[Ghostly Swim]

I have a Windows XP with SP3. It started messing up a bit over a year ago and my dad took it to his friend to fix, and his friend did fix it but returned it with 2 windows XP at boot up. Like when it was booting up, it would make you choose the OS and they were both identical except that 1 of them wouldn't start up. It wasn't a problem because it still worked.
As of last week though it won't let me choose an OS and just starts up to the Compaq screen with the "system recovery" "settings" and "boot menu" then
It just goes from this screen straight to a black screen with the words "A disk read error has occurred. Press ctrl+alt+delete to restart."
Restarting just repeats all of this, the buttons for system recovery and boot menu are unresponsive no mater how many times I mash it, the settings' button is responsive but not very helpful.
Any ideas? I'd really appreciate the help guys.

 

[joeten]

Hi and welcome to TSF full make and model of your computer and do you have a install or recovery disc for this system

 

[Ghostly Swim]

Thanks for the welcoming! It's a Compaq Presario SR1124NX. Unfortunately I do not have the CD's.

 

[joeten]

Hi I think given the problems your having it may be a idea to borrow a copy of xp in order to be able to fix it, it has to be the same as the copy installed,it looks like your Dads friend just installed another copy of windows but something has screwed up the boot sequence and it is not being seen

 

[Ghostly Swim]

Okay. That was a last resort but I guess your right. I don't want to search for or buy another copy of windows, so I guess it's time check out what ubuntu is all about. Cheers Joeten

 

[Riskyone101]

Hello,

That model computer should have a recovery partition.

Go here and read:
System Recovery / Backup / Restore Compaq Presario SR1124NX Desktop PC | HP® Support

Note: Its possible (unfortunately) that when the friend installed another xp windows
he erased the recovery partition, hopefully this is not the case though.

 

[joeten]

Try what Riskyone101 is suggesting it can't hurt to see

 

[Ghostly Swim]

You mean the system recovery that comes on the hard drive and is accessible at start up? Because that's not responding.

 

[joeten]

Yup if that is not working it would be either what I suggested or your own you can contact HP\Compaq to see if they still do recovery discs (xp may be doubtful) for a small charge

 

[Ghostly Swim]

Alright then.
I had found a virus and was doing a boot-time scan with Avast when it stopped turning on. For the sake of speculation and curiosity, do you figure either of the 2 are responsible?

 

[joeten]

Yes usually I would advise doing this NEW INSTRUCTIONS - Read This Before Posting For Malware Removal Help - Tech Support Forum
and then make a new thread in the virus,trojan and spyware area not sure if that can apply here but let me ask a analyst to give their view