" A Disk Read Error Occured. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart"

[nikko]

So here is how I got to this point...

I was trying to help a friend with an old Dell Desktop install a new hard drive and a newer version of Windows. Her original hard drive failed. I don't know how old her Dell desktop is, but it came with Windows ME, should that tell you anything. In addition, the prongs on the keyboard PS/2 port on her motherboard were broken, so she couldn't use her keyboard. I bought her an OEM copy of Windows XP Home, a 320 GB Western Digital drive, and a Kensington USB keyboard.

I don't know if it's because the keyboard is USB or what, but the computer didn't seem very responsive to it. It worked fine in BIOS, for example, but when I tried to use it with the Western Digital set-up program, it didn't work. Consequently, I wasn't able to use the Western Digital software to "prepare" the hard drive, for whatever that's worth. Anyway, next up was the Windows set up. That seemed to go ok, but when it rebooted, I got the message that said "Press any key to boot from CD" and then the error above: "A Disk Read Error Occured. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart".

Pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del didn't do anything. Neither did pressing any key beforehand to try to boot from the CD. So I appear to be stuck. Did serveral hard reboots but always end up with the same error. Any ideas on what the problem could be? Or how to trouble-shoot it? A Google search reveals that it could be any of a bunch of different things, but one that caught my eye had to do with the Bios being old and having trouble with a drive that size.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

 

[Tarrant64]

As far as the keyboard not responding at some points, not all computers pick up USB keyboards right off the bat. I speak from experience with Dells in particular.

Windows ME never existed. Just forget about it. No one wants to talk about it.

I haven't had any need to use software to "prep" a hard drive before installing windows. Just pop in the drive, format, install, and go.
What was the original problem with the hard drive that failed? Disk Read Error too? If we can tell whether it's an existing problem, or a new problem, it would help.

 

[ayabe]

Originally posted by: nikko
So here is how I got to this point...

I was trying to help a friend with an old Dell Desktop install a new hard drive and a newer version of Windows. Her original hard drive failed. I don't know how old her Dell desktop is, but it came with Windows ME, should that tell you anything. In addition, the prongs on the keyboard PS/2 port on her motherboard were broken, so she couldn't use her keyboard. I bought her an OEM copy of Windows XP Home, a 320 GB Western Digital drive, and a Kensington USB keyboard.

I don't know if it's because the keyboard is USB or what, but the computer didn't seem very responsive to it. It worked fine in BIOS, for example, but when I tried to use it with the Western Digital set-up program, it didn't work. Consequently, I wasn't able to use the Western Digital software to "prepare" the hard drive, for whatever that's worth. Anyway, next up was the Windows set up. That seemed to go ok, but when it rebooted, I got the message that said "Press any key to boot from CD" and then the error above: "A Disk Read Error Occured. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart".

Pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del didn't do anything. Neither did pressing any key beforehand to try to boot from the CD. So I appear to be stuck. Did serveral hard reboots but always end up with the same error. Any ideas on what the problem could be? Or how to trouble-shoot it? A Google search reveals that it could be any of a bunch of different things, but one that caught my eye had to do with the Bios being old and having trouble with a drive that size.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

This is most likely your problem, when you used the Windows installer to format the drive, what capacity was displayed?

on the WD install disk there used to be a utility that would allow you to use a larger HD than your mobo would support, I forget what it's called, but it almost definitely needs to be used here.

Are there any BIOS options for using USB keyboards?


Your friend might be SOL unless you get a new mobo and/or a smaller drive. I'm curious how much you spent on all that?

I think you can get a completely new system from Dell including a monitor for probably not much more jack than you spent and everything would be much improved.

 

[Oyeve]

Partition the drive to say, 100gb and try the install to that.

 

[nikko]

Originally posted by: Tarrant64
What was the original problem with the hard drive that failed? Disk Read Error too? If we can tell whether it's an existing problem, or a new problem, it would help.

The problem with that drive was that everytime they booted it up, Windows would do a "consistency check" before loading. It did that for a couple of months, but it would always load into the Windows desktop after it was done. Then this week it wouldn't load into Windows. It just kept repeating the consistency check.

Originally posted by: ayabe

Originally posted by: nikko
So here is how I got to this point...

I was trying to help a friend with an old Dell Desktop install a new hard drive and a newer version of Windows. Her original hard drive failed. I don't know how old her Dell desktop is, but it came with Windows ME, should that tell you anything. In addition, the prongs on the keyboard PS/2 port on her motherboard were broken, so she couldn't use her keyboard. I bought her an OEM copy of Windows XP Home, a 320 GB Western Digital drive, and a Kensington USB keyboard.

I don't know if it's because the keyboard is USB or what, but the computer didn't seem very responsive to it. It worked fine in BIOS, for example, but when I tried to use it with the Western Digital set-up program, it didn't work. Consequently, I wasn't able to use the Western Digital software to "prepare" the hard drive, for whatever that's worth. Anyway, next up was the Windows set up. That seemed to go ok, but when it rebooted, I got the message that said "Press any key to boot from CD" and then the error above: "A Disk Read Error Occured. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart".

Pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del didn't do anything. Neither did pressing any key beforehand to try to boot from the CD. So I appear to be stuck. Did serveral hard reboots but always end up with the same error. Any ideas on what the problem could be? Or how to trouble-shoot it? A Google search reveals that it could be any of a bunch of different things, but one that caught my eye had to do with the Bios being old and having trouble with a drive that size.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

This is most likely your problem, when you used the Windows installer to format the drive, what capacity was displayed?

If I remember correctly, it said 305xxx MB

[/quote]Are there any BIOS options for using USB keyboards? [/quote]

Didn't see any, but I'll check tonight.

[/quote]Your friend might be SOL unless you get a new mobo and/or a smaller drive. I'm curious how much you spent on all that? [/quote]

$275. They want to get a top of the line computer in the spring, so at their request I went the cheapest route possible to try to get this one back up to speed.

Wondering if I could format the drive using the WD program in my machine and then put it back in their machine for the Windows install. Would that work? I assume actually installing Windows on the drive while it's in my machine wouldn't work, right?

Thanks again for your help.

 

[Paperdoc]

Here's what I see: during the boot sequence when it says, "Press any key to boot from CD", it then waits for a fixed time period (say, 8 sec) with a count-down and, in the absence of a keypress, if proceeds to boot from the default device, the HDD. BUT your keyboard does not work, so no matter what you do there is NO key pressed! On to the HDD default device, then.

You get the "Disk Read Error..." message indicating that it could not read the HDD for unspecified reasons, so it can't boot from there either. Time to reboot. Only you STILL can't do a Ctrl-Alt-Del because the keyboard does not work.

You need to resolve the keyboard problem first. Check in the BIOS to be sure that it can recognize and use a USB device (specifically the keyboard) right away. Some BIOS's refer to this as "Legacy USB Support". Some older systems, instead, need a way to load a USB and/or keyboard device driver before the OS is ever running.

Once you can use the keyboard you can address the apparent problem with the HDD. Given that this is a new install anyway, you might be best to use the WD utilities to completely wipe the drive clean and remove any partitions, then run the Windows install on it. In each case, though, the key is that your ONLY choice for how to boot up will be from the CD (WD utils or Win install disk). That means you MUST "Press any key..." when it says so, to force it to boot from the CD in the drive.

 

[ayabe]

Originally posted by: nikko
If I remember correctly, it said 305xxx MB

MB or GB? If it's GB that sounds about right actually.

Originally posted by: nikko
Wondering if I could format the drive using the WD program in my machine and then put it back in their machine for the Windows install. Would that work? I assume actually installing Windows on the drive while it's in my machine wouldn't work, right?

That might work, with regards to the WD program, I think it loads something on the MBR of the HD, though it's been around 4 years since I've used it and things may have changed since then.

As for loading Windows that way, I'm not going to say it's impossible, but can be a real pain, both with activation issues(due to different hardware) but also that Windows doesn't like it when you switch chipsets and will most likely result in a BSOD when you boot up. There are ways around it but meh. It could be done but I think it would be much easier on you to get this HD working correctly on her machine.

If you run through the Windows install again, nuke whatever partitions are there and take careful note of the capacity when you recreate them, then be sure to run a full format as opposed to the quick one, this might tell you if there is a problem with the drive(unlikely). Now, if you are getting accurate partition sizes then you can pretty much rule out the drive being too large.

You might also check the Dell site for BIOS updates just for kicks.