Windows cannot read from hard disk

[jmt356]

I have been having some problems with my laptop. The full description is at http://lounge.windowssecrets.com/index. ... pic=779793" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. In summary, I have been getting errors during my Acronis incremental backups, such as “Failed to read from the sector 88,492,807 of the hard disk 1.” These errors have lead me to believe that my hard disk was corrupt/deteriorating.

My suspicion has been further been confirmed this morning: as I brought my laptop out of hibernation mode, I got the message, "Windows cannot read from hard disk. Please insert your Windows cd to boot up." I suspect some part of the C drive that is necessary for booting up has gone corrupt/missing.

I don't have my Windows cd and don't even know if it came with my computer. I do know that there is a backup partition D that is about 2.3 GB and I think it has all the essential windows files in case the C drive goes corrupt, as it just did, but I don't know how to access it.

I tried getting around Window's message to insert the disk by forcing a shut down and then starting the computer on several occasions, first pressing F8 to try to go to safe mode, then pressing Esc when the first words appear on the screen, and nothing happens, I just come to a blank screen with a white underscore bar on the left, and a "tic tic tic" sound like Windows can't find some file. Then I think I tried pressing Escape while it was starting up, and I came to a PhoenixBIOS Setup Utility, which I suspect may be able to get me out of this quandary, but I have no idea as to how to navigate that system.

Any tips or feedback would be greatly appreciated. All of this came at a time when I have a major exam in a week and little time to deal with all of this.

If anyone knows of a solution it would be very appreciated.

JMT

[HansV]

Didn't you make a recovery disk when you got the laptop?

[jmt356]

What's a recovery disk? I got Acronis and thought I would have all the necessary files by backing up the laptop every couple of weeks. I also thought I was protected because there was a D partition, which I think the salesman told me could be used if the C drive ever went corrupt.

[HansV]

Many computer makers install a utility that when you first use the computer, prompts you to create a disk that can be used in case the computer won't start normally.

The D partition won't help much if you can't start the laptop anymore.

See Phoenix BIOS setup and help for instructions on how to navigate through the BIOS setup.

[StuartR]

...I got Acronis and thought I would have all the necessary files by backing up the laptop every couple of weeks...

If you have a backup of the laptop that completed without errors then you should be fine. Just buy yourself a new hard drive and restore the backup to it.

[jmt356]

Hans: I have an HP Pavilion DV2840se running Windows Vista Home Premium. I have no recollection of that laptop asking me to create a recovery disk. There may have been a recovery disk that came with the laptop, but I travel a lot and wouldn't have brought it with me.
What should I do in the Phoenix BIOS setup? Should I navigate to Boot? What devices should I boot do? Can the laptop boot to the D drive that I have backed up on my external hard drive?

Stuart: I have an Acronis backup, but it didn't complete without errors. Here are the errors I got during my last backup on Saturday:
"Failed to read from the sector 295,778,783 of the hard disk 1." I click Ignore and got this a few minutes later:
"Failed to read from the sector 295,778,799 of the hard disk 1." I click Ignore and got this a few minutes later:
"Failed to read from the sector 295,778,807 of the hard disk 1." I click Ignore and got this a few minutes later:
"Failed to read from the sector 295,778,823 of the hard disk 1." I click Ignore and got this a few minutes later:
"Failed to read from the sector 295,778,855 of the hard disk 1." I click Ignore and got this a few minutes later:
"Failed to read from the sector 295,778,911 of the hard disk 1." I click Ignore and got this a few minutes later:
"Failed to read from the sector 295,778,959 of the hard disk 1." I click Ignore and got this a few minutes later:
"Failed to read from the sector 295,778,975 of the hard disk 1." I click Ignore and got this a few minutes later:
"Failed to read from the sector 295,778,991 of the hard disk 1." I later clicked Ignore All and the backup completed as normal.

Also, I did significant work on the laptop yesterday that I don't want to lose. So I want to do everything I can to get into that laptop and do one more incremental backup or at least copy the two folders that I made changes to and my Outlook PSTs, which also had a lot of changes.

Regards,
JMT

[HansV]

See Windows Vista Recovery Disc Download - you will have to download the ISO file on another computer and burn it to CD (the article contains a link to a page with instructions).

[StuartR]

Stuart: I have an Acronis backup, but it didn't complete without errors......Also, I did significant work on the laptop yesterday that I don't want to lose...

I recommend that you buy two things.

• A new hard drive of the correct type for your laptop. From the specs I found on the internet this should be a 2.5" SATA drive, you need it to be at least 250MBytes, but anything larger will do too. This should cost you less than $50
• An external enclosure that will allow you to read/write your 2.5" SATA drive from another computer. This should cost you about 10$ - 15$

Disassemble your laptop and move the failing hard drive into the enclosure. Then install the new hard drive in your laptop. If you can't do this yourself then get a friend to help, or take it to a computer store and ask them to do it.

After doing this you should restore your laptop from the most recent successful Acronis backup. DON'T try to restore from the backup that gave all the errors. Since you are creating incremental backups you should be able to find the last one that worked without errors and restore that one.

Finally you should try to recover any individual critical files that have been lost. Either by copying them from the hard drive that is now in the enclosure or recovering them as individual files from the Acronis backup that gave errors when you were creating it. You will need to inspect these files very carefully to see if they look corrupted.

[jmt356]

I created the recovery cd through http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-v ... -download/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.
After starting the computer, I inserted the cd and got the message “Windows is loading files. . .”

A white bar started moving towards the right, but then it got stuck in the middle and I got Windows Boot Manager informing me that “Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer. This error can be caused by unplugging a removable storage device such as an external USB drive while the device is in use, or by faulty hardware such as a hard drive or CD-ROM drive that is failing. Make sure any removable storage is properly connected and then restart your computer.
If you continue to receive this error message, contact the hardware manufacturer.”

Does this mean something was wrong with the disk?

Suspecting the problem is that the disk that I burned the recovery file onto was old, I tried buying a fresh disk, but upon trying to burn it in ImgBurn, I got the error message “Invalid Address for Write.” Is it because my computer was purchased from the US and the cd was purchased from the UAE?

Can I boot from my external hard drive if I copy the “Windows Vista x64 Recovery Disc.iso” file there?

[HansV]

I think it's time to do what Stuart suggested.

[jmt356]

Stuart: I have a warranty on my laptop and so my current goal is simply to recover the information I lost from yesterday, get it on my wife's computer, and use my wife's computer until I'm able to get back to the US to drop the laptop off for repair. I am currently in the UAE and don't even know if I could find all these materials here and even if I could, I think I would mess it up.

But while I have your attention, just a few questions:
- What is the point of an external enclosure if I have the entire hard drive backed up through Acronis? Can't I just get all of the files from the backups on my external hard drive?

- Why would another computer be able to read my external hard drive through an external enclosure when my own laptop can't read the hard drive?

- Can we be sure the problem is the hard drive? I read online that there could be many causes for a blank screen with a blinking cursor in the upper left at boot up. I read it could even be the power supply.

Regards,

JMT

[StuartR]

- What is the point of an external enclosure if I have the entire hard drive backed up through Acronis? Can't I just get all of the files from the backups on my external hard drive?

It sounds like your Acronis backups are at best suspect. This gives you an extra chance of getting your data, for a very low cost of parts.

- Why would another computer be able to read my external hard drive through an external enclosure when my own laptop can't read the hard drive?

Your laptop can only "read" the hard drive if it is able to read every single file needed to boot windows. If even one of these files is corrupt then you can't access anything on the disk. If you put the disk in an external enclosure then another PC will be able to copy the files if even some of them are readable.

- Can we be sure the problem is the hard drive? I read online that there could be many causes for a blank screen with a blinking cursor in the upper left at boot up. I read it could even be the power supply.

Nothing in life is "sure", but this has ALL the symptoms of a hard disk failure. The gradual increase in number of hard read errors is a typical symptom of physical damage to the surface of the hard drive.

[jmt356]

Is there any other way to try to burn the recovery file to cd? It appears that Roxio only lets me burn multimedia files to disk and Windows Media Player only allows me to burn from the playlist, which only allows songs. ImgBurn is giving the message “Invalid address for write” and when I try putting in a CD-RW with some files on it, it requires me to erase the files, which I allow it to do, but then it states “Failure to erase disk … Power calibration area error.”

[HansV]

Here is a free utility to burn ISO files to CD: ISO Recorder.

[jmt356]

Is special software required to burn ISO files? Windows Explorer won't do the trick?

[HansV]

Windows 7 has burning ISO files built in, but in Windows Vista and earlier versions, you need a utility.

[jmt356]

I spent over $300 on a 5 year warranty and if I open up my computer or have anyone besides the warranty holder to do so, it becomes void.

So I am going to stubbornly persist in finding a way to get to the hard drive without taking it out.

On anothe rnote, I am copying My Documents as stored on my last Acronis incremental backup onto my wife's laptop, and it is taking FOREVER! A 2 GB folder will take an hour. Is this not normal?

I have an external hard drive that has a USB on one end and the wire coming out of that end splits in two with a wire with a USB attachment at one end adn a smaller adaptor that I plug into the external hard drive in the other. I leave the small adaptor hanging freely. Would it make things faster if I plugged that second USB into the computer? I don't know what that's for. I think it's for additional power.

[jmt356]

Then I loaded the files to a blank DVD drive.
I came to an Install Windows window asking me for the languages to install, Time and Currency format, and Keyboard or input method.

Install Windows
Repair Your Computer - I chose this option.

After it was done, I was given a choice to “Restart Now,” which I selected, but then I came to “Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically.”

I checked the Startup Repair log, and found this:
“Root cause found: MBR is corrupt.
Repair action: Disk metadata repair
Result: Failed. Error code = 0x57

I tried restarting it, but this time, I chose to install Windows rather than Repair the computer.

Will post again shortly ...

[jmt356]

After I chose to install Windows, it brought me to a window stating, “The installation was canceled.” Windows cannot open the required file D:\Sources\Install.wim. The file does not exist. Make sure all files required for installation are available, and restart the installation. Error code: 0x80070002.

Does this mean that the recovery cd does not have enough files on it to enable Windows to be installed?

[HansV]

Apparently. No idea why, though. If you have a 5 year warranty you might want to let the manufacturer recover the data.