A disk read error has ocurred Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart

[cmsanchezpr]

The laptop is an HP Mini 1000 running Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit. It was working fine and I turned it on today and the message: "A disk read error has ocurred Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart" appeared on the screen. Pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del just reboots but the same message appears again. F8 won't get me anywhere. Only F9 (Boot Device Order) and F10 (BIOS settings) are available but don't fix anything. There is no way to make it boot or even get to a repair screen or past it. Any suggestions to make it boot so at least I can get to the data and back it up? Or is there a way / procedure to fix it?

 

[Golden]

Hi cmsanchezpr and welcome to SevenForums,

This could be a hardware failure of the HDD. But lets test that first.

What type of Windows installation do you have:

1. Did Windows come pre-installed on the laptop?
2. Was it installed from a retail Windows 7 DVD?

Do you have a Windows installation DVD handy to boot from? If you do, you can boot from that, and attempt a Startup Repair:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

If you do not have a Windows 7 installation DVD, then post back here and we can help you further.

Regards,
Golden

 

[cmsanchezpr]

Windows 7 came Pre-Installed although I have the DVD

Thanks Golden. The laptop came with Windows XP pre-installed. I bought the Windows 7 Upgrade Software in Best Buy and upgraded it a little more than a year ago and it has worked perfectly until today. I appreciate your furhter help. Good day!

 

[Golden]

Hi,

OK. Please do the following:

1. Download the correct version of the Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit ISO (English x86: X17-58996.iso) from here:

Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River « My Digital Life

2. Now install it to a USB drive using this tutorial:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2432-usb-windows-7-installation-key-drive-create.html

Once you have done that, you need to boot from this USB drive, by hitting F8 when you boot and selecting the "Boot from USB HDD" or similar.

Now follow the steps in this tutorial:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

Post back here if you need more help.

regards,
Golden