Disk Error

Turned it off, removed ac power and battery- held down button for one minute, then plugged battery and ac power back in, turned on- still "A disk read error occured" It didn't make any sound, no whirring to start up, nothing. *sigh*

And I'm not really sure from reading that thread how to proceed... I need to buy an external hard drive, is that what I'm reading?

I don't know what you have to work with. I can't know if you would boot up a LiveCD and what you see or if you would email files out of the machine to yourself.

Solutions are abundant but until you decide what to try and if you can't try it then you head for a repair counter.

-> BUT WAIT. I forgot a BIG thing. What else is plugged into this machine? Any printers, memory sticks? Is there a CD in the drive? Floppy in the floppy drive?

Details matter.
Bob

I guess I will try to figure out how to get the LiveCD going- not sure how I'm going to manage without an external hard drive- there's nothing else connected to my computer- this all seemed to start after I put a scandisc memory card from my camera into my computer, and since then, nothing has worked properly.

Longer reply below. The battery out, etc. method is not a sure thing but I always give it one try since if it works we can say we dodged the bullet.
Bob

sorry- I'll admit I'm extremely frustrated, as there are photos of a deceased relative on my computer that I was stupid enough not to back up, and now I'm a mess thinking I can't get them back. I'm going to write down the steps from the post you sent, and attempt to figure this out. My computer is under warranty, and if I sent it in, I'm sure they'd just install a new one, but I doubt they'd give a crap about the files I'm trying so desperately to save.
Thanks for all your help, I'll let you know if it works

Rachel

Okay- I downloaded the 699mb Ubuntu file to my computer, burned it to a CDR, and then put that into my computer. I then changed the Boot menu to boot from the USB CDROM: (that being first in my Boot Priority Order)
and still, I get "Disk read error" screen.

does this mean it's fried?

New to CD recording folks that put the .ISO file on the CD. Let's use another link and article to see how to make a proper Ubuntu CD.

"I mentioned earlier that the Ubuntu file is an ".iso" file. An ISO file is a disk image and you have to burn it to a CD in a certain way for it to work. You need to have a program that can burn disk images to a CD. Windows does not come with a program to do this. If you don't already have a program like Nero or Sonic RecordNow!, you can download a free program called CDBurnerXP Pro."
More at http://www.linuxfortravelers.com/burn-the-downloaded-ubuntu-file-to-a-blank-cd

I did this- trying the disc burn twice just to make sure I had it correctly downloaded, and it still will not work. My computer powers up, I hear the whirring noise, the Acer screen pops up, then I hear the whirrig of it attempting to access my CDR drive, and I still get the Disk Read Error screen- I guess I'm out of luck. thanks anyways~!

I have run across folk that put the ISO "file" on the CDR.

Do this. Slip that CDR into a working machine and tell me what files you see on the CDR.
Bob

There are several folders-
.disk
casper
dists
install
isolinux
pics
pool
preseed
then there is
autorun -Setup Information
md5sum - Text Document
README.diskdefines
ubuntu File
and
wubi

It appears you have made the CDR proper but can't boot from USB CD/DVD drive.

Can you reveal why you selected the USB CD drive? This laptop has a built-in DVDRW drive so is there part of a story missing here?
Bob

when I went into my setup to select a boot location, these were my choices

1:IDE 0: WDC WD1600BEVS-22RSTO
2:IDE 1: HL-DT-ST-DVDRAM GSA-T20N
3: USB CDROM:
4:USB FDD:
5:Network Boot: MBAv 9.4.5 Slot 0500
6:USB HDD

since that was the only one I saw that had CDROM in it, I thought that was the correct one to use- those are my only 6 options

USB CDROM is an option if you have such.

I think you are very close to seeing your files.
Bob

success... I got into the Ubuntu program- but not sure how to locate my files using this program?

"How to access my Windows data?

After downloading and burning the ISO file, you boot from the Live CD on your broken computer. When the Ubuntu menu shows up, you select the first entry which should be something like ?Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer?, depending on the system version. Once the operating system is loaded, you go to Places -> Computer which will show you all available drives. Now, try to open your Windows drive with a double click. If you can access the drive, congratulations! You can now backup your data"

From http://www.notebooknotes.com/blog/how-to-backup-your-broken-windows-pc-with-an-ubuntu-live-cd.html but I cut out the important part for you to read. Don't read the other text there yet as we only need to get to your files.
Bob

Windows doesn't show up as an available folder- but Acer does- but when I click on it it says it Cannot mount volume

not sure if this is gonna work or not.

I have no cds. I ran all the codes it told me to and it says "The file system wasn't safely closed on Windows. Fixing.

but it still doesnt' let me in.

should I attempt to download a recovery disk?

The disks I've noted are not known to wipe the drive like most recovery disks do. We only need to get any Windows XP or Vista CD/DVD that matches your system OS to boot that and in the recovery console type "ONE" command.

It's sad you don't have such a CD. I see a 4 dollar one noted at http://www.ocforums.com/archive/index.php/t-433782.html but let's see what you find.
Bob

I found this
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

But not sure if it will work? I don't know anyone in the area I just moved, so I don't know anyone who might have a disk like this.

will that link work?

But given it's a torrent I can't supply the steps to download it. But to make the bootable CD will use what you learned so far.
Bob

I'm not sure I understand your last post- should I attempt that restore? not sure what my next move should be at this point.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking this much time out of your day to help me. Even if I don't get everything back, you have helped me out more than you know, and restored my faith in people helping out strangers.

Not a restore CD or DVD. It's just what's needed to boot Windows and get to the recovery console so we can run the one command to chkdsk the drive and hope for the best.

My reply is that I see its not a simple download but a torrent. That could be more work to walk you through what that is, how to download than what we covered so far.

If we must save files and we reach the end of what we can do ourselves the next step is costly. Read and ask at http://www.drivesavers.com

For me I find buying a copy of Vista is cheaper and worth the investment.
Bob

well I checked out disk savers, and I'm just not willing to shell out $900 for what's on here.

I guess I'll keep looking.

Thanks again

Okay- I've found Bootdisk.Com, and am fully willing to pay the $4 for the disk- but I have absolutely no clue which one I need to download... I see loads of bootable windows files- none of them say Vista, which is my Windows version- so where do I go from here?

I don't see any 4 dollar disk on here- I see a free download- not sure where to get the one you referred to?

I'm willing to give it a try...

I downloaded the file and copied it to a cd, but when I put it in my comp, it doesn't do anything. Not sure what I'm missing here...