Disk Read Error During Windows XP Install

[Draciot]

I'm trying to change my system drive to my WD Caviar SE16 500GB SATA drive, but something is wrong.

After formatting the HD and the setup/install is done (at the blue screen) and it restarts, I get "A Disk Read Error has occured, Control+Alt+Delete to restart". I know this isn't a driver problem, because if it was the hard drive wouldn't have been recognized and I couldn't have started installing Windows.

I tried installing on my 1TB SATA just to see if it would work, and it did.

I've tried installing four times to my 500GB drive and they've all failed after the first reboot.

If anyone can shed some light on this, I'd be very grateful, because I'm stumped.

 

[Princemercury]

Hook it up as a secondary / slave / ext drive and do a full check disk on it to see if there are any physical errors.

Stick with the GUI version, the check boxes are easier to use than command switches.

 

[Draciot]

The drive is perfectly good, I've been using it for years without any problems and all scans say it's working perfectly.

I tried copying my system drive to it with Norton Ghost and Acronis True Image, after trying to boot with the drive I get "Error Loading OS". I'm trying the WD Data Lifeguard Tools now. Drive Setup > New Boot Device. It's copying all system and non-system files.

I'd understand if the HD was bad, but it works fine with everything else. It just won't run Windows.

 

[Princemercury]

That error is very system specific. It occurs when you move a HD with late versions of 2k, XP or higher preinstalled to another motherboard with a completely different core logic and/or disk controller set. When that happens a simple repair install will fix your misread blue screen.

I saw you state you installed a fresh copy so I can only deduce it to a bad sector somewhere near the beginning of the drive where kernel level files are written during an install. If a read error occurs during start up due to that problem, you will also get the misread.

Even if the drive was working fine for years the OS install on that particular setup may have evaded that bad sector. When using the drive as a normal data disk, bad sectors aren't a problem since they're avoided.

If you did a full sector by sector scan and there are no physical errors then, you just have an undetectable error =\.

Something I would try to narrow it down... since it's obvious for now, Windows doesn't like loading from that disk, try another fresh install. But allocate a 50-80GB partition first, then allocate the remaining of the drive to another partition, then install to the second partition so you technically don't write any data to the physical beginning of the drive itself, see if that works...

If WD Lifeguard fixes your problems, grats but I don't see why it would unless it specifies where the error is.

 

[Draciot]

I just did as you suggested. Instead of getting a Disk Read Error or Error Loading OS message, it went to a black screen with a flashing underscore. The first partition was 80GB.

I suppose I'll just buy a new HD. Is this one safe to use for storage, or can I expect it to die on me soon?

 

[Princemercury]

Hmm, I think it's safe to say, something's fishy with it. 500GB would be a waste even tho they're like under $60 today. Could always get another 500GB drive for cheap and setup a Raid 1 array with it, use it for some redundancy and extra storage. Gives you better read speeds too, more like squeezing the life out of it...

As for using it for storage as a stand alone drive, I wouldn't since it's so easily replaceable...