I have an HP Pavilion 8990 using Windows XP. I have had it for about 6 weeks and it has more or less worked OK - needed a bit of tweaking here and there. Overnight I ran Norton Speed Disk (Systems Works 2002) to defrag (54% fragmented for some reason..!), and when I checked the machine in the morning, I was greeted with a black screen and a message "A Disk read error occurred. Press Ctrl Alt Delete". I know this subject has been mentioned by a number of people in the past, but my problem is a bit different in as much as XP will not boot and I now cannot access C: or F: (my data partition) drives. Pressing Alt Ctrl Delete achieved nothing. I can access the cmos settings, but all seemed to be in order here. I cannot activate the XP restore as I cannot access c: drive, however I can access HP's inbuilt recovery software. Using this I reinstalled windows xp onto the system and rebooted, but still got the same black screen and error message. I tried using a floppy boot disk, but could not access c: or f: drives with this. I could use fdisk, and this showed that the partitions were still in place i.e. the HP hidden partition, the main user drive and the partitioned data drive. I tried using EZ boot disk, but this just brough up another problem that the 'hal.dll' in windows/system32 was corrupt and needed replacing. As I cannot access the drives, I cannot replace the file.... HP does not give cd's of XP with these computers, XP is stored on a hidden partition on the hard drive, so I cannot try and reboot from the CD either. I believe there is some corrupt files in the boot sector, but I cannot confirm nor rectify with things as they are at the moment. I use single boot only. Any ideas / help would be greatly appreciated. Regards Paul

Boot from bootdisk than at a:\ type 'fdisk /mbr' without quote and there is space between fdisk and /mbr so it would be: a:\fdisk /mbr. Try that first. I myself dont know exactly the solution just try to troubleshooting. Whether it works or not, please post back

Defrag(speed disk). If an error ocurred whilst defraging important installation files then you cant reinstall, you need the original disk, HP sucks and always have done the cheap b---tards cant even fork out for a 4" piece of plastic. If you can press F8 on startup (just before that little white bar is supposed to go across the screen) this will allow you access to the boot menu. Choose Safe Mode, or Recovery console, and use it to reinstall windows. If you can't then create an NT boot disk on another machine and use it to access your hard disk, then transfer system from the floppy. If you can access your hard disk and windows still wont boot, then you can put it in another computer, backup all the data you need, then just format it and reinstall windows from CD.(doesnt have to be Xp, could be 98,2000, even 95 with reduced functionality. Dont use windows ME) It is good to have a CD, if you dont have one then email me and ill try and figure out a way of getting one to you, or sending the files (Im in England). I think that you should take this matter to HP as it is them that supplied the computer, which has some pretty obvious shortcomings when it comes to system recovery. By law they are obliged to support that thing for 6 months, if you're worried about the software you used not being supported by HP, then tell them you were using Windows disk defrag - which can produce exactly the same error. According to the Microsoft OEM agreement, HP, not Microsoft, are obliged to provide support for Windows XP and its components, including defrag. They are not, however, liable for data loss as a result of errors so be wary of what advice you follow. Formatting will erase all data. repartitioning will make it very hard to recover. If you send the computer away to HP, it is likely they will load a complete hard disk "image" onto the hard disk - this will erase all your data. If they send an engineer round, make sure he doesn't do the same, ask if what they're doing will erase data, ask for it in writing if you feel like taking the piss because in some states an oral contract is not legally binding, meaning if they screw up your computer you have no right to compensation. Please disregard all that legal mumbo. If you're not worried about data loss, then WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?boot it with a win9x boot disk with CD ROM support(find any win98/me computer, goto control panel, add/remove, and Startup Disk), repartition it using FDISK, (delete partitions, then create new) format it,(FORAMAT C:) get a windows disk of any description (preferably 98), install it and use KAZAA to download your preferred version of windows. This is considered piracy unless you own a license(you got an XP licence with your machine) Using pirate software WILL void your software support warrany but NOT your hardware warranty. I recommend you install windows Xp after windows98, choose the CLEAN INSTALL option, not UPGRADE, and leave your hard disk on FAT32. You will be left with a dual boor win98/winxp system. This will make recovery much, much easier in future. Dont use speed disk in future, the necessity of these utility programs is all hype and your computer will run fine (if a little slowly) even if it is 100% fragmented. Defrag, which comes with windows, does exactly the same as speed disk despite what norton says. When your computer is working again, destroy the norton utilities CD ROM and throw its ashes into an explodoing caldera. If no active caldera is available, create one by going to yellowstone national park with a load of H bombs and burying them about 100ft below the surface. This would mean death for us all and hence no more computer problems. contact me: 667theneighborofthebeast@email.com

Thanks for the tips. Unfortumately a:\fdisk /mbr didn't seem to work, as I still cannot boot. I am trying to get a Partition Maagic rescue disk from a friends XP PC and see what happens. Failing that I may have to utilise HP tech support as a last resort, although I am not confident of their ability / willingness to maintain my data on the drive.... I have also tested some demo data recovery software and it appears to work OK - i.e. it located my drives / partitions and the files appeared to be in order. According to this software I have a partition corruption on C: ! The only thing is the software is quite expensive for a one off - but then again 'expensive' depends on the value of the data that may be lost.... All the best Rgds Paul

I am having the exact same problem- i just can't seem to figure out how to get it to work. The error occurs that screen with the system information (like amount of system ram, IRQs, ect) that appears after the screen with the autodetection of my IDE drives and chipmaker logos. It's driving me crazy. I just want to use my computer :(