What does this error mean???

[Newtechie]

Hi all -

I recently bought a 250 gb hard-drive (Western Digital) and put it in my
computer. I installed XP Pro w/SP1 using a quick format since the drive was
new and bare. I did all the critical updates (except SP2), some of the
optional updates, and a few programs (antivirus, roxio, office, etc). I
thought every thing was fine until yesterday when I went to start my
computer, I got this error. "A disk read error occurred. Press
<ctrl><alt><del> to restart." So I did, only to get this looping error.

I called WD and they say this isn't a hard drive problem because the system
is recognizing the hard drive in the BIOS. They say it's possibly a O/S
problem and I should maybe reinstall it again. I did a few diagnostics
tests using the disk that came with drive and they both returned 0 errors.
I tried fixboot, fixmbr, and chkdsk /r to no avail. I did notice however
when I ran the fixmbr, it gave me a warning that C: was a non-standard or
invalid master boot record. I don't know what that means but I'm assuming
it's saying it can't find the boot sector.

Has anyone else run into this problem and solved it? Any help is
appreciated. Thanks.

Computer specs: Dell Dim 4100, 933mhz, 250 gb, 512 mb ram, XP Pro w/SP1

Newtechie

 

[Rich Barry]

Try a different Ribbon Cable. Are you using Cable Select? You may
have to do a Complete Format and start over.

 

[Newtechie]

Hi Rich,

Yes I'm using cable select and I did try a new ribbon prior to running the
diagnostics. I did go ahead and do a clean re-installation so I'll see how
long it lasts.

Newtechie