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Hey, I'm running Vista on an older computer. In the last two monthes it started to crash frequently. At first it was blue screens, allowing me to get as far as the login menu before crashing. At that point I could access the recovery manager, though the repair option couldn't detect any problems, and it would crash before any system restores completed. Eventually I was being told that no restore points existed, and the crashing occurred before I could even access the recovery manager. Today its the case that I'm getting the dreaded "Disc Read error occurred, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart" message.

I lack any install discs for Vista (though I don't know how much difference the commands would be from the recovery manager I was using earlier). I tried using the recovery disc from Neosmart Technologies, though it said that my drives weren't readable. I've also got System Recovery discs from HP for Windows Vista Home Premium (my version), but when trying to run it I'm told it isn't compatible with my current version of windows.

The last time I had this error it was the case that I did what I could, gave up, and left the computer offline for a month. When I came back to give it another go it didn't crash. It ran a disc check and was fine. I'd rather not hope that I'll have to rely on luck this time around, so if anyone has any ideas on how to help with this issue it'd be appreciated.

=/ And yes, buying new installation discs, etc is an option if people think it'll fix it, but I'd really rather not buy a new computer/ upgrade to a new operating system if it means I'll lose any personal files or reinstall any hardware.



^^ Heh my computer's been inoperable for so long that its desk's been taken over by my gaming stuff. I had to remove two land raiders and a maulerfiend, amongst a load of other random modelling rubbish from my keyboard to even run the thing again.

First of all, I'd suggest downloading CCleaner, and running it a few times, and check your registry with it as well. This might not do anything, but it'll remove some variables.

Run an anti-virus if you can (I know it can be hard if you don't have one installed), to narrow it down even more.

After all that, and a few restarts, defragment your HDD. I use a program called Ultradefrag, which also optimizes the HDD. Finally, run the error checker on your next start-up, and tell us what the damage is.

Also, run the disk cleanup wizard. You might have plenty of space available, but there could still be junk blocking things up. Delete programs you don't need as well. With CCleaner, you can turn off some things that are slowing down your start-up. I encourage you to turn off literally every stupid Apple thing you see, and things like "adobe update checker"

Good luck!

Thanks, but how do I run any of that without having a desktop?

I didn't catch that from reading your post, sorry. Um... Have you diddled around with hitting F10(or maybe F8) on startup? I'm not familiar with Vista, but BIOS settings are usually universal. I had a similar problem like this with a Compaq x1000 or something. Turns out a piece of the hard drive had snapped off inside its housing, and was incapable of ever being used again. If your problem stems from the HDD, odds are you're going to have to dispose of it, and lose all of your data...

What are you using right now to get on the internet?

=/ Everything bar opening the boot menu or setup results in an error. This morning I could access the menu with F8 (though every option on it resulted in a blue screen). F10 says "NTDLR is compressed" (though that's an older issue). I had a look inside the casing earlier today, but nothing appeared to be amiss. Admittedly the issue started a week or so after I gave the thing a good clean, but I don't think its a result of say static electricity messing with anything or the like.

^^ I'm using a bunged up laptop I found in a cupboard. Its pretty basic, but its stable. Last time I used this thing was when my computer gave me the same error two years ago actually.

Do you have a floppy or CD drive on it?

Do you have a CD burner or floppy on the Laptop?

You could probably make a boot disk to run some of the recommended diags.

This link might be helpful: http://www.ubcd4win.com/

This is a universal hard drive recovery tool, for windows systems in general. I didn't know these existed. It has a couple handy tools on it for a lot of different problems.

I'll give it a shot @Samus_aran115. Finding a free disc with enough memory'll be the issue though. *Just found that someone's stuck a Norton 360 backup on every disc that I have larger than 124 mb. ...Confused much.



As a win though. Whilst searching for blank discs I did just come across a few half used sprues of Cadian/Militia/Flagellants. ^^

Vista = why the hell are you using this?


98 is miles ahead of Vista and older

I've had the thing for years, and it came installed with it. You get used to an operating system, though I know its bad, I've tried 7 and XP, and they just didn't hit it with me.

^^ Least it isn't a mac (if we're going down the route of computing jokes).

Hey, I love my iMac! Never had so much as a sniff of a problem with it. Windows machines on the other hand.... Christ. I go through them like they're Kleenex and I'm watching a Helen Mirren film (apart from The Queen).

 Wyrmalla wrote:
Hey, I'm running Vista on an older computer.

There's your problem.

If you have another computer there is a way to get your stuff off of it perhaps, if you can hook it up to another and it can read it you'll probably get the stuff off of it. But, if you're lucky the installation will be able to be repaired and save your stuff. I suppose as a lesson; keep stuff you don't want to lose backed up somewhere, and (for Windows at least) create a new partition just for the OS; keep nothing else on that partition. Vista is infamous for its issues, but I remember it being recommended in class that to keep a MS OS in top condition you needed a monthly defragment and a yearly reinstall/reg cleaning; Vista being mentioned as almost mandatory.

If you're unlucky the installation is fine and you've got a nasty virus which targeted the MBR; attacking the hard drive itself in a way. Either way I'd say try to get Win 7 to replace it.

go online and download windows 98

Nah, better to go with XP than 98. 98 is decent, but has too many limitations on it now. Fine if you just browse the web, but not forever.

XP may need to be bought or cracked

for all the gack you need to do you may as well buy a new windows 8 basic computer brand new

 Wyrmalla wrote:
Today its the case that I'm getting the dreaded "Disc Read error occurred, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart" message.

Why do you think this is a problem with your OS, and not a hard drive issue?

1.) Any of the following troubleshooting steps require 1.) A second, working PC, 2.) the ability to read and follow directions, and 3.) a little bit of time and money. If you don't have these things you may stop reading now, and take your PC to someone else or Geek Squad or whatever: Standard disclaimer.

2.) Who manufactures your hard drive? Not sure why you're assuming that it's a OS issue and not a HD one. Who makes the HDD? Go get their vendor specific tool to test the drive, and burn it to a disk or a thumbstick. Boot it up and run a quicktest and then a long test.

3.) If the test is passed, then the drive is probably OK. You should do a windows-specific test now to check your file structure. Get yourself a USB dock, and pull your hard drive. Dock it and plug it into another Windows PC. After that PC detects it (you might need to assign it a drive letter), right click it in Windows Explorer, and go to properties, tools, scan for errors, check both boxes, and run it. This might take a while.

Report back with the results of the above.

PS, I'm a MS Certified Vista technician (70-620) and my best advise is to stop screwing with this and install Windows 7. I will help you with either course of action but this is my recommendation.

 Ouze wrote:

 Wyrmalla wrote:
Today its the case that I'm getting the dreaded "Disc Read error occurred, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart" message.

Get yourself a USB dock, and pull your hard drive. Dock it and plug it into another Windows PC. After that PC detects it (you might need to assign it a drive letter), right click it in Windows Explorer, and go to properties, tools, scan for errors, check both boxes, and run it. This might take a while.

Report back with the results of the above.

PS, I'm a MS Certified Vista technician (70-620) and my best advise is to stop screwing with this and install Windows 7. I will help you with either course of action but this is my recommendation.

This looks like the best two options. You can possibly save whats on your harddrive with step one and then you really should move on to Win7.

Oh, its a Compaq Presario SR5219UK (ie 2007 HP brand). I tried having a look at the HP diagnostic CD page, but it doesn't come up with anything for that model (similar ones, like the 1080, but I don't know if those would work). Ideas?

Thanks, I will be upgrading my system in the near future with 7 (been meaning to do that for a while now, I guess the thing dying on me's as good a kicker as any), but I'd rather get it fixed first before I give the thing an overhaul.

^^ Still checking the other options though. =/ Bit of a kicker that this is a holiday week or I could have gone into college with this issue (though last time I did that the lecturer told me to "man up" ).

 Wyrmalla wrote:
Oh, its a Compaq Presario SR5219UK (ie 2007 HP brand). I tried having a look at the HP diagnostic CD page, but it doesn't come up with anything for that model (similar ones, like the 1080, but I don't know if those would work). Ideas?

Open the door and look at the sticker. See what name is on it. It's likely going to be either Hitachi, Western Digital, Seagate, or Maxtor.

The inside's devoid of any stickers bar a stamp saying "HH (2007-09-15) 48). =/

The hard drive itself has no label?

As in on the exterior casing there's a bunch of labels with HP/Compaq, but the interior casing hasn't got any stickers on it. The hardrive has printed codes like HP Pin, PCI Express, Serial ATA, HT 2000, etc, but I'm not seeing any of those companies in prominent labels on it. That's on the side facing away from the casing though, as its still plugged into the tower right now. I'll unscrew it if there's a chance it'll have the manufacturer on the other side though.

It would be weird for the HDD to have no labels at all. There is virtually always something with the number of platters, capacity, and a guide to what position the jumper should be in. Try pulling it out.

Some of those labels make no sense, by the way - PCI express has nothing to do with the HDD and HT2000 is a model of motherboard. You're looking at the hard drive itself, right?

God that was a struggle to get the hardrive out. Visual inspection doesn't show any faults though, so that's win of sorts. ^^

Yeah, its a Seagate. Barracuda 7200.10. Unfortunately though, when I attempted to run a diagnostic using the Seagate files I got the same disc read error. It checked the disc first, but didn't give any "incompatible version" or loading files indications, just spent a little longer loading before it went to the error message.

Go into the boot device and make sure it's booting from the CD-rom before booting to the hard drive. This will vary by bios, but you want "boot options".

Yeah, its been set to that for the last few days. It's been able to run other .iso files, but its jumping over the one from that site it seems. I'll re-download it though to make sure. Tah.

You seem to be already covering possible HDD failure.

Other possibilities for these symptoms include the following:

Flaky RAM
Bad HDD to MoBo connection
Failing MoBo
Failing Power Source

Here is some bits to follow to check other components for failure.

Software: Use a live OS (such as knoppix) to pull any files you wish to keep to a flash drive/portable HDD. Alternately, take an image of your HDD using a ghosting program. Reinstall Windows form a disk. Error persists, then issue is not software.

HDD: Install a known working HDD and attmept to boot from it in safe mode or install Windows on it if it is empty. If it works regularly, your issue is the HDD and it needs to be replaced.

RAM: If the errors occur "randomly", pull a stick of RAM from your computer. Reboot. Repeat until error stops or down to a single stick of RAM. If error stopped before 1, put different stick of RAM in the slot you last freed up (a stick other than the one was was just in it). If error returns, the slot is most likely bad and you have a failing motherboard. If error does not return, that particular stick of RAM that was pulled is bad and you should be OK to buy a new one. If you get to 1 and the error persists, replace it with a different stick you already pulled. If error still persists, move the reinserted RAM to a different slot. Repeat untill all slots have been checked. If the error still persists, goto MoBo.

MoBo: Start sniffing around your computer when it is on. Literally use your nose. If anythign smells of harsh chemicals or burnt plastic, your MoBo is fried and you should avoid turning it on again. If nothing smells burnt, plug the HDD into a different SATA port. If the error goes away, your MoBo is going bad.

Power Source: Try a different power connection to your HDD. If the issue goes away, your Power Source is failing and thus causing the read/write head to brown out every now and then. The Power Source should be replaced ASAP and you should not turn the computer back on until it is repaired. A failing Power Source can destroy multiple components once it does finally go into its death throws.

If the error still persist past all of this testing, the most likely culprits are the motherboard or Power Source. Both can cause seemingly random and misleading errors. Try using a different power source (if one is available) or a different MoBo.

All said and done, you've said you've had this computer for a long time and are running Vista. This makes the computer at least 4 years old. It is about time it started to give out . I'm not saying your computer is crap, I'm saying few personal computers can break the 6 year mark without at least some form of hardware failure.

EDIT: typos

for 300 bucks you can get a brand new Asus A53U-ES21 Notebook AMD Dual-Core Processor E-450(1.65GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 320GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW AMD Radeon HD 6320

just an idea

newegg

 DIDM wrote:
for 300 bucks you can get a brand new . . . Notebook . . .

I'd advise against buying a laptop unless you really need that portability. Most folks just buy a laptop , plug it into a wall, and use it as a desktop anyways. Desktops have much better heat management and utilize fewer proprietary parts. The use of fewer proprietary parts reduces the cost of repairs, helps ensure compatibility with software/PnP hardware and alleviates power issues. Desktops typically also have more expansion slots (RAM and PCI) making upgrading cheaper and only of benefit (you're not replacing as many already existing parts).

From the sounds of things, I'd bet even money on the hard drive too. Sounds like Ouze has the way of things here.