Disk read error in windows xp

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Answered by:. Archived Forums. There are different ways to get into BIOS in different computer models and operating systems. When turning on the computer, the first boot screen will usually show you what key to press to go into the BIOS. Once you are in BIOS, find the boot order section.

In the boot order section, check to make sure the correct hard drive is placed as the first boot priority before any others in the listing. Changing this setting might be enough to help your computer boot normally. If it is still unbootable, try the next solution to fix disk error occurred. A corrupted or damaged Master Boot Record or boot sector could cause disk errors. This edition has a feature called " Bootable Media " based on Win-PE; it is designed to manage disks and partitions when the operating system fails to boot or when there is no operating system.

Buy Now. Follow the steps in these two articles to create bootable media using MiniTool software:. Click " MiniTool Partition Wizard " to continue. Or, choose this feature from the context menu. After that, restart the computer from the bootable device you just created. This feature is designed to scan and test each sector of the hard disk.

Step 2: Click " Start Now " to start scanning all sectors of your disk. Refer to the following screenshot: MiniTool Partition Wizard will mark " disk block without read error " in green , and mark " read error in this block " in red. After finishing the disk test, if there are some bad sectors, you should take a measure to shield them. Unfortunately, MiniTool Partition Wizard doesn't have this feature. When there are bad sectors on your hard drive, due to data security reasons, you should back up your important files after shielding them.

Otherwise, the data could be lost. Occasionally, incorrect or loose IDE cables can lead to read or write errors on hard drives. In rare cause, disk read error caused by improper BIOS settings. When BIOS updates are available, you should update it carefully. Incorrect or invalid Master Boot Record setting is another common cause. Furthermore, corrupted MBR configuration can be caused by virus attack, power outage, bad sectors, etc.

Besides, misconfigured partition table might bring about this issue. Improperly shutting down system is likely to corrupt files and hard disk on your computer. This typically happens if power is cut accidentally or system is forced to shut down in order to kill an unresponsive program. After computer crashes, Windows will ran a check for file system and disk while booting with the purpose of verifying and repairing problematic files.

The incomplete or improper installation of Windows also gives rise to this issue, such as system is lacking of dll files or some system registry files are damaged. Since reasons behind this error are varied, there is no set solution to fix this issue. We provide a couple of different solutions so that you can try out to fix this problem on your own. This is seldom regarded as a solution to fix the disk read error issue, but it works in some situations.

It sounds odd that testing RAM has something to do with hard disk read error, but memory problem indeed brings about various issues. The entire test process is safe and doesn't damage hard disk or data, you can try this first. Then restart computer and to view whether the issue is eliminated.

To do so, you can leave one RAM module on one slot and restart computer. If disk read error still occurs, move the RAM to the other slot and start computer again.

Additionally, you can use third party tool to run the test. Hard disk cable might be broken, leading to system can't read disk correctly. If there is more than one hard drive connected to computer, you should unplug all disks except the one from which operating system boots. Then you can check whether the cable or post is damaged.

If you get the disk read issue after a new disk is installed, you need to make sure the disk is on the master connector if possible and set the disk jumper to master. If cables on your computer are damaged, you should replace them with new ones. Another way to check hard drive cables is moving the affected hard drive to another working computer.

If hard drive works well on that computer, you can superficially make a preliminary judgment on cables as well as the hard drive's health condition. Installing an incorrect or incomplete version may trigger serious issue, thus you should upgrade BIOS very carefully. Plus, restoring BIOS to default setting or upgrading can fix this issue in some circumstances.

How to do that? The key might be F2, F10, Del, etc. Just look carefully at the screen while computer starts. Go to the website of your computer's manufacturer and find the Download center where you can download the latest BIOS version. Please note that you should select BIOS version based on your operating system, version, system board model, etc. Usually, the BIOS download comes in a compressed file such as. MBR contains partition table for the disk, disk signature as well as executable code called master boot code.

If MBR is damaged or corrupted, you will not be able to boot system or even lose partitions. How to rebuild MBR? DiskGenius is a free partition manager designed to manage disk and partitions and recover lost files and partitions. It provides free features to rebuild MBR, repair partition table, resize partition, edit hex data, etc. Let's see the steps to rebuild master boot record. Step 1 Create a bootable disk for DiskGenius.

Click Yes to confirm the operation. Step 2 Insert the bootable disk to the computer that reports disk read error and power on PC.