"A disk drive read error occured" May this be related to my failing dvd writer?

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MichaelKnight

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Sometimes before Windows boots "A disk drive read error occured.Press ctrl alt delete" message appears.Generally resetting the computer solves the problem temporarily. May this be related to my failing dvd writer or is it my harddisk? I have also read that it's generally a problem with interaction of motherboard and harddisk drive.
 
Solution
Darkbreeze
I've never seen a disk read error related to an optical drive during boot unless there was boot media installed in the drive and the disk was scratched or had problems. It's more likely to be related to bad sectors or a mechanical issue on the drive. Could also be due to an old PSU that's getting tired and having issues stretching it's legs on cold boots.

Run Seatools for windows on the hard drive. Run the short DST and the long generic. It should report any issues.
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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I've never seen a disk read error related to an optical drive during boot unless there was boot media installed in the drive and the disk was scratched or had problems. It's more likely to be related to bad sectors or a mechanical issue on the drive. Could also be due to an old PSU that's getting tired and having issues stretching it's legs on cold boots.

Run Seatools for windows on the hard drive. Run the short DST and the long generic. It should report any issues.
 
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MichaelKnight

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Thanks for your answer. I used Hitachi Drive Fitness Test software because my harddisk is a Hitachi and it gave me some errors,bad sectors I think.It offered me two solutions 1:"Erase Disk" 2:"Repair Sectors". "Erase disk" wipes all data on the disk drive so it is not my choice."Repair sectors" deletes the data on corrupt sectors.

Should I use this tool or Windows 7's "Check Disk Utility" to fix bad sectors?Does "Check Disk Utility" erase data on bad sectors like "Hitachi Drive Fitness Test"?
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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All "fixing" bad sectors does as mark them as bad so they don't get written on again. Any drive with enough bad sectors to cause boot errors is a drive I wouldn't trust to store recipes for making mud on. As far as the brand relevance of the test utility, for future reference, it doesn't matter with Seatools.


It works on all brands and all types of drives and honestly does a better job than any other mainstream utility I've used. Drive fitness should be fine though so if it says you have bad sectors you can try using it's repair tool but I'd definitely get my files backed up first because I've seen many drives that flat refused to ever work again after "repairs".


I would highly recommend you get a replacement drive asap and if your drive has a restore partition on it, try to copy it to the new drive so you can reinstall. If you have Windows installation media, like a disk, I'd just do a clean install to the new drive as trying to clone the damaged OS to the new drive is likely to carry the errors with it. In any case, make sure to get your data and settings backed up from you current installation if you can.
 
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MichaelKnight

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Thanks for your answer. I backed up my data and run Check Disk (CHKDSK) of Windows . I haven't seen "A disk read error occured" for a few days, so seems like it solved the problem, though you may be right about buying a new drive.
 
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