0

I have installed Windows XP with SP2 on my PC. However, after reboot to complete the installation, I get error message "Disk read error. Press any key to restart". I've try to boot into recovery console and run fixmbr. But it goes BSOD.Changing SATA connector and power supply pin doesn't help.

I've try to mount the drive as external drive on another PC and it recognized perfectly (100 GB NTFS partition where I plan to Install Windows and 400 GB VFAT partition with about 100G data inside). All data inside 400 GB partition still readable.

My hard drive is WD Caviar Blue 500 GB and still relatively new (bought 8 Month ago, used for 3-4 Month).

Desperately need help, most of my project files resides inside the HD and buying another HD isn't an option right now (HD price goes skyrocket and obtaining hew hardware is difficult here on remote area where I work). I'm open to any solution involving HD fix using Linux and/or other boot CD.

Improve this question

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
1

If the above answers don't help, check your mobo setup to see if you have the correct settings for recognizing SATA drives.

Just in case, you may want to go ahead and check the integrity of that hard drive for defects with the Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic Software. You can mount it as an external HD on your other computer, and run the software to scan the hard drive.

Improve this answer
0

Some ideas:

  • You should use WinXP SP3 for the installation it includes more recent drivers and that could fix your problem.
  • Check your BIOS settings, sometimes you need to switch the hard drive mode from AHCI to IDE, or disable RAID modes etc.
  • If I understand correctly, your installation CD boots, you can go through the text installation screens ?
  • Can you choose the partition for the installation ?
  • Your hard drive is recognized correctly and the sizes of the partitions are ok ?
  • Have you tried doing a complete format of the partition (not the quick format option) ?
  • The installer goes through the copying files part ?
  • After copying data to HD and the first reboot of the installation into graphical mode, that is when the error happens ? Any specific message ?
  • Have you rule out other causes of failure, sometimes defective memory can lead to issues when doing the install of the operating system, please use Memtest to rule out these. -
Improve this answer
0

Is this a SATA drive? You're probably lacking the drivers.

When you installed, Windows gives you an option to install additional drivers from floppy, etc. - you may need to track down drivers to install during that step.

Failing that, you may be able to (from another system) slipstream the drivers and perhaps even SP3 onto the install CD. The preferred tool to do this appears to be nLite, I did this a couple of years ago but don't recall whether nLite is what I used and don't have the system I used in front of me right now.

And another question up right now relating to nLite provides the other piece I think I used at the time - DriverPacks

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .