a disk read error occured press ctrl alt delete

hi, i have a new hp pavillion laptop it's not even a year old. lately it has been very slow and frezzeing on me. i've had to manualy shut it off sevral times. after i shut it down manually and then turned it back on it will either frezze on the black screen. or it will say A disk read error occured press control alt delete to restart. sometimes though it will get to a screen that says somthing about windows haveing a problem and to run a fixing program. i did it once a box poped up saying it was trying to fix the problem. 30 minutes later it was done and my computer worked but then froze again and went back to the same old. it now will display the disk read error and i did get to the windows repair thing but it just froze on a black screen. one thing that it did do today was it had a message saying an external hard drive or usb drive was removed wrong and said to replace it and restart windows. i remeber eairer in the week i removed my flash drive and it said i removed it wrong which i never get on my computer. if anyone can help me please i'm running vista. i just want to be able to get my computer back to normal with all my files on it.

I would backup your data. Sounds like a bad hard drive. You could try chkdsk c:/r after you are done backing up.

this might sound like a stupid question but how would i back up my data?

matthelp said:

this might sound like a stupid question but how would i back up my data?

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Use Vista's file backup Utility. Set the location for backup to either multiple dvd'd or external drive. (it will be approx 20GB+ in size the first time)

Start>Control Panel>System and Maintenance>Backup and Restore Center>Backup files on your entire computer (check ALL boxes)

my the computer starts i pressed f10 which brings you into system info stuff but i went to diagnostics and did a primary hard disk self test the test took only 5 minutes and it said the hard disk needed to be replaced. i then did the same test on the secondary hard disk and that took 45 minutes and it is fine. i'm guessing this might be the problem is there anyway to fix it or some way to get around it?

matthelp said:

my the computer starts i pressed f10 which brings you into system info stuff but i went to diagnostics and did a primary hard disk self test the test took only 5 minutes and it said the hard disk needed to be replaced. i then did the same test on the secondary hard disk and that took 45 minutes and it is fine. i'm guessing this might be the problem is there anyway to fix it or some way to get around it?

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If you have RAID, you will have to reinstall

I suggest you use this to image the bad disk, remove it, and use the good disk as your primary. reimage it from the other disk, and your back to normal. then simply buy another drive and use it as the secondary (slave).
Drive Backup Express - Free Download!

ok ill try that but how will i do it on my computer if i can't get to my computer or the internet? and will i still have all my files?

Well In that case, switch the hdds and re-install. then pull the data off the bad drive (if that cannot be done, chances are the data may be unretrievable)

sorry to ask this but how do i switch the hdds and reinstall it?

i do have access to other computers (obviously) if there is a way to burn something onto a disk that might work??

matthelp said:

sorry to ask this but how do i switch the hdds and reinstall it?

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Desktop? its hard to tell without knowing your model.

turn off/unplg power
open up your tower disconnect the cables from the two hard drives (should be plugs either SATA or IDE) If there are screws, remove them, slide out the drives. install only the good one, reformat re-install Vista. when you are up and running reconnect the bad drive as slave.

i have a hp laptop so any ideas for that?

matthelp said:

i have a hp laptop so any ideas for that?

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I also use a laptop (Alienware Area-51 m5790), but I still need your model to tell you where to access the HDD's, and determine what kind you are running. I assume it is a pavilion- what model?

ps- see my system specs? (click it to open), it would help If I could also see yours.

I could be wrong here, but I do not think too many HP Pavilion Notebooks shipped out with Two (2) hard drives. I think you are confusing two partitions as individual HDD's.

Most newer hard drives are SATA, You need to replace drive. If it is still under Warranty I would contact HP, If not here is a recommendation:

Newegg.com - Seagate ST9320320AS 320GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive - Laptop Hard Drives $69
Newegg.com - Seagate Momentus 7200.3 ST9320421AS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive (Bare drive) - Laptop Hard Drives $89

If you can boot into Windows. Get an external hard drive and copy your data to it. Shut down, disconnect your bad hard drive for now. Buy a new hard drive. Install the OS, service packs, patches. Get it working. Once you get it working, connect your old hard drive as a slave drive and boot up and copy your data to the new drive.

ok i looked at my manual and all that crap and it says it comes with two hard drives which i thought it did one is the primary that all the programs are on the other hard drive i would use for music movies games documents that was the data d: drive. also it said in the instrution not to run the computer on the d: drive. i honestly don't care about the stuff on the normal drive if i can get all of my stuff off the d: drive and then just system restore the whole computer that would be good. also the computer is still under waranty?

You still should backup everything to an external drive. then download the manufacturer disk tools to determine the bad drive. Call your computer manufacturer about an RMA on the bad drive.

i do want to back up everything but i can't access windows im stuck at the black screen in the beginning and even if i get past that the load bar for windows that you see when you first turn on your computer will just keep on loading and will do nothing

Can you boot from the OS DVD and go into administrative repair mode and run chkdsk c:/r. /r is repair. Sometimes it can fix it so you can get in and backup.

i don't have the os dvd vi never got the dvd when i got my computer? if there is someway to get a copy off online i can burn it to a dvd?