Disk read error on boot up

[davkbod]

Greetings

Started up laptop this morning, and this is what greeted me. Win XP Pro, 250GB HD, installed only a few months ago. BIOS diagnostic HD scan doesn't find any errors, either quick or through scan...think boot sec might just be messed up...but how?? Rasy fix?? or loose everthing and reformat/reinstall??

Davkbod@yahoo.com

 

[PhilFrisbie]

You can boot up with the XP installation disc and use the repair option.

 

[davkbod]

A few months before (March), I had noticed I was starting to run out of space on the 80G drive that came stock. I installed a 250G drive, then used Acronis HD to copy the 80GB partition back, using a 1TB USB drive. Then used EASUS partition Manager to stretch to 80GB to about 230.

work fine for a while, then when I originally posted is when it came up with "Data Read Error". I went out, got another 250GB, restored the 80GB partition again off the 1TB drive, and let machine update (36 microsoft updates, several adobe updates. I was then able to connect the older 250GB drive with a SATA-USB and get some data files off of it.

Then earlier this week, "Data Read Error" appeared again. Always seems to be first thing in the morning...

I've gotten a second drive, restored the partition again to the new drive, but this time I'm running a defrag on the disk before I do anything..

I've gotten a few more drives, but wondering if something on MB is going.... or do I have a bad something in partition file that's sitting on the 1TB drive.

but if so, why does it wait a while before going bad?

HP Compaq nw8440, 250GB, otherwise stock, Win XP su3.

David

 

[davkbod]

PS . did try repair option, ran for most of aa afternoon, then seemed to freeze...

 

[PhilFrisbie]

Check your memory with a tool such as the free Memtest86.