So...

Yesterday I downloaded & installed Winamp Media Player and a .flac converter. After installation Spybot popped up giving me the option of allowing or denying a registry change associated with Winamp. I assumed that the registry change would need to take place to allow the new software to function correctly and so allowed it.

Bad move.

Several hours later I came back to my computer (I'd left it on) at which point it completely froze up so, I cold rebooted it.


Second bad move (I am aware cold booting is not a good thing, but I've never seen anything like this happen before)

Now on startup my computer goes through the normal process until it gets to the PAGE where it offers the option to launch recovery. After the countdown is complete I am greeted by the message 'A Disk Read Error Occurred - Press Ctrl - Alt - Del to Reboot'.

So restart it I did to find the same message awaiting me, again and again and again. I cannot access safe mode, pressing F8 results in 'A Disk Read Error Occurred - Press Ctrl - Alt - Del to Reboot'

I am running Windows Vista 32bit SP2, any help would be most appreciated. On MONDAY I'll take my laptop (HP T5870s) into UNI and see if I can get any help there from the IT department. Failing that I can take it to a professional IT Repair shop... but what with being a student I'd rather not.

Many Thanks










I found that with my laptop, when this sort of 'freezing' happened, the remedy was to remove BOTH the mains lead AND the battery. If you haven't done this, worth a try. It is possible that installing Winamp and the flac converter did not cause your problem. These things could be symptoms of a failing hard disk.

Hmm... possibly.

Ok,

If I hit F11 for recovery the laptop takes about five minutes to enter the recovery process, upon which it displays a blue screen ultimately telling me I have a hard disk failure, possibly due to software recently installed, and that I should make sure said software is installed correctly. Unfortunately this is impossible as I cannot access windows.

If at startup I hit Ctrl-S and go into the BIOS setup and run a Hard Drive Self Test (as suggested by HP - www.hp.com/go/techcenter/support) it results in almost immediate failure and recommends I invest in a new hard drive.

Is this salvageable? Only I have a LOT of work on this computer that I need and also my version of Windows (Vista Home Premium) came pre-installed so a disk format is kind of out of the question (if indeed that would even work)

Many ThanksSTOP using it immediately ! !

Then grab 1 of these:



2.5"laptop to IDE converter...this will allow you to hook that drive up to any working desktop to hopefully retrieve your data...

NOTE Do not try to burn the data as this is more taxing on the drive....copy it to the desktop HDD and burn it later.Quote from: ChocoBear111 on October 02, 2010, 09:31:16 AM

Hmm... possibly.

If I hit F11 for recovery the laptop takes about five minutes to enter the recovery process,

upon which it displays a blue screen ultimately telling me I have a hard disk failure

I cannot access windows.

If at startup I hit Ctrl-S and go into the BIOS setup and run a Hard Drive Self Test (as suggested by HP - www.hp.com/go/techcenter/support) it results in almost immediate failure and recommends I invest in a new hard drive.

Is this salvageable?

Only I have a LOT of work on this computer that I need

and also my version of Windows (Vista Home Premium) came pre-installed

so a disk format is kind of out of the question (if indeed that would even work)

Is W7 more advisable as an OS than vista?

STOP using it immediately ! !

Then grab 1 of these:



2.5"laptop to IDE converter...this will allow you to hook that drive up to any working desktop to hopefully retrieve your data...

NOTE Do not try to burn the data as this is more taxing on the drive....copy it to the desktop HDD and burn it later.