disk 1/0 error

[esley]

Hello All, Looking for help for a HP Pavilion XE742. On start up I get one beep and a message saying "disk I/0 error" replace the disk and press any key. I have formatted the hd ,and installed recovery disks 1&2 . but sos on reboot one beep & the disk 1/0 error. I sure need some help. esley

[newme]

did you use the recovery disk because you were having a problem before or were you just doing a clean install,windows 98 i presume

[GaryRouth]

Hi esley

. . . and Welcome to PC Mechanic.

First things first: if you have a floppy disk or a cd/dvd in a drive, remove it, and try again. If that's not it:

When you ran the recovery disk set, did you choose the "Format and Recover" option, or just the "Recover Only"?

You mentioned that you formatted the hard drive = what did you use to do this? Was it anything other than the Recovery Disk set? . . . If so, insert the Recovery cd and try the "Format and Recover" option. This is assuming you have backups of any data you wish to keep, for it will erase data added since you bought the machine. Recovery disks work best when used with systems that haven't had any hardware added to them. If you've added parts since you bought it - what were they? You might want to replace the original equipment prior to running the restore.

If your recovery set ran OK (that is, it finished without any error messages), it seems like your hard drive should be working OK. You can download disk diagnostics to test it anyway, just in case, from the hard drive manufacturer's website.

Since you've already run the Recovery set, you can also check in your Bios Setup screens to make sure that the First Boot drive is set to your hard drive, then try rebooting.

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[P.S. . . . here are some links over at HP support that give more details:
http://h20015.www2.hp.com/en/documen...cName=bph04808

http://h20015.www2.hp.com/en/documen...cName=bph07141 ]

[esley]

Thank, Gary for your help. First. this not my machine. Tha kid next door brought it over. I had awin 98 boot disk I used to see if it could read it. So nothing to lose I formatted hd, format c:/s. then I installed recovery disk 1&2. They loaded ,but on reboot same as before. So, I tryed what you said format & recovery. Followed the instructs , but when it starts the format procedure the % completed stays at 0 and underneith says "insufficient memory" ?? and it starts loading the disk. any clue what that memory deal is ? Thank You Esley

[GaryRouth]

When you looked at the drive with fdisk, was there only one partition? Does your neighbor know if this is the original disk or not? [the original specs for that model usually list a 40gb drive].
(Who knows, might have had a ton of Restore points on a Recover partition of some sort)

Might try again: boot the computer with a WinMe startup disk (one should have come with the system, but there's also probably one at bootdisk.com): fdisk to delete all partitions, then create one DOS Primary partition and mark it active. Then on reboot, boot with the Recovery Disk set again & see if it has better luck with the Format and Recover option this time.

--> by the way: I'm mentioning a WinMe startup disk because that's what hp lists as the default OS for most of that line. Was your neighbor running WinMe or Win98? Does he/she know what the original OS was? (if it's been changed along the way)

and, last but not least, here's an hp support page for things that go wrong when running the recovery. The note you want to look at is the third one on the list "Recovery starts, but hangs or gives an error". It lists a procedure you can try to free up more "conventional memory" (that first 640k legacy from the DOS world still in the bowels of Win9x). Might do the trick.
http://h20015.www2.hp.com/en/documen...ion25718&cc=us

. . . when the kids from the neighbors houses bring broken computers over - warranties are usually long ago expired. Is this the case with our current patient?

Never a dull moment
. . . Gary

[esley]

Gary, This is the original HD. running ME ,no one has messed with it ,bought 2-3 yrs new. has no start-up disk, said "never got one",just the recovery disks. So , downloaded one from bootdisk.com a win me oem bootdisk. This disk doesn't have anything on about fdisk or formatting. How do I look at the drive? Thank You Esley

[GaryRouth]

Hm, I wonder if Hp left it up to the customer to make their own emergency boot floppies. Seems like they'd provide one, or at least a bootable CD (one that will just boot the system, not necessarily start a Recovery procedure).

At any rate, since I'm not sure what the bootdisk.com WinME disk has on it, you can use the same Win98 bootdisk to run fdisk from. (Like you did before). Only this time, when you start fdisk, select the "status" option (I believe it's #4). That will show you the partitions that it sees and what file formats it thinks those partitions are using. Delete all the partitions. Then create one Primary DOS partition and mark it active. Then reboot with the HP Recovery disks and see what happens.

If you get the message about not enough conventional memory, try the proceedure in the hp support link that I posted in my reply just before this one.

I don't think that HP uses hidden proprietary partitions like the older Compaqs, but it seems that the Recovery CD set should re-create them if necessary.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.
. . . Gary

[esley]

Thanks Gary I'll give it a go.

[esley]

Gary, I want to thank you for the help, and what happened. I tryed all the above and no good,so I stuck in a spare hd I had and bingo, the was the culprit. Take Care Esley

[GaryRouth]

Hi esley

Nice work getting it going with the spare drive. If your neighbor hasn't had the drive for more than three years, it might be returnable under the three-year warranty that many drives used to have. It would be covered by the drive manufacturer, not the system builder. Worth a try? Even on sale, 40gb drives still cost $60 USD or more.

If not under warranty, and you want to try something just to see if it works: you could download the disk diagnostics for that drive from the maker's website, try a low-level format & see what happens. If it gives an error with a low-level format, then it's definitely toast. Sometimes, though, it can get an old drive going again, and extend it's life for a little longer (though you wouldn't want it storing anything terribly critical).

See you round the forum
. . .Gary