"a disk read error occurred" during Win XP install

[abingdon]

I've spent about half the day building my new PC - a Windows XP Pro 64-bit box. I've installed the hardware and it is recognized by the BIOS on my Gigabyte PE45 UD3L motherboard.

The next step was to install the OS, a 64-bit version of Windows XP Pro. All went well until the installation program prompted me to reboot. I received the message: "A disk read error occurred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart." I've done this four or five times now, with and without the installation CD loaded. If the CD is loaded, the installation program tries to copy the files to the hard drive all over again. I went along with this once, thinking maybe the first time some driver had been corrupted.

I have also changed the boot order in the BIOS, with first boot to the HD. I have reset the Fail-Safe Defaults in the BIOS.

There are two hard drives in the PC, 320GB SATA Western Digitals. One of them has not been partitioned; the other was partitioned by the Win XP installation program.

Any suggestions at this time are definitely welcome!

Thanks in advance,

Roy

 

[aford10]

It sounds like a bad disc. Check the see if it's scratched. Try wiping the disc off with a soft cloth and use some duster to blow out your optical drive. If that doesn't work and it's a copied disc, it probably was a bad copy.

 

[aford10]

Thanks for the vote!

 

[abingdon]

The problem was solved when I called Gigabyte's excellent support service. The technician walked me through the BIOS settings, especially these sections: Integrated Peripherals, Optimized Defaults and Fail-Safe Defaults.

- Roy.

 

[tbong27]

Hi abingdon, hopefully you are still around!! I have the same exact problem as you. What bios settings did u set? I am stuck between the sata driver problem thats seems to be the problem with installing XP or just setting the bios. I do not have a floppy drive so it is a pain to verify that problem.

A simple but unsure solution is to get vista which i heard is still crap(pardon me if it isnt, just heard from friends who uses it)...Will cos at least 200 dollars to buy and if it is as simple as setting the bios then I shouldnt realli get Vista and stick with XP. Pls Help!

Tom

 

[abingdon]

What kind of motherboard are you using? My solution was to call the motherboard manufacturer (Gigabyte, in this case) and a technician walked me through some additional installation steps. You might try that, if you have the manufacturer's phone number.

 

[tbong27]

What kind of motherboard are you using? My solution was to call the motherboard manufacturer (Gigabyte, in this case) and a technician walked me through some additional installation steps. You might try that, if you have the manufacturer's phone number.

Im using gigabytes P35 DS3R...I saw that and i was wondering if i should call their taiwan division or something(Australia doesnt have a hotline)... I emailed them about it and these sort of emails get processed very slowly....BTW are u using a genuine copy of XP or not? I am using a "fake" copy but i see that you have the same problem and solved it whether yours is genuine or not...

 

[Krazzy]

Hello, I had the same problem when installing XP on a seperate partition (Disk read error while Installing XP). I couldn't get back into either OS (Windows 7 on a seperate partition). I got back into Windows 7 by using the windows 7 Installation Disc repair Option. Once back into windows 7 I download and installed EasyBCD. Ran EabyBCD and went to Add Entries, I added Windows XP and then clicked Save. Then I went to Manage Bootloader in EasyBCD and choose Reinstall the Windows Vista/7 bootloader and clicked WriteMBR. Then I restarted the system and I got the option of booting Windows 7 or Windows XP, I choosed XP and it booted and continued with Installation without any problems.

Hope this works for other people with same problem.

Keith Hanly

 

[Guest]

BCD trick worked for me (Had the error message during the xp install)

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey