[KD5NRH]

Got this one tonight, and of course I don't have any idea where my XP CD got to in the move.

The laptop in question (emachines M5414) is a dual-boot with XP and Debian, and I can use Debian just fine, and can mount the XP partition and see all the appropriate files there, but when I select XP from the grub menu it gives the "A disk read error has occurred, press ctrl-alt-del to restart." error.

Any thoughts?

Edited by KD5NRH, 02 August 2009 - 12:38 AM.

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Hi KD5NRH ...welcome to Geeks To Go...

because your dual booting...you might want to post this in the All Other Operating Systems forum here
but we can try here if you want...
first thing is to back up all your data...

go here..download the following file: rc.iso....then run chkdsk /r from the rc.iso cd...

if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files go here and get burncdcc ..a small FAST no frills iso burning program...

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start by clicking on BurnCDCC.exe
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....in this case its rc.iso
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....


when you boot from rc.iso you will get a blue screen and it will say setup is loading files...
then it will say its starting windows...
you will get to a screen that says ...do you want to install windows or 2nd choice it to repair windows..
press r to repair...you will get to a ...C:\>.......this is where you type in chkdsk /r

type in chkdsk /r press enter
note the single space before the /

While chkdsk is running, you will see a black dos box... Chkdsk will display the specific stage it is checking as well as the percentage of completion of the stage. You cannot do anything else on your computer while chkdsk is running. When chkdsk is finished, it will automatically reboot your computer.

NOTE this can take a long time to complete..it may even appear to hang or get stuck at a certain % for a couple of hours...then complete...it may even back up and go over the same area...this is normal...let it run...there are 5 stages
DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER WHILE RUNNING CHKDSK or you can have severe problems...
remove the rc.iso cd and reboot...

you can't run fixboot or fixmbr or bootcfg /rebuild or Debian may not load anymore...

[happyrock]

Hi KD5NRH ...welcome to Geeks To Go...

because your dual booting...you might want to post this in the All Other Operating Systems forum here
but we can try here if you want...
first thing is to back up all your data...

go here..download the following file: rc.iso....then run chkdsk /r from the rc.iso cd...

if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files go here and get burncdcc ..a small FAST no frills iso burning program...

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start by clicking on BurnCDCC.exe
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....in this case its rc.iso
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....


when you boot from rc.iso you will get a blue screen and it will say setup is loading files...
then it will say its starting windows...
you will get to a screen that says ...do you want to install windows or 2nd choice it to repair windows..
press r to repair...you will get to a ...C:\>.......this is where you type in chkdsk /r

type in chkdsk /r press enter
note the single space before the /

While chkdsk is running, you will see a black dos box... Chkdsk will display the specific stage it is checking as well as the percentage of completion of the stage. You cannot do anything else on your computer while chkdsk is running. When chkdsk is finished, it will automatically reboot your computer.

NOTE this can take a long time to complete..it may even appear to hang or get stuck at a certain % for a couple of hours...then complete...it may even back up and go over the same area...this is normal...let it run...there are 5 stages
DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER WHILE RUNNING CHKDSK or you can have severe problems...
remove the rc.iso cd and reboot...

you can't run fixboot or fixmbr or bootcfg /rebuild or Debian may not load anymore...

[KD5NRH]

type in chkdsk /r press enter

Ah. I wasn't sure if chkdsk would insist on eating the MBR or not. It's running now, so hopefully this will take care of it. I don't look forward to arguing with grub if this doesn't work and I have to reinstall it.

Thanks!

[happyrock]

that's why I said you can't run fixboot or fixmbr or bootcfg /rebuild they would for sure screw up grub
the /r switch will Scan for and attempt Recovery of bad sectors.