Confirm my diagnosis - "disk read error" - HP pavilion dv1000 laptop

[Albigger]

Hey everyone, I just want to confirm my suspicions about this laptop and if it is the hard drive and if there are any other tests I can do.

Here is the problem, and the steps I went thru:

HP Pavilion dv1000 laptop with a Hitachi travelstar 80 gb hard drive. Getting the "disk read error - press ctrl + alt + del to restart" error upon bootup.

First tried booting from a windows install CD, but it says "inspecting computer's hardware configuration..." then it goes away but the screen just stays blank (doesn't go into the blue windows setup screen).

I can get into the system BIOS. I did, and ran the disk check utilities. It gave an error. So I downloaded the Hitachi drive fitness test and burned a bootable CD ROM. Ran the thorough test, it found errors, ran bad sector repair from the disk, and it said all fixed. Re-booted into the BIOS and scanned the disk with the BIOS utility, this time it did not find any errors.

But it still gave the "disk read error" and still wouldn't let me boot into a windows install CD.

Luckily, I have a Dell laptop (also with a hitachi drive) and I swapped the drives. In my Dell laptop (which worked perfectly) with the bad drive it also gave the disk read error.

The HP pavilion with the good drive from the Dell WOULD let me boot into the windows setup program from a CD. It would also start loading windows, but then gave a blue-screen stop error (I just attribute this to the different hardware and drivers of the two laptops).


So, is the drive definately the problem here? Any other tests to run? Best course of action?

I'm thinking get a new drive and start from scratch.

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[Omsion]

Go back up the contents and start new HD shopping.
Yep.

 

[Albigger]

Well that's the thing, can't even read the disk from my good laptop, so I think its just gone (the data).

 

[Albigger]

Hmmm, I went back into the the hitachi drive utitilies and used the utility to erase the boot sector, and now it lets me boot with a CD into the windows setup.


Could this have been a virus? It doesn't detect a previous windows install, so I'll still have to reinstall, but at least maybe I won't need a new drive.

 

[Omsion]

Oh...what happens when you skip a line/paragraph =P

I can get into the system BIOS. I did, and ran the disk check utilities. It gave an error. So I downloaded the Hitachi drive fitness test and burned a bootable CD ROM. Ran the thorough test, it found errors, ran bad sector repair from the disk, and it said all fixed. Re-booted into the BIOS and scanned the disk with the BIOS utility, this time it did not find any errors.

Now it seems like something similar to what happened to my friend's laptop, which I asked about in another thread. It seems that faulty power can cause HD corruption.
I also had the the idea of a virus for my friend's laptop - but a boot sector virus to two seperate windows installs in under a week? Unlikely, especially since my friend did less stuff on the second partition install.

 

[Vondoom]

I have ran into the same problem many times, format a hdd on one computer, take it to the next and the pc wont read it. The hdd itself wasn't bad at all, just for some reason another pc won't read my Hardrive unless It has been formatted on that pc. I think the reason being the hardware is so old in one computer and the other is brand new.

 

[Albigger]

Well, I didn't format it before I swapped them.


But anyway, went ahead and re-formatted and reinstalled windows (after using the Hitachi utility to erase the boot sector) and its been working fine for a day so far. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Thanks guys.