A Disk Read Error Occurred Windows 7 – Troubleshooting

Another computer problem to report on. An individual kept receiving a disk read error occurred asking them to restart their computer. This particular problem may not have been the fault of a Microsoft Windows operating system per se.

Here is the original question quoted verbatim.

A disk read error occurred and tells me to restart. When I do the same thing happens.

This individual was using a Hewlett Packard Pavilion G6 with Microsoft Windows 7 professional operating system installed. You can power off your computer.

Then power it back on and immediately start tapping your F8 function key until an advanced boot options menu opens. Make certain to start pressing your F8 function key before Microsoft Windows operating system tries to boot. You want to choose “Last known good configuration” from a menu of options.

If that does not work then try “Safe mode”, “Safe mode with networking” or “Safe mode with command prompt” from that same advanced boot options menu. This individual was not able to boot their computer into any of the safe mode options. I gave them another tip to try.

Also, the claimed that they did NOT have any important data on their computer. You can reinstall the operating system with your Microsoft Windows 7 installation compact disc read only memory or recovery compact disc read only memory that may have come with your computer. This individual claimed that they did NOT have any operating system discs.

I provided them with another tip. You can turn on or restart the computer, and then press the escape key while the “Press the ESC key for Startup Menu” message is displayed at the bottom of the screen. Then, press the F11 function key while the “F11 (System Recovery)” message is displayed on the screen.

Once again this individual was not able to get their computer to boot the Microsoft Windows 7 professional operating system. I then concluded that their hard drive was indeed suffering a failure. It is possible that both the operating system and recovery partitions became corrupt, however that is beyond the scope of this blog post.

Need Online Computer Technical Support? Ask a Computer Technician Now and Solve Your Computer Problem.

If you are technically knowledgeable you could possibly run system scans on both partitions to repair any possible corruption. However, when in doubt I tell people to take their computer to a computer repair technician. Especially when they have do not technical capabilities.

At the very least their important data might be recoverable. However, if the hard drive is indeed failing, then there are no guarantees. You should always back up your data.

Also, you do NOT want to further damage a failing hard drive. If you continue to try to read and or write to a failing hard drive, the results could be catastrophic. If you are not capable of data recovery, then you can take it to a data recovery professional.

Even an average computer repair technician should have some data recovery skills. At the very least, they can refer you to a legitimate data recovery professional. Also, some data recovery businesses can charge outrageous prices.

If you must recover your data at all costs, pun intended, then be prepared for paying hundreds if not thousands of dollars. If you are suspicious that your hard drive is indeed failing, stop trying to fix the problem and instead have your hard drive properly diagnosed. Some computer technicians will diagnose a failing hard drive for free.

I always charge a diagnostic fee for my time and labor. A properly diagnosed problem can make a huge difference when trying to solve hard disk problems. It could be just corrupt partitions or indeed a failing hard drive.

Finally, I need to point out that this blog post was written for a serial advanced technoloy attachment hard drive. I was not speaking of a solid state hard drive. Solid state hard drives are not mechanical like the older school parallel advanced technology attachment and more contemporary serial advanced technoloy attachment.

A final tip I will give you is that whenever your hard drive starts making clicking noises, immediately stop trying to use this hard drive. I am not talking about the noises that a hard drive makes when being accessed. Although newer hard drives are not nearly as loud as older school ones.

I am speaking of a loud clicking noise that is repeated and sometimes in a pattern of clicks. A computer technician will know exactly what I am speaking of. These clicking noises are a symptom of a failing hard drive.

A Disk Read Error Occurred Windows 7 - Troubleshooting Video Transcript

0:00

another computer problem oh now this one

0:03

is not necessarily dealing with micro

0:06

crap micro [ __ ] Micro slop wind blows

0:08

operating system incorporated it could

0:12

be but in this scenario was most likely

0:14

a feeling hard drive so let's cut to the

0:15

chase I will reverb ate them the

0:17

original question a disc read error

0:22

occurred and this tells me to restart

0:25

when I do the same thing happens they

0:29

were using a hewlett-packard pavilion g6

0:32

with with Microsoft wind blows seven

0:38

professional

0:47

they claimed that they were installing

0:50

updates or an update singular from

0:52

hewlett-packard hewlett-packard has a

0:55

update software a lot a lot of the major

0:59

computer manufacturers Dell Lenovo

1:03

hewlett-packard have a in-house

1:06

developed application that looks for

1:10

updates they claimed that they were

1:11

installing updates plural or update

1:14

singular and then this is when there a

1:17

problem started occurring it could be

1:20

just a coincidence or it could be a

1:21

trigger performing updates may have

1:25

triggered the hard drive to then

1:29

blatantly tell you what's up alright so

1:32

let's move along

1:41

when this occurs one thing that you can

1:44

try is boot into safe mode what you're

1:49

gonna do is gonna keep tap tap tap tap

1:52

tap tap tap tap the f8 key before

1:55

Windows tries to boot

1:58

after the BIOS displays muy rapido I got

2:02

other things to do I got other videos to

2:04

make for a activism that's more

2:06

important than this I got it I got it I

2:07

gotta move this along f8 before when

2:10

this tries to boot keep tapping the f8

2:12

key f8

2:13

tap tap tap tap tap it should boot into

2:16

an Advanced Boot Options menu then you

2:18

could try last known good configuration

2:19

you could try a safe mode you could try

2:22

a safe mode with command prompt you

2:23

could try a safe mode with networking

2:26

try to get into Windows safe mode and

2:29

then you can troubleshoot from their

2:30

last known configuration it's real easy

2:33

try it hence the term last known good

2:36

configuration is supposed to boot into

2:37

the last known good configuration that

2:40

may solve your problem they may not if

2:42

it does not then try the other safe mode

2:44

options

2:51

they tried tapping f8 and it did not

2:55

work I asked them if they had important

3:00

data here's a tip always a tip a lecture

3:05

from me is always back up your data you

3:10

must always have your data backed up

3:12

there are no more excuses it's easy

3:15

there's free cloud services drop or box

3:19

or whatever it's so [ __ ] easy even I

3:23

hate to say it but Apple has a cloud

3:27

service that's free it's [ __ ] simple

3:30

a five year old could figure it out but

3:32

whatever I always have your data backed

3:35

up just in case this individual claimed

3:37

that they did not have any important

3:39

data that's that's good because then I

3:41

don't need to worry as a technician I

3:45

well I don't worry I don't give a [ __ ]

3:47

but I don't trust a lot of people in

3:50

society I don't want to digress I've

3:54

never been sued but you know you just

3:56

never know what these goddamn Americans

3:57

you know what I'm saying when I find out

4:03

that they don't have an important data

4:04

that I'm like ok not a big deal we don't

4:06

need to worry about you know I'm saying

4:08

if you do not have any important data

4:10

then you don't need to worry who cares

4:13

if when there's just no reason to worry

4:16

now it could be that there's a well they

4:18

claimed that there was no important data

4:19

what does that mean I'm assuming no

4:21

personal files no pictures no videos no

4:24

documents your boss that [ __ ] or

4:27

[ __ ] is not going to fire you and it

4:30

could also mean programs

4:36

what you could do is if you have your

4:38

windows 7 installation cd-rom compact

4:41

disk read-only memory

4:43

I hate acronyms that's what that acronym

4:44

stands for here's a additional tip never

4:49

throw away your installation media your

4:52

recovery disk your restore disks any

4:55

kind of disks either compact discs

4:59

read-only memory or DVD that are given

5:01

to you by the manufacturer or if you

5:03

went out and bought the retail version

5:06

of Windows 7 never ever throw those away

5:10

you never know when you need them you

5:12

could reinstall windows 7 with those you

5:15

could also attempt to try to fix your

5:17

problem but that is more advanced and

5:19

I'm not gonna go over that in this video

5:21

they claimed that they had no CDs of any

5:24

kind they asked if they could hook up

5:28

their laptop to their desktop computer

5:30

and then download Windows 7 and

5:33

reinstall it now now no no no Microsoft

5:37

they don't like to make things easy for

5:40

you nah these billion dollar fascist

5:44

crooked criminal corporations they're

5:46

nothing but greedy they they basically

5:49

lie to you via marketing and sales they

5:52

don't give a rat's ass about you they

5:55

don't give a [ __ ] if Windows just all of

5:57

a sudden blows up and is corrupted

5:59

they're not gonna help you they're not

6:01

gonna make it convenient it's not like

6:03

Linux I'm not going to digress about

6:04

Linux and how you can install Linux over

6:07

the Internet Windows you cannot now Mac

6:10

you can apple macintosh nowadays you can

6:15

that internet boot that I'm not going to

6:18

digress about that Windows now Microsoft

6:20

now nope they don't want to make it easy

6:23

Windows 10 I'm not talking about Windows

6:25

10 that's a little bit of a different

6:27

monster Windows 7 No

6:32

now it depends on the computer

6:36

manufacturer they're all different

6:38

Asus hewlett-packard Dell Lenovo Toshiba

6:45

Sony blah blah blah you probably have to

6:48

perform some research search on your own

6:51

go out to a internet search engine

6:53

DuckDuckGo start page Google Bing

6:55

whatever Yahoo search try to find out

7:01

what the startup menu is or the recovery

7:06

menu it's also called restore with the

7:11

HP you would press f11 ill boot into the

7:14

system recovery a lot of these newer

7:17

computers they have a recovery partition

7:19

a lot of times are hidden you may not

7:22

know about it they exist but in order to

7:25

access them a lot of times you have to

7:28

boot into Windows or you hit a function

7:33

key it's not the f8 function key for

7:36

Advanced Boot Options that's Microsoft

7:37

this one would be f11 what you would do

7:40

is you would turn on your computer or

7:42

you would restart it and as soon as you

7:45

see the BIOS splash screen start tapping

7:49

f11 tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap that

7:52

is supposed to boot into a recovery menu

7:55

a recovery feature it did not work for

8:01

this individual the screen froze what

8:06

else it said it tried to boot the system

8:12

recovery but after a few minutes it gave

8:14

me the disk error again so it try it

8:17

sounded like it tried to boot into the

8:20

recovery menu the system recovery it did

8:24

not work most likely is probably most

8:28

likely a hard drive failure at that

8:29

point now it is possible that both the C

8:35

Drive or the main drive that you had

8:38

Windows 7 excuse me political

8:40

correctness wind blow 7 installed on

8:42

that became corrupt and it is also

8:44

possible that the recovery part

8:46

Titian became corrupt but that is

8:49

advanced and I'm not gonna digress into

8:51

that a computer technician knows what

8:54

I'm talking about you would run a check

8:56

to scan both on the C partition and the

8:59

recovery partition whatever drive letter

9:00

that is that could be de fgz whatever

9:03

the [ __ ] and it might be hidden but

9:05

whatever you would have to take the hard

9:07

drive out I'm not sure if this was a

9:09

laptop or a desktop and then you would

9:13

run those scans but that's advanced and

9:15

I'm not going to discuss that further

9:16

that is a possibility

9:18

but to me a higher percentage chance

9:20

that the hard drive is could be failing

9:23

you know I'm saying I gave out my old

9:26

school recommendation if you're more

9:30

technically inclined you can go ahead

9:33

and try to you know but I'm not gonna

9:35

discuss that in great detail that's not

9:37

what this video is about I got to run

9:40

and I don't want to make long videos now

9:45

take it to a computer repairer

9:47

individual computer repair computer

9:49

technician doesn't matter what they look

9:54

like doesn't matter gender transgender

9:57

gender doesn't I know oh I need to make

10:00

a correction I'm not gonna apologize I

10:02

never apologize I support free speech

10:04

I'm not going to take that comment back

10:06

I made a video pertaining to the capital

10:08

one data breach in that video I claimed

10:11

that the perpetrator was a female I

10:13

don't judge I don't care I think it's

10:18

possible that it was a transgender it

10:21

was a male transitioning to a female and

10:24

that individual called himself a female

10:27

again that's not my cup of green tea

10:30

it's not my cup of orange juice but I

10:32

don't judge I don't care about that crap

10:34

but I like to remain accurate and I'm

10:37

not gonna apologize for the incendiary

10:39

comment feminists in America they can't

10:42

wait to attack us males and blame us for

10:44

everything

10:48

officially they're claiming it's a

10:50

female but when I looked at her or his

10:54

photos and and other people commented I

10:57

don't make nasty comments I don't judge

10:59

but people did bring up the possibility

11:00

that that is a transgender person so I

11:04

think technically I may have been

11:05

incorrect but maybe the individual is

11:09

transitioning into a female they just

11:11

haven't had surgery once they have

11:12

surgery they would be what a female

11:14

again other than that I don't [ __ ]

11:17

care that's the only correction I'm

11:18

gonna make I'm not gonna apologize for

11:22

being blunt and telling you that these

11:25

feminists in America are just it's it's

11:28

getting out of control the feminism in

11:30

America is the toxic it's a cancerous

11:33

it's a cancerous virus I digress alright

11:35

but I like to remain accurate so that

11:37

that's why I brought that up if it's it

11:41

[Music]

14:39

and forth willed uh you know and then

14:42

also you must realize that a lot of

14:44

women in America they only marry you for

14:47

the money if you cannot keep up with the

14:50

Joneses and you can't afford you know

14:52

the pain for the breads and circuses and

14:55

and bla bla bla bla bla

14:56

well she's gonna divorce your ass

14:58

anyways I don't know why I all of a

15:02

sudden start talking about that if you

15:10

have important data don't [ __ ] around

15:13

trying to troubleshoot because what you

15:15

could do is you could disaster bait that

15:17

problem and especially here's another a

15:19

second gold tip any time you hear a hard

15:23

drive clicking stop now click click

15:26

click you know what it is the computer

15:28

technicians gonna know click click click

15:30

or there's different click cycles click

15:33

click click click click click click

15:35

click click click click click or click

15:37

click click click or it'll it'll it'll

15:40

it'll be a couple of clicks and roll

15:41

click click click click click click

15:45

click click

15:46

that means the hard drive is failing

15:48

that that's a bad now I'm not talking

15:50

about solid-state drives I'm not talking

15:52

about solid-state drives which is based

15:54

on us what excuse me Universal Serial

15:56

bus flash technology I'm talking about

15:58

the SATA hard drives in the peda when

16:02

they start clicking stop now that means

16:05

that your hard drive is failing that is

16:07

a warning sign then what you want to do

16:11

because what you can't what every time

16:14

you try to boot off that hard drive

16:16

you're accessing the sectors you're

16:19

making the platters spin and you're

16:22

making the mechanics function there's

16:25

and I'm not gonna die aggress about what

16:27

could be causing the hard drive to fail

16:29

that's another separate video that's

16:31

advanced it could be the there's an arm

16:34

there's heads there's platters now

16:37

there's a circuit board now ok let's not

16:41

discuss that

16:46

every time that that hard drive is

16:48

getting written to or read from it's

16:53

getting accessed and if it's a failing

16:57

hard drive you may be causing it to fail

17:01

quicker or you may be cause you may be

17:05

causing problems stop now

17:07

stop if you're suspicious or if you hear

17:10

the hard drive clicking stop now don't

17:13

try to troubleshoot further don't do it

17:15

if you know what you're doing you can

17:18

recover the data or like I said before

17:20

when in doubt to save time and to

17:23

possibly save you're already in a crisis

17:25

situation that [ __ ] and that [ __ ]

17:27

boss of yours they require the TPS

17:31

report due in on time at 9:00 a.m. on a

17:35

Sunday I mean on a Monday or 8:30 or

17:39

8:00 a.m. or if they're military

17:40

clowns 7:00 a.m. if they're really

17:44

strict 7:00 a.m. if you turn in that TPS

17:47

report one minute late you're fired or

17:48

you're reprimanded or you do not get

17:51

that race well if you do not turn in

17:53

your TPS report at all chances are your

17:57

boss that [ __ ] and/or [ __ ] will Bend

18:03

you over sodomized you and then fire you

18:06

they will sodomized you first adding

18:09

insult to injury they will fire you to

18:13

alleviate that possibility take it to a

18:18

data recovery expert most computer

18:22

technicians most computer repair

18:24

individuals they also perform data

18:27

recovery they might not have like all

18:31

the bells they might not have a

18:35

a dust-free environment but to a certain

18:40

extent most of them will perform data

18:42

recovery if your hard drive is really

18:45

failing and they cannot recover your

18:48

data they may upsell or they may

18:53

recommend somebody else so you know I'm

18:57

saying when in doubt when it comes to a

18:59

failing hard drive or a hard drive that

19:01

you are suspicious is failing don't [ __ ]

19:04

around because I know for a fact as a

19:07

computer technician I learned by trial

19:11

and error I learned by my mistakes when

19:13

I first started data recovery I did not

19:16

get a computer science degree I did not

19:19

go to those stupid dumbass waste of time

19:22

waste of money Microsoft boot camps that

19:24

teach you absolutely nothing they don't

19:26

no no no

19:26

Microsoft school they don't teach you

19:29

real-world problems

19:30

nah they teach you out of a book but if

19:34

you do not know how to troubleshoot if

19:35

you don't have experience you are a deer

19:38

in the headlights you're very arrogant

19:40

you're very egotistical you're very

19:42

narcissistic because you just spent

19:45

twenty thousand dollars and you've got

19:47

your Microsoft certificate well that

19:49

doesn't [ __ ] mean [ __ ] in the real

19:52

world I learned by mistakes the longer

19:57

that you troubleshoot a failing hard

20:00

drive the possible bigger chances are

20:04

that now you just damage the hard drive

20:09

enough that you may not recover data and

20:12

I learned that myself there are certain

20:15

tactics that is very advanced I know for

20:19

a fact they work it's not a myth free

20:22

you would freeze the harddrive but but

20:25

do not do it unless you're desperate if

20:29

you freeze the harddrive it's very

20:31

possible that you're gonna damage it

20:33

further so my main point here if you

20:36

listen to nothing else

20:37

my main warning is that when it comes to

20:40

hard drives if you make bad decisions or

20:45

you make mistake

20:47

you may further damage the hard drive

20:50

whereas think of it as an emergency the

20:54

hard drive is under cardiac arrest

20:56

the hard drive is suffering a myocardial

20:58

infarction if you know what that means

21:01

that's a medical term for a certain

21:04

problem if you don't know what it means

21:06

look it up I'm not a doctor but I know

21:10

some medical terms if you're suffering a

21:16

myocardial infarction and you think you

21:18

might die or you're starting to get

21:20

really dizzy or and you're having

21:22

problems breathing well it's a same

21:25

thing with a hard drive the hard drive

21:26

is under attack it's an emergency

21:29

it's having difficulties breathing it

21:32

may die metaphorically and figuratively

21:36

so rush it rush it don't don't as a

21:40

sorbate it don't don't touch it anymore

21:42

you know I'm saying take it to a it

21:47

depends and then also here's another

21:48

additional tips I gotta run I gotta run

21:51

it depends on how valuable that data is

21:54

there are some very expensive services

21:57

they they will charge you anywhere from

22:00

$500 all the way to what thousands of

22:03

dollars they have a cleanroom

22:05

technically when it comes to hard drives

22:07

the older school the peda and the SATA

22:09

I'm not talking about solid-state that's

22:11

entirely different

22:12

the older the old mechanical hard drives

22:15

with platters that spin at volume at

22:19

high cycle rates and also they have a an

22:24

arm and then you know and then the heads

22:28

and then also a circuit board those

22:30

those are very mechanical and they are

22:33

susceptible to all kinds of failures and

22:36

in that scenario supposedly now I'm not

22:42

sure you get they claim that you don't

22:45

want to get dust particles because all's

22:47

it takes is one little dust particle and

22:49

it will stick to the platter and it is

22:53

possible that you cannot recover data so

22:56

generally get dust and hard drives the

22:58

old-school mechanical the

23:00

they're like electricity and water they

23:03

don't mix very well it's a different

23:05

kind of mixture that you may not you

23:07

know want so if your data is extremely

23:14

important you have to have it for

23:15

whatever reason you just have to have it

23:17

and and you can afford it I you can't

23:20

trust people I don't trust people go and

23:24

on the internet look for reviews do they

23:28

have a phone number some of them you can

23:30

mail in your hard drive some of them

23:32

might have a local location you can drop

23:34

it up some of them are franchises some

23:40

of them are corporate some of them are

23:42

national they'll have locations in every

23:44

state some of them are localized try to

23:47

find out reviews or try to find out you

23:50

know do they have a phone number are

23:52

they easy to work with are do they have

23:55

decent customer service can you contact

23:57

them do that are they reliable because

24:00

they're not gonna be all the same a

24:03

cleaning room environment yeah I'm not

24:07

gonna discuss what I've studied because

24:09

that'll be too controversial but the

24:10

YouTube technology skills would just

24:12

attack me and laugh at me and I think

24:17

outside of a box believe it or not

24:19

there's a lot of myths that are

24:21

perpetrated by these YouTube technology

24:23

shills they tell you all kinds of absurd

24:26

claims like well don't use free software

24:28

off always pay for software because paid

24:32

software is a thousand times better what

24:35

or don't use CCleaner I'll never never

24:38

use CCleaner on a computer it's

24:40

dangerous it's like what the [ __ ] are

24:42

you talking about

24:43

I've used ccleaner for over a decade and

24:46

I've never had any problems with it not

24:48

yet if I do I will be one of the first

24:50

ones to scream and yell and you know

24:53

what I'm saying and criticize the same

24:56

thing with data recovery but you want

24:59

somebody that knows what they're doing

25:01

if it's really important they have to

25:04

know how to take the hard drive apart

25:06

once you take out I could do it I

25:08

probably I don't know if I have a spare

25:09

one

25:10

if I don't have one if I ever I have a

25:14

lot of videos that could make I've took

25:15

it apart a harddrive

25:17

allegedly once you take it apart there's

25:22

gonna be dust already in it and I'm just

25:27

not that that requires a lot of studying

25:29

there's other people claim that well you

25:32

don't really need to worry about that

25:34

there's people that claim that well that

25:37

that's like a myth so it's just but

25:39

that's how the Internet is you know what

25:41

I'm saying but my main point is that

25:44

once you take apart a mechanical hard

25:47

drive you have to be careful I know for

25:50

a fact because like I said before I

25:51

learned by my own mistakes I've taken

25:55

apart hard drives before the mechanical

25:57

and I was just trying to learn how they

26:00

worked and there's there's these little

26:04

there I think they're made out of

26:06

aluminum they're really small they're

26:09

like they're smaller than but they're

26:10

shaped like this and they are what goes

26:14

around the platters and it spins and

26:18

it's not the the metal isn't I think

26:20

it's aluminum but it's not very high

26:21

quality well if it gets too close to the

26:25

platter it will scratch it cuz you know

26:28

why I know cuz I [ __ ] up but but it

26:31

was a hard drive though was but failing

26:34

and it didn't work and so I just tried

26:36

to reverse-engineer it well I made it

26:38

worse you do not want to scratch

26:41

platters so my point is that you want to

26:44

take it to a data recovery that they

26:46

know what they're doing and they're not

26:47

gonna make the dumb [ __ ] mistakes like I

26:49

did although that's how you learn though

26:51

if you don't have a million dollars and

26:54

you're trying to learn on your own and

26:56

you know that the hard drives are bad

26:58

you just reverse engineer and you

27:01

quickly find out that what yeah you

27:03

don't do that you don't do that you be

27:05

careful yeah when it comes to the

27:07

platters you did any any little object

27:10

and you must realize that the platters

27:12

are spinning extremely fast and so

27:15

anything that can touch it if it's sharp

27:18

enough it'll scratch the [ __ ] out of it

27:21

and then oh my god then you

27:23

[ __ ] now you're [ __ ] so when in doubt

27:27

take your failing hard drive or your

27:32

failing computer to a computer

27:34

professional that chances are they know

27:37

what they're doing if they don't know

27:39

hopefully if they don't know what

27:40

they're doing when it comes to data

27:41

recovery or its advanced your hard drive

27:45

is failing now this is another

27:47

possibility just because your hard drive

27:49

is failing it does not mean that you

27:51

can't recover the data there's all kinds

27:53

of different tactics it just depends on

27:55

how important it is that's where there

27:57

are individuals that know a lot they've

27:59

studied it whether or not they have

28:01

certifications to me that's not

28:03

important they've got a lot of money

28:04

they've got cleaning room environments

28:06

they can afford new equipment they know

28:08

what does and what doesn't work then oh

28:10

how to replace the the heads you know

28:17

what I'm saying

28:18

so I digress to my orange juice adios