"Disk read error", cannot boot Win7 partition

[wongnog]

So something happened to my Windows 7 partition this morning, I got a random BSOD while working and now Windows won't post. Instead I'm greeting with this:

A disk read error occurred
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

If I boot from my Windows 7 DVD and attempt a startup repair, it does not recognize any windows installation so it doesn't really do anything when I attempt the startup repair. All it says is:

Root cause found: System volume on disk is corrupt.
Repair action: File system repair (chkdsk)
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0

When I go to command prompt, I cannot access my C:\ partition at all. I can however access my D:\ partition from the same hard drive which has all my data.

I've tried some bootrec commands, but it didn't seem to fix it. I've used Diskpart to make the C:\ partition active. Diskpart can still see the C:\ partition, but I can't seem to get access to the partition.

Worst case scenario, I could format the C:\ partition and make a clean install. I may have to because previously my windows install wasn't running so well. However I'd really like to be able to access the C:\ partition first to backup my settings and programs. Really hoping someone here could offer some helpful suggestions. Thanks very much!

 

[wongnog]

Here's some more info. When I go to command prompt from the Windows DVD and run the command bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force, for the C:\ drive it says:

Could not open the volume root directory:
The parameter is incorrect

When I try to access the C:\ drive from the command prompt, it says "The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable"

 

[wongnog]

Starting to get worried my thread is being lost among the other posts, so here's some more info. I loaded Ultimate Boot CD and ran the SeaTools for my Seagate hard drive (that's the one with the Windows partition that is no longer being recognized), but SeaTools reports it could not find any drives! DiskPart can see the hard drive and all the partitions, but it can't access the C: partition. It says there are some NTFS errors and to run a Chkdsk /f on the partition, but I can't because the system says C:\ is unreadable. Just finished a full surface scan using ViVARD and found no errors.

Really hope someone can help here!

 

[wongnog]

Okay I ran chkdsk c: /f and got this:

Corrupt master file table. Windows will attempt to recover
master file table from disk.
Windows cannot recover master file table. CHKDSK aborted.
Failed to transfer logged messages to the event log with status 50.

 

[wongnog]

Darn I was hoping to avoid that, so there's no way to get the data off that partition before formatting, eh?

 

[theherkman]

Use Steve Gibson's SpinRite. That should do the trick.