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boot error

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by byteside

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I am working on a computer that is displaying "Disk I/O error. Replace the disk and then press any key." This appears right after the splash screen. The owner of pc said she had added ram and put in a new video card. It started after that. I havereseated video removed added ram. Nothing in the floppy. problem still exist. Put recovery cd in re-write drive, booted, get to "starting HP recovery" sits there for 10-15 minutes and goes no where. Tryed it in the DVD drive, same scenario. I amgoing to put the old video card back in when i get it from the owner but i wanted to know if there is something else that i should be looking at. Also why cant i get the recovery disk to work. Pc is hewlette packard pavilion. Thanks

6 replies

by dmiles

You need to boot the system with a floppy "boot disk", such as a "Windows Startup Disk". The startup disk can be created on another system and used to boot your system up. After a successful boot from the floppy disk you should be able to access your "c:\" drive and verify that the hard disk is still functioning by doing a "dir" command at the c:\ prompt. Upon confirming that your Hard Drive is still functional, you could put the file named sys.com on your floppy boot disk and then put the missing system files back on your hard disk to make it capable of booting on its own.

It's important that your floppy boot disk is using the same kind of system files that your hard drive had been using or this won't work cleanly. If in doubt you maydo the following. Use any floppy "boot" disk available to successfully boot your system. Check the hard drive by changing to a "c:\" prompt and trying a "dir" command. Find the "sys.com" file on your hard drive by entering: c:\dir sys.com /s. Usually this file will be found in the c:\windows\command directory (if you're using Win95/98. Copy that file to your floppy disk. Next, while in the c:\windows\command directory, do the following: sys a: (enter). This will transfer your current system files to the floppy disk. Change back to a plain "c:\" prompt by entering "cd..." until you see only "c:\>".

At this point change back to your floppy drive ("a:\") and do: sys c:\ (enter). Your system file will be put back on your hard drive and youwill see "system transferred". Remove the floppy disk and reboot your system. You should be able to access your hard drive at this time. Please post your results or further questions here. Best Regards

by bluelinecms

It sounds like your hard drive has crashed, if I read your post correctly. First thing to do, since the owner was working inside the case, is to check all of your ide cables from your hard drive(s) and cd/dvd drives and make sure they are secure. Also, make sure all of the power connections are secure.

If you still get the error, check in the bios to see if it is detecting the hard drive. If not, then you could try swapping the ide cable.

by byteside

I have checked and secured all connections, ribbin cables and power. I have checked the BIOS and HD is there.

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