Hewlett-Packard PC problem

[Zekester2097]

I have this old HP Pavilion a250n, with a 2.60GHz CPU, a 120GB HDD, 2 disk drives, and 512MB of RAM. (pre-built). I try to boot it up, and here is what I get.

------------
"HP Invent" <F1=Setup> <F10=System Recovery>

(I hit no keys)

(Sometimes at this point, I see an American Megatrends thingy)

A disk read error occurred
Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to restart
_


---------------

How do I fix this???

I think the NTFS partition is corrupt, because if I boot up a WinXP disk, it says
-----
Partition 1 [Fat32] [Recovery] {around 4,500MB is in this partition}
Partition 2 [Unknown] {around 100,000MB is in this partiton}
-----
KEY=
the [ ] is the information the disk found about the partitions, the { } is my comment on those partitions...

PS, this PC had Windows XP, so I bet it was in NTFS.

 

[carnageX]

If you can boot off of the XP disc, then in Recovery Console run a chkdsk.

chkdsk C: /f /r

 

[Zekester2097]

Is that on the installation disk??? the disk is only for installing and formatting...


UPDATE : I think I know what you're talking about... At one point, the bottom of the screen says "press F2 for automated recovery..." or something like that.. BUT, I don't have that floppy...

 

[carnageX]

See the post here to create an XP Recovery Console boot disc:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2078797/free-recovery-console-iso.html

 

[Zekester2097]

I have tried to get this PC working again.. I have tried multiple installation disks/boot disks.. here is a list...

I tried a Windows XP disk, the PC freezes at the screen that says "Formatting 0%"...

I tried a Windows VIsta disk, it freezes before I can see the menu for the installation

I tried an MS-DOS 6.22 disk, works perfectly, but I cannot get it to create an MS-DOS drive, out of the HDD.

I tried a Windows 2000 BETA known as "Microsoft Neptune" (Made in 1999) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Microsoft_codenames#Windows_NT_family) It froze at the screen that says "formatting 0%".

I tried a Windows 98 SE disk, but I got an error trying to get it to install, then it acted like an MS-DOS disk... Is the HDD broke or something????

 

[carnageX]

So are you just trying to reformat the drive now apparently?

If that's the case... just use GParted, blow the partitions away, format the drive as NTFS, and create a new partition.

 

[luke127]

Small possibility the drive might be damaged? Disk read error could mean that the blocks are damaged. Although I wouldn't go as far to say that it's definitely that until we've tried what Carnage said above, and if you're still getting issues after that, then we'll see if what I've said is true.


Also, seriously recommend moving away from XP. It's not even supported for businesses anymore to my knowledge, unless they pay an absolute crapton to Microsoft. (Even then maybe not? Not sure)

 

[carnageX]

Small possibility the drive might be damaged? Disk read error could mean that the blocks are damaged. Although I wouldn't go as far to say that it's definitely that until we've tried what Carnage said above, and if you're still getting issues after that, then we'll see if what I've said is true.


Also, seriously recommend moving away from XP. It's not even supported for businesses anymore to my knowledge, unless they pay an absolute crapton to Microsoft. (Even then maybe not? Not sure)

XP is done for everybody except for the US Navy, who still is paying for a support contract to MS.

 

[luke127]

Ah well there ya go xD Thanks Carnage