A disk error occurred what to do. Recovering files from a hidden partition

The problem a disk read error occurred press can seriously frighten any PC user. The problem is the following: during Windows startup, the system tries to read the files necessary for this action, located in a hidden partition. Such data is extremely important, therefore, if it is missing or malfunctions, we will encounter such an error. We will consider further which options for the current situation can be corrected and which cannot.

Possible sources of malfunction

First, you should determine the sources of the problem when it says a disk read error occurred. There are quite a few of them, but some are easy to diagnose, so let’s get started:

The virus has damaged the system's boot sector;
The antivirus messed up something and erased the necessary entries;
The error appeared after incorrect installation of Windows or installation of one OS on top of another;
You have divided the HDD into logical drives. In general, this is not a problem, but if there are bad sectors, some kind of failure may occur;

Perhaps you dropped the system unit/laptop or the hard drive itself;
The cables have come loose or broken; there are only two of them and therefore easy to check;
The likely cause is a worn-out power supply; if there is not enough voltage, the drive will not be able to operate correctly;
Sometimes controllers on the motherboard break down;
System recovery or rollback, in cases of insufficient storage space. Thus, some files are interrupted, while others remain the same, creating problems.
Hard drive failure or presence of a large number of unstable sectors.

Most situations with a disk read error occurred can be corrected, mainly those related to software failures or connection loops.

To start fighting the disease, you need a Windows installation disk, otherwise nothing will work. Also, you need to be prepared that a complete reinstallation of the OS may be required.

Determining the health of the hard drive

A simple diagnostic measure to combat, where the error a disk read error occurred does not leave the ability to access Windows, is to view its display in the BIOS. If it displays the HDD correctly, then there is a high probability that the reason is still in the software, but if it is not detected or is displayed incorrectly, then the hard drive is not fixed. You can try to restore its functionality through a service center, but this is only relevant for copying important information from it. So, you need:

When the system starts, press Del;
Now use the arrows to navigate to the “Advanced BIOS features” section;

Then click on "Hard Disk Boot Priority" or "Boot Device Priority".

Check that the hard drive name is displayed correctly, and then you can proceed further (if successful).

Error a disk read error occurred, how to fix it using Acronis Disk Director

To perform testing and troubleshooting through this program, you must have an Acronis boot disk; Paragon or others will also work. Now you should look at the following sections:

Launch through your application, this is done by pressing F9 or F8, when a window appears with the option to go to the BIOS;
Check that the “System Reserved” section is active. If this is not the case, then right-click and select “Mark as active”;

Also check the presence of the Boot folder and the bootmgr file on the disk; they are initially hidden, since they are system ones. First, turn them on.

If a folder or file is missing, you will have to restore it, as shown in the next section.

Restoring the boot partition

To solve the problem of a disk read error occurred Windows 7, you need an appropriate installation disk with the OS, the same for other versions. The procedure should help the system analyze the HDD for errors and, if they exist, try to fix them.

1.Now insert the disk or flash drive and run it;

4.Now “Advanced options”;

5.Then select “Command Line”;

6.First we need to launch Notepad, thanks to which we can find out the distribution of letters for logical drives. For this:

Type notepad.exe and press enter;
Click on the “File” tab and select the “Open” option;
In “My Computer,” it is important to remember or write down the letters for the “System Reserved” partitions that contain Windows files and the boot sector.

7.To restore Windows files, you need to enter the command bcdboot C:/Windows, where C is the letter of the corresponding partition;

8.To check the reserved area, enter one by one chkdsk D: /r and chkdsk D: /f, where D is the letter of your partition and it may differ.

9.Then follow step 8 for the partition that contains Windows.

10.If the check was successful, you should restore the MBR entries using the following commands bootrec.exe /fixmbr and bootrec.exe /fixboot;

11.At the end, you need to search for the OS and include them in the boot list using bootrec.exe /rebuildBcd.

It is likely that after the steps shown, the error will disappear, but Windows will still not want to start (not often, but it happens). Then, after correcting the error a disk read error occurred, what to do is obvious, just reinstall the system again. It is better to first transfer all the files to another drive and format the original HDD and then install a clean Windows.

If you still have questions on the topic “How to fix the error a disk read error occurred?”, you can ask them in the comments

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We have all encountered various errors and they were all different, whether it was the screen of death, or some other critical problem, but I am sure that many have encountered such a problem when, when loading Windows, a black screen appears, and at the top left is written some English words. Today we will talk about such an error as “A disk read error occurred Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart”. If translated into Russian, it will roughly look like this: The disk is not readable, press Ctrl+Alt+Del and reboot.

The reasons for this error may be different, but even an inexperienced user will understand that the problem is related to the disk. It may be damaged physically, or there may be software reasons. Below I will list several common causes of disk read error occerred.

The operating system is not installed correctly.

I want to say right away that after reinstalling the system, this problem was immediately solved for me. Go ahead.

An older version of the OS may be installed on top of the new one.
Disk damage, for example when a laptop falls.
happened using the power button
Experiment with logical partitions
happened on a section that was almost completely clogged.
The boot record is corrupted by a virus.
The boot record was mistakenly deleted by the antivirus.
The disc is quite old and worn out.
Problem with contacts, controllers or cable.
The power supply is faulty.

Now let's start solving the problem. First, make sure that the drive does not have hardware problems. Go into the BIOS and make sure the drive is detected. If the disk is missing, then check the contacts, cable, etc. on the disk, connect it to another computer, if it does not work there either, you should take the disk to a service center.

Most often, the appearance of this error is associated with the destruction of the MBR record (partial or complete), which is located on the zero sector and ensures the definition of logical partitions. By the way, there have been cases where this error appears when the files of a hidden partition called “ Reserved by the system».

Checking the hidden section

To begin with, you should boot from the Acronis Disk Derector utility or a similar program and make sure that the “System Reserved” section is active at all. If this is not the case, then right-click on this disk and click “mark as active”.

You also need to check files such as bootmgr and folder Boot, which are intended to boot the system. If they are missing, then this is most likely the cause of the error.

Recovering a hidden partition

In order to restore missing files, you need to boot from a Windows 8 or 8.1 disk (flash drive). After the installation window appears, click below on the left " System Restore", Then " Diagnostics», « Extra options" And " Command line».

If you don't know what letter each section is labeled with, run notepad.exe at the command prompt. Once Notepad opens, click " File", Then " Open», « My computer" Let's see how the disks are marked.

Now let's move on to recovery, namely, enter the following command into the command line

Now, the same thing needs to be done for the other partition where you store your files. If there are several of them, then we do it for everyone.

It may happen that disk analysis does not reveal problems, then we will try to restore the boot record. This must be done using the following commands:

Other options

As I said above, the effective solution to this problem for me was a simple one. Before reinstalling, it will be best if you delete both the system and “system-reserved” partitions, and then format the entire disk. Then, you can check for errors, and then install Windows on a blank disk, of course, re-partitioning it. 2 partitions will be quite enough, one system, and the other for your needs.

And one more thing. You can connect the drive to another computer and transfer all your important data to another. That's all, write down in the comments if you were able to solve the problem using these methods.

While booting up your computer, the user may encounter a message « A disk read error occurred press ctrl+alt+del to restart", and pressing the keys indicated in the message leads to a system reboot, and everything repeats all over again. In this material, I will explain how to fix the disk read error in Windows XP/7/10, talk about the reasons for its occurrence and the features of solving this problem.

What is this error? A disk read error occurred press ctrl+alt+del to restart

Typically, the error A disk read error occurred press ctrl+alt+del to restart (“disk read error”) occurs during the process of reading the necessary system information from the computer’s hard drive, and is directly related to a breakdown of the hard drive or hardware (software) problems in its operation . Most often, the user encounters the disk read error occurred error while loading the operating system, and, as already mentioned, pressing the three keys indicated in the error does nothing, and after a reboot the system still refuses to work.

Reasons for the error

Experts identify several common causes of the error A disk read error occurred press ctrl+alt+del to restart, namely:

problems with the hard drive (breakage, hardware damage, deformation of logical partitions, damage to the boot sector of the hard drive, “shedding” of the disk due to wear, etc.);
problems with the IDE or SATA cable, which acts as a link between the computer and the hard drive;
problems with RAM memory modules;
problem with the OS (incorrect installation of the OS, installation of an older version on a valid new one, restoring the OS to a full hard drive partition);
problems with Bios;
problems with other equipment (faulty power supply, faulty controller, faulty contacts on the motherboard, etc.).

Solving the problem with A disk read error occurred press ctrl+alt+del to restart

We check the functionality of the hard drive and cable. Visually check the hard drive cable for visible damage, and also try replacing the used cable. It would not hurt to check the correctness and tightness of the connection of the cable from the hard drive to the desired connector on the motherboard. Go to Bios and check if the system sees your hard drive. If not, and replacing the cable did not help, then take your hard drive to a service center.
Restoring the bootloader to the MBR. The Master Boor Record (or MBR) is the master boot record that contains the necessary data for subsequent booting of the operating system. The MBR is located in the first sectors of the hard drive and carries information about the logical partitions of the hard drive. If the MBR is damaged, the system displays the error we specified: A disk read error occurred press ctrl+alt+del to restart.
To restore the MBR in Windows 7 you need to do the following. Boot from the Windows 7 distribution (on a disk or flash drive, having first checked to boot from them in the BIOS) and click on “system recovery”. Then click on “Use recovery tools” for the desired OS, click “Next”, and on the next screen select Command Prompt. On the line screen, go to your CD or DVD drive (if you have a D drive, then just press D: and Enter), then type in the command line cd boot, and then bootsect /nt60 sys. The MBR will be copied from the installation disk to your hard drive.
It can also help in correcting the error “A disk read error occurred press ctrl+alt+del to restart” connecting your hard drive to another computer with a working system. After connecting and loading the Windows OS, you need to press F8, select the recovery console, where you enter the fixboot and fixmbr commands.
Restoring the integrity of the file system. If the file system is damaged, you can fix it by going to the boot environment command line, pressing F8 at the start of boot, and then typing the commands chkdsk C: /r and chkdsk C: /f.
Fixing a problem with RAM. If you recently purchased a new RAM module, remove it from your computer and try booting the system. If the problem persists, try removing other RAM modules, leaving only one, and see if the said problem goes away. Experiment with different memory modules and different memory slots. If a faulty module is identified, replace it.
Restoring BIOS settings. We reboot the PC, quickly press F8, ESC or DEL at the beginning of loading the OS to get into the BIOS, there we find the “Load default BIOS” option, click on it and save the changes. Let's reboot.
Check your system for viruses. Sometimes the reason for the appearance of the indicated error A disk read error occurred press ctrl+alt+del to restart is the activity of malicious programs that change data in the boot sectors of the hard drive. Checking the system with powerful and modern antiviruses (for example, Dr.Web CureIt!) allows you to fix the problem.
Similar errors when turning on the PC. I described useful steps to correct similar errors in earlier articles and they may be useful to you.
Use Live CD. Typically, such auxiliary disks contain programs for restoring system operation. Boot from such a disk and use programs such as HDD Regenerator, Paragon Partition Magic, Acronis Disk Director, Ease Recovery, Active File Recovery and others to restore the system.
Reinstalling the operating system. One of the most effective and drastic mechanisms for solving the “disk read error” problem is a complete reinstallation of the file system (you must be sure that your hard drive is physically functional).
We check the functionality of the power supply and motherboard. If you “sin” due to a breakdown of the motherboard or power supply, then you can check their performance at the nearest service center.

Conclusion

Typically, the main causes of the problem A disk read error occurred press ctrl+alt+del to restart are hardware problems with the hard drive and cable, as well as damage to the MBR record on the hard drive.

Using the tips listed above allows you to fix the problem, but I would advise you to pay special attention to the operation of anti-virus programs, because sometimes the problem discussed in the article is caused by the most common viruses. Check bad (“broken”) sectors more often, check the integrity of the file system using standard Windows OS tools, ensure that your antivirus is regularly updated - and the problem described in this article will bypass you.

In contact with

If the appearance of a blue screen of death can be seriously alarming, then what can we say about those cases when, when you turn on the computer, a black screen appears with one or several lines in English. Today we will try to deal with one of the most dangerous and common mistakes disk read error occurred press ctrl+alt+del to restart. It translates as “I can’t read the disk, press ctrl+alt+del and restart the computer.”

The reasons for disk read error occurred can be different, but one way or another they are associated either with damage to the magnetic surface of the disk itself, or with a cable or other hardware components, which is much less common. Below you can familiarize yourself with the main methods of treating the error, but first, let's find out what could be its primary cause.

Incorrect installation of the second operating system
Installing an old version of Windows over a new one
Manipulations with logical partitions in the presence of unstable sectors
Falling of a working laptop (damage to mechanics)
Restoring the system from an image to a clogged partition
Turning off a running computer using the power button
Erroneous deletion of boot record by antivirus
Virus damage to boot record
Physical wear of the disk and the presence of many bad sectors on it
Problems with contacts, cables, controllers
Power supply malfunctions

So, if you encounter a disk read error occurred error, first of all make sure there are no hardware problems. Go into the BIOS and see if the drive is detected at all. If not, check the contacts. To be sure, you can try connecting the drive to your work computer. If the disk is not detected by the BIOS or is detected incorrectly, the data on it has turned into “mush” - take the computer to a service center, in this case it is better to trust the specialists.

Often the appearance of the disk read error occurred error is associated with partial or complete destruction of the MBR - the boot record located in the zero sector of the disk and providing identification of logical partitions. If the MBR information is correct, control is transferred to the “Reserved by the system” partition and further along the chain to the system partition C. If a discrepancy is detected, the error disk read error occurred or Reboot and select proper boot device is displayed. However, there are known cases when the disk read error occurred error occurred when the boot files of the hidden “System Reserved” partition were damaged.

Checking a hidden partition

Boot from Acronis Disk Director or a similar program and first make sure that the “System Reserved” partition is marked as active (checked). If there is no such mark, right-click on the section and select the “Mark as active” option.

At the same time, make sure that the bootmgr file and the Boot folder necessary to boot the system are in place. If one of these elements is missing, this is most likely the cause of the error.

Recovering files from a hidden partition

To restore the boot files of a hidden partition, you will need a boot image with Windows 8.1. Boot from it, click “System Restore”, “Diagnostics”, “Advanced Options”, “Command Prompt”.

To determine the drive letters, run the notepad.exe command. In the Notepad that opens, select “File”, “Open”, “This PC” and look at the letters of the sections. In our example, the hidden partition has the letter C, the Windows partition has the letter D, and the boot disk has the letter X.

Let's restore the download files by running the command bcdboot D:/Windows. If the error was due to corrupted download files, the problem will be resolved.

Checking the file system and repairing the boot record

The disk read error occurred error can be caused by file system corruption. To analyze and fix disk errors, run the following commands from the boot environment command line: chkdsk C: /r And chkdsk C: /f, and then repeat the same for the main partition with the system (partition D).

If the check does not reveal any problems, we try to restore the boot record. To do this, run these commands on the command line:

bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /fixboot

After this, we search for operating systems and add them to the boot menu list:

bootrec.exe /rebuildBcd

Note

To recover MBR entries, you can use third-party programs, such as the Paragon Partition Manager boot image. The same programs can be used to check and eliminate errors on the hard drive if the chkdsk analysis does not produce results.

Other options

If the methods described above did not help, you can try to reinstall the system by first deleting both the main system and reserved partitions. Better yet, remove the disk, connect it to another computer and, after copying all the valuable information, completely format it, and at the same time check for errors. After this, the system is installed on a blank disk.

Alternatively, you can try the following method. Acronis or another similar program separates the unallocated space from the user partition and installs a copy of Windows into it. After this, two systems should appear in the boot menu, one of which, and maybe even both, will be completely working.

Have a great day!

It causes horror and shock for many users. But what about those situations when, instead of the usual boot on a black background, which is very symbolic, a message appears about an error in reading data from the hard drive, in general recognizing it, which is usually presented in the form of the line A disk read error occurred. How to fix this error? Now we will figure this out.

The message A disk read error occurred: how to fix it. Causes and consequences

First, let's define the reasons that can cause errors of this kind. Let's say the message A disk read error occurred appears. Press... Not every user knows how to fix this error.

Moreover, many people don’t even know what it is. It would be worth it. Apparently, this is connected with the operating system itself, as they say, insofar as. Most likely, the user himself caused irreparable damage to the operating system. And that's why.

The simplest reason is installing a second system on a local computer terminal (even installing an outdated version of Windows on top of a newer modification, damage to the boot sector due to incorrect shutdown, physical damage to the hard drive and connected cables, conflicts between the system and anti-virus software, etc. In general, there are enough reasons for headaches. But now we will talk about how to interpret the computer message A disk read error occurred. Press Ctrl Alt Del to restart. How to fix this situation? Quite simple. And don’t be scared. There is nothing particularly serious or terrible about this (unless the hard drive crashes, of course.) There are several solutions that will be presented now.

The role of BIOS in the process of restoring system functionality

First, let's decide on the BIOS. In fact, this thing is an integral software component of the motherboard, on which in most cases all other devices are mounted.

In other words, it is able to recognize all the hardware connected via cables and change the basic parameters supported by such devices during use.

Thus, there is no need to say that it is the BIOS that helps fix this type of error. After all, no one is safe from the fact that the message A disk read error occurred will appear again. How to fix the situation specifically with the BIOS settings?

First of all, you should make sure of the boot sequence. To do this, call up the BIOS settings before starting Windows. This is usually done at the very beginning of boot, after initialization, by pressing the “Del” key, sometimes “F2”, “F12”, etc. It all depends on the computer system model and BIOS version or developer.

Now we look at the boot priority in terms of the primary device. The system drive (usually the "C" drive) should be listed first unless another option is used. There are problems with him too. In this case, we mean the operating mode of the hard drive. Often, incorrectly switching IDE/SCSI modes for a SATA controller in the BIOS can “break” the entire system and only lead to the fact that data will not only not be read, but the hard drive itself will not be detected by the system.

A secondary function of the BIOS is to set boot priorities. In this case, we only have the point that the operating system itself must start from some specific media (and this may not always be the computer’s hard drive).

with the message A disk read error occurred: how to fix it via BIOS?

Now let's decide on the BIOS settings. First, you should go to the download settings and see if the system partition is in the download. This could be the Boot Device Priority menu, Boot Sequence, etc. Different developers representing completely different BIOS versions may use other commands. The essence does not change from this.

Checking the physical connection of hard drives

Now let's look at the situation when a line appears on a black screen again and again (A disk read error occurred). What to do?

If we have a stationary computer terminal, it is recommended to check the cables that connect the hard drive to the motherboard. As is already clear, you can expect that the problem of the appearance of the line A disk read error occurred will still remain. How to fix this situation on a laptop? Everything is much more complicated here. The fact is that all the “hardware” components are non-removable; not everyone will want to get into the laptop and break the seals, and even if it is under warranty. Here you will have to use software. This is the minimum.

Restoring the system

Before using drastic methods, you should make sure that the system is generally operational, and reading data from the hard drive (at least from the system partition) is carried out without problems.

Whether the system boots normally or doesn't boot, it makes no difference. First we use (F8 when starting Windows). Then we move on to the rollback function from the checkpoint.

If this does not help, we boot from the installation or recovery disk, where we select the exact point in time to which the system needs to be restored. But this doesn’t always work.

Checking the boot record

In most cases, it is the message A disk read error occurred that informs about problems with the hard drive. How to correct the situation in terms of restoring the boot record and Use at least the simplest methods provided by the system itself, why not?

Here you should pay attention to some commands executed by the system itself to restore boot data, the registry, etc., as well as special commands executed through the “Run” menu.

In our case, it is best to use not this menu, but the command line (it is called from the same “Run” menu by entering the cmd command). Now let's move on to the commands themselves.

Special teams

Let's assume that we have a problem in the form of an error with a line on a black screen A disk read error occurred. How to fix? XP (Windows) today, although it supports most commands, is still somewhat backward even in terms of algorithms for their execution.

Nevertheless, when calling the command line, whether in the “exp”, or in the “seven”, or in the “eight”, or in the same “ten”, some commands work universally.

This applies to sequences like “First Boot Device” and “Second Boot Device”. We set the BIOS CD/DVD with the installation or system recovery disk in the drive to primary priority and boot from it, after which we go to the console (in Windows XP - the “R” key).

Here you can use the bootloader recovery partition, but it is better to go directly to the command line, and then enter the commands Bootrec / FixMbr, Bootrec / FixBoot one by one, if you need to check for the presence of several “OSes” in the system partition at startup - Bootrec.exe / ScanOs, in extreme cases case - to rewrite the entire boot area while checking the system disk for errors and inconsistencies - Bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd. After this, you certainly won’t have to doubt the functionality of the system.

What's the result?

If we summarize all of the above, we can see that restoring Windows functionality is not such a difficult matter even if errors like A disk read error occurred occur. We have already figured out how to fix this.

Separately, it is worth noting that this section did not discuss utilities for checking the hard drive and correcting system errors such as Victoria (the best today) and the unique “screw” recovery program HDD Regenerator, which are capable of “reanimating” hard drives even in the most critical situations with physical damage surfaces. But, as a rule, such cases are very rare, and special attention is not paid to them. But the software and the settings, which can later determine the behavior of the system, should be examined especially carefully.