Anilrgowda

Question
Clone PC
AMD 2GHz processor
1 stick 512 MB RAM
30GB Maxtor Hard disk

I just did a complete format and re-install of Windows XP Pro on this computer. I got all the software and data configured and restored. It was working great. I was showing the person the new installation and we decided to shutdown so that they could see how it booted up, since they were not familiar with XP. As the PC was shutting down, it started to do some updates (63). At this point we temporarily lost power ( power plug go knocked out) when we powered up again I got the following message:

A disk read error occurred
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

I have rebooted many times with the same results.
I verified that the hard disk cable was properly connected.
I have checked the BIOS and the hard disk is recognized in the BIOS.
I changed the IDE cable but the problem remains.
I tried swapping the CDs IDE cable with the hard disk cable and the problem remained.
I have tested the hard disk with a Maxtor hard disk diagnostic software (twice) and it PASSED.

I have tried to boot with an XP CD to try to see if I can do a repair, but the PC will not boot off of a windows CD. I have tried two different CDs with the same result: the screen remains black.

I plan to try another hard disk in this PC but I haven't had time to do it yet.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

"Setup is inspecting your hardware..." appears on screen. So it can read the CD but nothing else happens. The screen goes blank and it just remains blank.

Soln

If you can access it, try running a chkdsk /r on it, to see if it has bad sectors, and maybe it can fix it.