Hard drive write error

kali277 · 01-04-2008, 01:52 PM

My computer quit booting up windows, kept crashing ect. I went to safe mode to delete a new program I had instaled. I did that. Tried to load windows again. Then I got a message saying missing operating system. So I got out the recovery disks. I tried to reformat my hard drive with them. It says Preparing recovery partition - please wait then it says hard drive write error! Press any key to continue. What do I do now????

philb7 · 01-04-2008, 09:08 PM

How are running XP and VISTA at the same time?? Is your PC a Dell? Dell has built in repair utilities in F12.

kali277 · 01-10-2008, 02:46 PM

My PC is HP and I origionally had xp which I upgraded to vista. I do not know which system my recovery disk were created from.

philb7 · 01-10-2008, 03:23 PM

Please update your profile to Vista so you will get Vista answers.
You probably used an XP recover on Vista. Once Vista gets on your hard drive it can be very difficult to go back to XP. One shop tech I know won't even go there anymore. Appearently Vista makes some changes to the hard drive specific only to Vista.
I would use a good Disk Manager to replace the MBR (Master Boot Record) and reformat the whole HD. A corrupted MBR may be at fault as it tells the Bios about the HD configuration. I would not rule out a virus.

KevinD. · Yesterday, 07:29 PM

I have this same problem, but I have XP. I do not know what to do please help!
I put in the windows disk and rebooted. This came up: "No operating system installed or partition corrupted. Press 'R' to perform a full PC Recovery." I press R and a load bar along the bottom gets about 1/5 of the way, then stops and say's: "Hard drive write error! Press any key to continue." It restarts when I press it and it keeps happening.

EDIT: I have an HP, and I recently re-bought System Recovery disks for Microsoft windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with Update Rollup 2. I used these disks for my windows before.

**raptor_pa** · Yesterday, 09:17 PM

Download the hard drive manufacturer's bootable diagnostic cd and run the tests on the hd to see if it is a physical problem. Hard Drive Diagnostic Utilities

01-04-2008, 01:52 PM	#1 (permalink)
kali277 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 2 OS: windows xp/vista	Hard drive write error My computer quit booting up windows, kept crashing ect. I went to safe mode to delete a new program I had instaled. I did that. Tried to load windows again. Then I got a message saying missing operating system. So I got out the recovery disks. I tried to reformat my hard drive with them. It says Preparing recovery partition - please wait then it says hard drive write error! Press any key to continue. What do I do now????

01-04-2008, 09:08 PM	#2 (permalink)
philb7 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 70 OS: WIN XP SP2	Re: Hard drive write error How are running XP and VISTA at the same time?? Is your PC a Dell? Dell has built in repair utilities in F12.

01-10-2008, 02:46 PM	#3 (permalink)
kali277 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 2 OS: windows xp/vista	Re: Hard drive write error My PC is HP and I origionally had xp which I upgraded to vista. I do not know which system my recovery disk were created from.

01-10-2008, 03:23 PM	#4 (permalink)
philb7 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 70 OS: WIN XP SP2	Re: Hard drive write error Please update your profile to Vista so you will get Vista answers. You probably used an XP recover on Vista. Once Vista gets on your hard drive it can be very difficult to go back to XP. One shop tech I know won't even go there anymore. Appearently Vista makes some changes to the hard drive specific only to Vista. I would use a good Disk Manager to replace the MBR (Master Boot Record) and reformat the whole HD. A corrupted MBR may be at fault as it tells the Bios about the HD configuration. I would not rule out a virus.

Yesterday, 07:29 PM	#5 (permalink)
KevinD. Registered User Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 1 OS: Windows XP	Re: Hard drive write error I have this same problem, but I have XP. I do not know what to do please help! I put in the windows disk and rebooted. This came up: "No operating system installed or partition corrupted. Press 'R' to perform a full PC Recovery." I press R and a load bar along the bottom gets about 1/5 of the way, then stops and say's: "Hard drive write error! Press any key to continue." It restarts when I press it and it keeps happening. EDIT: I have an HP, and I recently re-bought System Recovery disks for Microsoft windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with Update Rollup 2. I used these disks for my windows before. Last edited by KevinD.; Yesterday at 07:32 PM. Reason: Adding info.

Yesterday, 09:17 PM	#6 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,526 OS: XP	Re: Hard drive write error Download the hard drive manufacturer's bootable diagnostic cd and run the tests on the hd to see if it is a physical problem. Hard Drive Diagnostic Utilities __________________