[poppyal]

Hello! I am in a fix. Lately when I boot my system I get "A Disk Read Error Occured". Once in a while it will boot normally, but this error is happening more and more often. This last time I tried to boot, it acted like there was no hard drive there. It said something about "Insert a bootable disk". I used the XP cd to try a repair, but it showed the drive as empty. Then I tried to boot again and here I am. I have a second drive installed and it works every time. I talked with wannabe1 on the chat feature and he said something about some kind of "Malady" and to let him know if it happened again. I'm hoping that he reads this. I had to repair XP yesterday and also ran "chkdsk /r", but it didn't help any. I will not turn this system off until I get some response to this post - I'm not sure if I could get it back on or not. Thank You for any assistance I can get here.

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If you suspect you're infected, post to the Malware forum. Start here http://www.geekstogo..._Log-t2852.html.

You could also run Check Disk on the C:\ drive to check it. Open My Computer, right click over "Local Disk (C:)" and choose Properties, Tools tab, Check Now button. You'll most likely get a message about running Check Disk at the next boot. Tell it yes, then restart. If the disk has errors, hopefully Check Disk will find them.

[piper]

If you suspect you're infected, post to the Malware forum. Start here http://www.geekstogo..._Log-t2852.html.

You could also run Check Disk on the C:\ drive to check it. Open My Computer, right click over "Local Disk (C:)" and choose Properties, Tools tab, Check Now button. You'll most likely get a message about running Check Disk at the next boot. Tell it yes, then restart. If the disk has errors, hopefully Check Disk will find them.

[wannabe1]

Hi poppyal!!

What we discussed last night was the possibility that you have the dirty bit set on your machine. We'll check for that in a minute, but first, my usual flurry of questions.

Which machine are you on and what has been done to it recently? Has the CMOS been reset or the motherboard battery removed?

Is the hard drive connected to the same IDE channel (ribbon cable) as the cd-rom drive?

Click Start, then Run, type cmd, and click "Ok". At the prompt in the command window that opens, type fsutil dirty query c: and press "Enter".

Does the result of this indicate the drive is "Dirty"?

Type exit and press "Enter" to end the command session.

=========================================

Open Control Panel and double click the "System" icon. Under the "Advanced" tab, in the "Startup and Recovery" section, click on the "Settings" button.

In the window that appears, click the "Edit" button. A notepad window will open (boot.ini). Copy the contents of that window and Paste it here for me. Close the notepad window.

wannabe1

[poppyal]

Hi, wannabe1. Thanks for your response. I am working on my personal machine. I just put that MSI mobo in it about a week/10 days ago. The battery has not been removed, and I don't think the CMOS has been reset unless that was part of initializing the new mobo. I have two hard drives, each connected to a cd drive. I will now begin to do your suggestions and I'll get back to you soon.

[poppyal]

So far I can tell you that the query came back "NOT dirty". I'll bet that ain't good.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

THere you are sir. I certainly hope that this helps.

[wannabe1]

That narrowed it down quite a bit...

The dirty bit is not set and the boot instructions are in good order. That you have been able to get it to boot at all tells me the boot sector is probably ok. Probably in the hardware.

Let's re-cable the IDE channels. The way you have the IDE channels configured is where I suspect the problem is. Hard drives and cd-rom drives have different DMA settings and can cause memory read errors if they are on the same channel. This will require that you shut the machine down...which I know you don't really want to do, but I need you to check something in the BIOS setup, too. Unless you remember what your boot priority is set to. It needs to be CD-ROM - HDD - Floppy.

Shut down and unplug the machine. Open it up and locate the Primary IDE connector...It should either be colored blue or will be the connector closest to the edge of the board. Connect this channel to the HDD's...the end connector to the Primary Master HDD and the center connector to the other HDD. Make sure the jumper on the second drive is set to "Slave".

Connect the Secondary IDE channel to the cd-rom drives the same way...again jumpering the second cd-rom as "Slave".

This way you are putting "like devices" on the same channel. While you have the machine open, double check that all the cabling is secure and the RAM is firmly seated in the slots.

Fire it back up and see if it boots to Windows.

[poppyal]

The boot priority is set to Floppy - HDD - CDROM. I will change it to your suggestion. I will then re-route the cables as you suggest. They are now set up as "HDD0 to DVDROM" and "HDD1 to CDROM". I will then try to boot (I may get it done sooner or later) if it still continues to give me problems. I will return to you as soon as I can with a report.

[wannabe1]

With your experience, I should get the report within the hour....

[poppyal]

I'm back. It doesn't take long to do that type of thingy. I tried to boot twice, and it was o.k. both times. Do you feel that was the cure? I guess I will let you know if it wasn't. By the way, I tried to call Kat this afternoon and she had to go to the hospital 'cause she did something to her back and couldn't move around. Think we should get her a laptop and nail her in bed.
Also, I do have a floppy drive, so should I keep the boot priority as you suggested?

[wannabe1]

Kat's in the hospital? Oh no!!!!! That gal is just too darn busy...I think you're idea is notewothy.

Leave the boot priority as it is...that can always be changed later if need be.

I really think it was the way the drives were cabled, but keep me posted. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you have more problems like that.

12 minutes...that's gotta be some kind of a record...

[poppyal]

What's a PM? I just don't understand some of these things. I'm ttrying to get Kat to fill me in, but that might take a while. I don't know if she's in the hospital or just getting checked out. Her or I will let you know later on this eve.
THANKS, AGAIN. I'm not sure what I would do without you people and this site. You're a great help to us wannabes (no pun intended).

[wannabe1]

A PM is a personal message. If you click on my username you will be taken to my profile. On the right side of the profile, about half way down, there is a link to send me a personal message. You can always reach me that way.

We enjoy sharing the knowledge, poppyal...that's why we do what we do.