CD, and at the first screen where it asks you what you want to do (blue background, white letters), you press 'R' for Recovery Console. Check out the links, there's some very good info in there. Esp. look at 'chkdsk' and 'fixboot' and 'fixmbr':
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311073/en-us (WinXP boot floppy)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654/en-us (Recovery Console)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265/en-us (disk error checking)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058/en-us (more Recovery Console; commands, etc...)

Good Luck!

hopperdave2000

Here's another great link: Repair Windows XP in eight easy commands: http://www.short-media.com/articles/repair_windows_xp