Error reading patition table (MBR)

what diagnostics error? you may want to use seatools to repair your disc you can download here http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=seatools-win&vgnextoid=552bd20cacdec010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

Have you tried to format it???

if HDD detect's on bios then just formate your HDD it will start woking

Hello Sir,
While windows is booting first go to BIOS settings by pressing "Del" or "Esc" then change the boot priority that is save the first boot priority as cd-rom and second boot priority as hard drive... so that you can boot you system with bootable cd...
And then while formating the system just delete the partion that is only "c:/" and install the windows in to that and don't even do anything to your "d:/" drive then you can get all your data back... Abd the cd should be bootable format...

Probablel corrupt partition. Please advise which OS you are using. In windows you can access the drive from disk managerment from where you can re-partition and format it. Keep me posted

I believe this is due to Media Direct requiring a 2G hidden partition and entries in the MBR. As I understand it you have to boot from the Media Direct disc first for it to recreate the partition assuming it has been deleted then install your OS. If you do not want the Media Direct then you should be able to use the OS disc recovery console to repair the MBR.

More info can be obtained from the Dell Forum

Avinash thaks for providing the exact error..

Re: A Disk Read Error Occured. Press CTRL ALT DEL to restart

1 - Have you tried a different IDE cable?
If not give it a go and do a repair if needed again!

2 - You may have a corrupt MBR (master boot record)!! You will need to reformat and do Fdisk /mbr to delete the master boot record!! Save all data first as this will not allow you to access any of your data as all file location addresses are located in the MBR!!

3 - Your harddrive may have a bad sector get a zerofill tool(low level formatting tool)!! This will rewrite you HD's sectors putting them back to factory spec's!! Maxtors is called Maxblast you can get it from thier site!!

4 - or it could be a defective drive, but most read errors are due ot corrupt MBR or a bad sector!! Good Luck D.i.l.i.p

If you have a spare HDD, you could install win xP onto that and set the problem drive as a slave. You may then be able to access the slave drive and save some of your files.

plz try in another pc, if the problem remains then you contact the vendor

Hi,

I am venturing a guess, but it could possibly be your memory and not your hard drive.

Additionally, you can partition and format the 40Gb HD in a second PC using a third party utility such as Partition Magic which would also allow you to verify the integrity of the hard drive

Hope this be of initial help/idea. Pls post back how things turned up or should you need additional information.

Good luck and kind regards.

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