A Disk Read Error Occurred Error

A disk read error sounds like the hard drive failed. Maybe try using the warranty? Computers do not fix themselves even if you give them 2 months. Warranties do expire however.

If you can not even get in BIOS then that suggests the motherboard or power supply failed. Or the video card if it has one.

Well I tried it for a few months, and I could get into BIOS fine (didn't know what it was then). Put the computer down for two months, turn it on again and now the screen is black. The warranty is expired that's why i'm so desperate.

Yeah it's a hard drive error. Kept my computer on for 20 minutes, and the screen eventually stayed black with about a inch and a half white-gray "bar" across the middle of the screen. That has to mean a hard drive error. Is that bad? Is there any chance of getting my stuff back?

Actually that could mean alot of things. If it is a failing hard drive you need to try to recover your data as soon as you can. List your complete system specs.

Thank you so much for the help! Its so nice of you to help
me when your not getting paid to. Not to get all "mushy" but it's really nice.

Let me stress that I don't know anything about computers. (along with my family) So when you say computer specs, do you mean stuff like this?

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/117252-25-good-gami...

(even though you wouldn't need to know all that)

Where could I find that stuff? I could ask my dad but I got
this computer over a year ago.

Could I take it to a computer place, and they could tell me?
(I'll ask him in the morning and edit this post, but It's really late here)



I tried to see how I could find this stuff online but you
actually have to have a monitor that WORKS. The reason I got
this computer was because I wanted to visit writing sites, and
improve my writing. This is also where I kept all my writing
because my handwriting looks like chicken scratch. (NEEEEEVER
not backing my stuff up again, how stupid!)



That makes me nervous. I got this computer over two years ago for my writing. (screen worked up until 3 months ago) I sent it to some computer places and they said I would have to get a new hard drive, and there was no way to get my stuff back unless I wanted to pay 1000 dollars. (but people online are telling me I can). Or buy a 200 dollar new hard drive (with all my stuff being wiped out) I thought all my stuff was gone.

And I didn't want to get the new hard drive cause I was too stubborn and I still thought there was a little chance I could keep my stuff. I always tried to fix it, but then stopped. I thought all my writing was gone, and I didn't look farther into it cause I didn't want to face the fact that everything was gone. So the computer just sat in my room collecting dust.

When I said
" I always tried to fix it, but then stopped."

I mean tried to fix it for a day, then stopped thinking everything was gone.

Also not trying to make 100 comments here but it won't let me edit my comment so I'm making a reply.

If you have actually had someone look at the computer and diagnose the hard drive as bad then I am afraid there is nothing I can do to give you better news.

You can attach the bad hard drive to a working computer and try some data recovery software. The bad news is there is no guarantee that this will work and you have to buy the software.

Sorry to get your hopes up.

No thanks for the help. I don't know if they really "Looked at it". One guy (very rude) we told them the error message and without looking at it he said the hard drive is ruined.

Then another guy said it's probably broken (looking at the error message) he wanted to look at it more, but it would of cost money and I didn't have any. So I actually think there is a little hope, no one really "diagnosed the hard drive" they just looked at it briefly.

Does that make any sense? So I think there might be still a little hope, hopefully.

Well like I said your best bet is to remove the hard drive from the computer it's in now and connect it to a working computer with some data recovery software on it. Something like that is actually very easy. If you have any friends who build their own computers or even are capable of installing a new hard drive they might be willing to help you. A computer repair shop would probably be willing to try as well but as I said above there is no guarantee it will work and they would charge you either way. You can send the drive off to a data recovery company but then you are talking quite a bit of money like in the $1000 range.

I have no were near 1000 dollars. I'm in high school and I don't have a job lol. I can't believe I didn't mention this! I used to get extreme charlie horses - I was getting one and without thinking of it I dropped my computer. I checked to see if it was ok and it was. But 2 hours later when I went on it, I got that error message. (how could I forget to mention that   ) I read online if that happen then maybe there was something wrong with the case. Or something like that, I don't know. Does that make a difference?



My 2 friends don't know how to do that. How would they be able to install a new hard drive? (But I can ask my text teacher, he might know how.)


I also heard online I could Set a hard drive to function as the secondary ("slave"). How would I do that? Is that what your saying I should do on your last post?

(Last question I promise, you've earned this "best answer"!) What data recovery software should I use? Do you know any good types.

Dropping a mechanical hard drive can damage it very easily. Not only are the platters inside that your data is stored on fragile it has a head ( like a record player ) that reads and writes to the platters that can get unaligned.

If you have a 2 year old computer it likely has a SATA hard drive. Only older obsolete IDE hard drives require you to set a slave and master.

Installing a hard drive is as easy as plugging in the SATA cable from the drive to the motherboard and the SATA power connector from the power supply to the hard drive.

If you have a SATA drive the cable going to the motherboard from the hard drive will look like this.




If it's an older IDE drive it will look like a long ribbon.

As for what data recovery software to use I really have no idea what works best. If I was you I would find out if your teacher or whomever can help you first. If so you may just be able to connect the drive to a working computer and see your data right off and be able to copy it to the working computer so you can burn it to a disk or copy it to a thumb drive or whatever. That is a best case scenario.

You need to know that a working computer can actually "see" the old hard drive before you pay for any software. If you connect it and the new computer can't see the old drive then nothing you can do will help. If it can see the drive one of two things will happen. Like I said above best case it can see the drive and your data is all still there and can be copied off. It might also see the drive but see no data on the drive. That is when you would need recovery software.

If and when you get to that point start a new thread on here and title it "Best Data Recovery Software" or something similar. That way someone who uses it will be able to recommend something that might work.

Thanks again. Could I put a toshiba hard drive in an acer computer?

Best answer selected by TeamBills.

Ok thanks, I'll let you know how it goes!

One last question (promise!). I have an acer computer I got from my mom's ex- boyfriend (used it once, gave it to me he was rich but lost 85 percent of him money to his wife that never worked a day in her life rant over lol) could I use that hard drive and use it for my toshiba. (cause I can probably get the data from the toshiba hard drive, but I don't think I can fix it so its usable again. Know what I mean?)

Ok I guess I am dense here. I just realized when you mentioned brands we are talking about laptops right?

You can still do this but you need to connect the hard drive from your laptop to a desktop computer. Most laptops do not have the necessary connections to add a second hard drive.

You should be able to take the hard drive from the Acer and transfer it to the Toshiba. You will have to reinstall Windows though. If you do not have a copy ask at your school if you can get it discounted through them. That may only work with colleges though. If you have to buy Windows it's $99 on newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

yeah

Awesome Thanks!

If the data recovery works and I get everything from my old computer , can I copy the 2 games I bought onto a CD or flash drive? (it says online you can, but just making sure.)

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey