Hard Drive, "a disk error occurred press ctrl+alt+del to restart "

[Eriksoto]

Hard Drive, "a disk error occurred press ctrl+alt+del to restart "

This is kinda long and I've fixed it, but could use your input.

So after waking up, my parents informed me that the computer was shutting down randomly. I turned it on and "a disk error occurred press ctrl+alt+del to restart " appeared. It's a Sata hard drive so I checked the cables to make sure they were plugged in correctly and they were, and then I tried connecting it to another computer with that computers cables and that didn't work either.

My parents not wanting to buy one online, decided to just go to bestbuy and buy one there, since we already had the Windows 7 Disk at home. I formatted it, partitioned it, and installed Windows 7 Home Premium on it and everything worked. I decided to connect the Hard drive that didn't work while the computer was still on, and it immediately started downloading the drivers it needed and up popped all the hard drive. I'm going to start transferring all the important things like music,videos and games, and after, all I can see are the following 3 things;

after getting all the data we want off it, should I reinstall windows to see if my other computer will recognize it (Even though it couldn't before), format it and just use it as extra data (though since it already couldn't boot up, the ability to keep data on it may fail in a couple of days/weeks) or just put it away and not use it at all.

What would you guys reccomend I do?

 

[zigzag3143]

First get the data you need off it.

Then go to the mfr and get their HD testing utility and run it.

If it were me I wouldnt trust it. I have been burned before.

You certainly could use it for storage of, say one set of backups, for the chances of losing your OS HD, and that backup at the same time are nil.

 

[seavixen32]

I agree with zigzag.

Hard drives can fail at any time and it sounds as though this one is about to.

You could use it to hold a system image, but if it fails during an image recovery you're in trouble.

Do as zigzag suggested then you can decide what to do - data backup or destruction - the choice is yours.

Personally, I'd be inclined to get any data off it that is important to you then physically smash it up.

Hard drives are relatively inexpensive these days, so I'd rather invest in a new drive than risk losing data that I may not be able to recover.

 

[jumanji]

This is kinda long and I've fixed it, but could use your input.

.........I decided to connect the Hard drive that didn't work while the computer was still on, and it immediately started downloading the drivers it needed and up popped all the hard drive......
What would you guys reccomend I do?

By the above statement, I presume with the old hard drive in the new computer you are able to boot, get into the OS and do whatever you want.

If it is so, it immediately clears the hard disk as not faulty and the problem lies elsewhere on your old PC.

Still it doesn't hurt to perform the diagnostic tests on the HDD. So do it.( Just like others thought I also initially thought that the boot sector on your HDD might have developed a bad sector making it unbootable.)

Then put your old hard disk on your old PC and check.

Same problem?

Then change the power cable and the data cable to the hard drive and check.

Same problem?

Then change it to another port in the motherboard.

Problem persists? You have only one more thing to test.

Run the memtest and check your RAM.

If RAM is cleared and the problem persists, you have arrived at your destination.

Your motherboard is faulty. Most probably the HDD controller could have given up.

( I have assumed that the power supply is OK. If you can replace the power supply and check do it. Otherwise take your old PC to a Service Agency who may have a spare power supply and motherboard to fix the problem source precisely.)