Disk read error on two different hard drives.

naseem142

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Jan 30, 2015
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Hello,

I'll try to explain my situation as clearly as i can, and i'll list all the pc parts i have in this specific desktop:
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CPU: Intel pentium G3258
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z97M-D3H
RAM: Kingston ( hyper fury x ) 8gb 1600Mhz single stick
GPU: GTX 750 Ti
PSU: S12II-520 Non modular
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It started off with ram issues, where the system hangs forcing me to restart, replacing the ram solved that problem.

But after a while, the random freezes returned and it kept on freezing and forcing me to restart until i booted into "Disk read error", So i replaced the WD Blue 1TB with a new WD Black 1TB, also a freshly installed windows.

Now windows operated regularly for a few more weeks until the same problem occurred again, random freezes and black screens upon booting, until i get the "Disk read error" at one point.

Here is what i tried so far, but not being able to solve the problem:

- Replaced the HDD as i mentioned above.
- Replaced the sata cable and inserted into a different sata port.
- After the first disk read error, i made sure to update the bios. But that clearly didn't stop it.
- Tried troubleshooting startup with recovery, but did nothing as well.
- Tried running CHKDSK on both C and D partions, but it always stopped with an unspecified error that i can't seem to find any solution for it.

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.
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Now i'm all out of ideas, not sure what i can do next.. What could be the problem that makes these random freezes, black screens, disk read errors? The only thing i could come up with is replacing the motherboard, but i'll have to buy a new one. If there is no other solution, should i do that?

Also i read somewhere that the PSU could be the problem killing my hard drives everytime, is that possible?

I'd appreciate some help from you... I'm desperate at this point.
 
Solution
Make sure you have a backup of your files, if you get drive error again where it can't boot, try a clean Windows setup or another hard drive.

naseem142

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Tried 4 different power connectors from two cables in total from the psu, but all of them booted into disk read error. :/
 


You would have to try with a known good disk and see if that ends up dying also. Did you do a scan on the drives aside from chkdsk? That program is not really good for checking hard drives to see if they are good, it will detect file system errors but does not scan the drive sectors like a dedicated disk check utility from the drive vendor would.
 

naseem142

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Oh, what would be the correct way to scan the sectors? Also i have an extra hard drive sitting around that i can try formatting and then install windows again and try it out for a few days to see what happens. I'll do that if nothing else works.

Also another question, if i take out the hdd from the faulty pc and plug it into a working pc. Does being able to browse the folders and files inside be considered that the hdd is healthy and it's just something else faulty? ( Haven't tried yet, just asking )

Thank you!
 
Get the brand of the hard drive, check their support site for a utility to scan the drive. That does a much more thorough job than chkdsk.

If you can read the drive in a different computer, with no odd issues like it taking long time to respond to work with files, the disk should be OK based on that test. But that is not 100% accurate as saying if the drive is error free. If the only test I had was to try the drive in another system, and it opened fine, no slowness, did not cause the system to boot slowly when it was installed, no large amount of drive activity, I'd call it a good drive but with an * based on not being able to run a full test.
 

naseem142

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Hey, sorry for the late reply but i got an update.

So i went to western digitals website, and got western digitals "Data lifeguard diagnostic for DOS" for the WD Black version.

I ran it from a bootable usb drive and ran an full extended scan, After roughly one hour it tells me that there were no errors found. So i restarted and booted up a black screen with the windows logo and "checking disk - 0%", one minute later it finishes and redirects me into recovery where i found the "Continue to windows 10" button or troubleshoot problems, so i click the continue button and it boots up into windows normally which is very odd.

But now i am more sure that the drive isn't at fault, it's just something else.

Though this is really frustrating, it might come back at me again without any notice and i'll have to fiddle around it everytime trying to find out what's wrong.

If it happens again, what would you'r suggestion be?

Also i really appreciate you sticking with me to help me out! :)