A disk read error fix

[Devicedependant]

Hello,
I have the same problem with a Dell Inspiron 1525 that has Vista. I had a black screen - no display - for a long time. After using another monitor in safe mode I was able to get everything working again for 1 day except for right click on keyboard was not working. While trying to diagnos what that issue was the laptop rebooted to the dreaded "a disk read error". Please help. I have all diskettes that came with the Dell - OS, drivers,etc.

 

[Saga Lout]

Hello and welcome to Tom's Hardware Forums.

Hold those disks for a while - you need to try to rescue your data from that hard disk which may be failing. For the safest bet, take the disk out of the laptop and slave it to another system using a USB converter - they don't cost much. Alternatively, you could leave it in there and run a Live CD of a Linux operating system to give you access to the disk - Linux can often mount a disk which Windows could not. Post back for more details if you want to go down that route.

If you remove the disk and slave it to a Windows system, try running Checkdisk at the Command Prompt using the syntax chkdsk x: /r where X is the drive letter allocated to your Inspiron disk. The /r switch will cause a five stage process which might find and fix some disk errors.