Read error (ctrl,alt,del)

[kramnosdivad]

After banging my head on the desk for four hours until 3am I've almost solved this problem...

Out of nowhere my windows 7 ultimate system started up with

"Read error press control alt delete" (or similar), over and over so I;

1/ used my recovery disk to auto startup repair over and over until it reported the operating system was fixed. This did not visibly change the problem.

2/ Tried "diskpart" and "sfc /scannow" and "bootsect.exe" and "chkdsk.exe"; This did not visibly change the problem.

Somehow I've stumbled upon the fact that If I use F12 boot menu during startup I can choose which hard disk (I have three in the system) to boot from.

THIS WORKED.

However I have to do this each time the computer boots (annoying). There must be some pointer (in the BIOS?) that tells the computer which hard drive to use.

Will update this if I can find this "pointer". Cheers for now, Mark.

 

[Clinkz]

Yes there is an option in the bios to change boot order of devices item might be called boot, boot order,boot options..something like that. The boot order option may even be located some where else, like a general menu option like advanced options, advanced BIOS features and so on... You will just have to search around your BIOS for it otherwise post your motherboard model and i'm sure someone can guide you there. You will also need to know the model ID of the HDD so you can make sure that is at the top of the list when changing the boot order.

 

[kramnosdivad]

Thankyou clinkz!

Thanks for the prompt help, I located it in the advanced bios settings. I won't fall for that one again. Wish I hadn't reinstalled a fresh windows. Now I get to re-download all my stuff

 

[Clinkz]

Glad you got it sorted mate.