# a disk error occurred. press ctrl alt del to restart



## ricoian (Jun 26, 2007)

hi everyone i've been reading about this problem in forums but it seems like my case is different and the solution they offered doesnt work for me....

anyway everytime i start my pc its giving me this "a disk error occurred" then saying you have to press ctrl alt delete to restart and it, and when you do it will just do the same thing.... just to explain the scenario better... when i start it, it lets me pass that bios introduction thing then after giving me that brief moment to choose between F1 or F12.. it gives me that error.

now reading all the notes in forums ive tried all the suggestion and i will list them one by one..

1. i have checked and replace IDE cables so does the jumpers and connections and still nothing

2. i have used the DOS based seagate tools for my hard drive to run diagnostics but it cant detect my hard drive

3. i have checked the bios and the hard drive is registering

4. i have tried to use the XP cd to boot it up but it only goes as far as "windows is trying to check your configuration" or something like that and it will crash into a black screen which now prevents me to use the FIXBOOT or FIXMBR or CHKDSK or even reformatting the hard drive

5. i have tried swapping my master and slave drive so i can use it to install a new windows , but when it comes to the point when its asking me to choose which hard drive i want to install the windows OS.. both my master drive and slave drive were registering as "unknown devices" and if i continue it gives me the blue screen of death.

so

6. instead of installing windows i tried to press R to repair, it let me goes to C: drive (which is my original slave drive) and it also lets me go to D: drive (which is my orginal master drive that gives that disk error message at start) and using the command D:\>dir it lets me list all my folders and files in my original master drive.

7. so what i did was i remove the hard drive that's giving me a problem and connect it to another computer as a slave drive and it works perfectly... i can access all the files and everything but when i put it back to where i came from , it gives me the same error again

if anyone can help me out.. i will greatly appreciate it.. otherwise ill just dump the motherboard and use this hard drive as a slave to my other pc....


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## bigbear (Apr 27, 2004)

Have you tried clearing the cmos?
Is the drive being seen correctly in bios?


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## tech13 (Jun 26, 2007)

sounds like MBR corruption (master boot record). if the drive physically works fine as a slave to access the files, the drive is fine, its just that your computer cant find the drive as the MBR is messed up. wiping the drives and reinstalling the OS would resolve this issue. or you can possibly look at some other fixes.


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## ricoian (Jun 26, 2007)

bigbear said:


> Have you tried clearing the cmos?
> Is the drive being seen correctly in bios?


yes bios can see my hard drive but when i tried to reformat and reinstall windows, its telling that it is an unknown hardware.... feels like its asking for a driver or something to identify the hard drive


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## ricoian (Jun 26, 2007)

tech13 said:


> sounds like MBR corruption (master boot record). if the drive physically works fine as a slave to access the files, the drive is fine, its just that your computer cant find the drive as the MBR is messed up. wiping the drives and reinstalling the OS would resolve this issue. or you can possibly look at some other fixes.


yes it seems like that but when i tried to connect a different hard drive to install windows... the installation says that its an unknown hardware... so basically doesnt matter what kind of hard drive i connected installation cant detect it anyway... so im still partial with the third party driver thingy or both including the MBR , what bothers me is that it was working for the last 6 months without any problem...


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## Problematicguy (Apr 2, 2007)

Have you changed the bios to boot from the cd before the Hard drive when you tried to reinstall the op system?


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## ricoian (Jun 26, 2007)

Problematicguy said:


> Have you changed the bios to boot from the cd before the Hard drive when you tried to reinstall the op system?


 yes i did


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## tech13 (Jun 26, 2007)

possible motherboard failure, as the motherboard cant detected hard drives properly. can you try to swap out mobos?


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## bigbear (Apr 27, 2004)

If you are reformatting and don't mind losing the data on the drive, try a lowlevel format using Killdisc.
It will wipe the drive completely, then try again
I have used this on a couple of problem drives and it worked for me.
http://www.killdisk.com/


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## tinkthelizard (Apr 24, 2006)

also things to check when attaching another hard drive.
Make sure the jumpers are set correctly.
Make sure the drive is enabled and from the bios.
Make sure your boot order is correct when trying to install a operating system on a newly added drive.


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