optiplex gx260 a disk read error occurred

Question

Hello I am new to this forum. I recently purchased a new WD 320 GB ide hard drive. My previous hard drive was the original hard drive that came with the desktop, a 20 GB ide hard drive. I inserted the xp disk and told it to format the hard drive, I watched it go through the whole setup and when it gets to the part where it has the red line and gives me time to reboot I get a disk read error occurred error press ctrl+alt+delete to reboot. I have tried taking out and disabling the fdd drive, and reinstalling xp and that didn’t work same error. I have also put a new power supply to see if that helps. I used spinrite on the new hard drive to make sure it was good and it passed. I am out of ideas please help.

Thanks.

DELL-Chinmay S · Answer

Hi newmanfan1,

Usually Dell computers are shipped with Recovery partition which contains diagnostics and recovery tools. If the operating system is re installed and all the partitions are deleted, you will come across the message "No Diagnostic Utility Partition identified". Alternatively, you can burn 32 bit diagnostics application on a CD or a flash drive:

Click on the link: http://dell.to/PBmv8w

Click on "Single-file Download" and click on "Continue".
Click on "Save" and save it to the desktop.
Once it is saved to the desktop, right click on it and click on "Run as administrator" if your system has Windows Vista. Click on "Run" if your system has Windows XP.
Follow the on screen instructions and you will get following screen:

If you are using a flash drive, connect the flash drive to your system and click on "Install to a USB flash drive".
If you are using a CD, insert the CD and click on "Create Bootable CD".
Once done, restart your system and keep tapping "F12" as soon as the Dell logo appears.
Highlight "USB" using up and down arrow keys in case you are using flash drive.
Highlight "CD/DVD Drive" using up and down arrow keys in case you are using CD
Highlight "Test System" using up and down arrow keys.
Select "Custom test" and select "hard drive" to run the diagnostics.

If the test pass, you can also reseat the hard drive of your computer and see if it works.

Please reply for any further questions.

newmanfan1 · Answer

No errors at all. As i said before this is a brand new hard drive. I put the xp cd and tell it to do a quick format to the new hard drive, it does all the pre stuff then reboots the machine and thats when i get the error after it does all the pre stuff before you get to naming and so on and so forth.

newmanfan1 · Answer

I have done all this before it passes. any ideas please.

DELL-Vikram M · Answer

Hi newmanfan1,

I have checked the system specifications and the mamimum hard drive shipped with this machine was of 120 GB. A compatibility issue can cause this issue to happen. You can try disabling some Integrated devices in BIOS and also debug the hard drive before trying to re install windows XP again:

To disable some integrated devices in BIOS:

Restart your system and keep tapping 'F2' as soon as the Dell logo appears.
Your system will enter the BIOS(system setup).
Highlight 'Integrated Devices' using up and down arrow keys and press 'Enter.
Highlight 'Sound' and use the left/right arrow keys to make sure it is select to 'Off'.
Highlight 'Network Interface Controller' and use the left/right arrow keys to make sure it is selected to 'Off'.
Highlight 'Use Emulation' and use the left/right arrow to make sure it is selected to 'No BOOT'.
Press 'Enter' to go back to the main screen of BIOS.
Press + <1> simultaneously and you will get 3 options.

Highlight 'Save Changes and Exit' and press enter.

To debug the hard drive:

Boot to Resource DVD.

Insert the Resource DVD in the CD/DVD drive and restart the computer.
Tap the F12 at Dell logo to access the ‘One Time Boot Menu’.
Press the ‘Down’ arrow key to highlight CD/DVD drive and press ‘Enter’.
When the message ‘Press any key to boot from CD’ appears, immediately press any key on keyboard.

2. Once the system boots to the Resource DVD, please select the option ‘Quit without any action'.
3. It would present a prompt window. On the prompt windows, type the following commands:

Type C: and press ‘Enter’.
In front of C:\>, type debug and press ‘Enter’.
In front of –F, type 200 L1000 0 and press ‘Enter’.
In front of –A, type CS:100 and press ‘Enter’.
In front of xxxx:0100, type MOV AX,301 and press ‘Enter’.
In front of xxxx:0103, type MOV BX,200 and press ‘Enter’.
In front of xxxx:0106, type MOV CX,1 and press ‘Enter’.
In front of xxxx:0109, type MOV DX,80 and press ‘Enter’.
In front of xxxx:010C, type INT 13 and press ‘Enter’.
In front of xxxx:010E, type INT 20 and press ‘Enter’.
In front of xxxx:0110, press ‘Enter’.
In front of -G, press ‘Enter’.
When you see ‘Program terminated normally’ press .

This would delete all partitions from the hard drive. Try re-installing the Windows and see if it works.

Note: Please delete all the partitions and select "Format the partition using the NTFS file system".

Note: Do not select "Format the partition using the NTFS file system (Quick)".

In case the above steps do not work, try re installing the windows XP on your 20 GB old hard drive to check if the compatibility issue.

Please reply for any further questions.

DELL-Roshan L · Answer

This thread has been locked due to inactivity.For assistance,with same issue or a different issue,please click New Post on the top right to start a New Thread.

Locked Topics – Desktops General

optiplex gx260 a disk read error occurred

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