A disk read error occurred press ctl+alt+delete to restart

most "mom and pop" computer stores will carry that ide hard drive. Its a 2.5 inch drive

And again and again and drives you up the wall.OK-boot sector is corrupted, or hard drive is going south.What you can try is system restore.On boot see which button is designated for that-usually f10 or f12.Start tapping that button and follow instructions. If that failed, the only option is to reinstall OS.If you have a lot of stuff that you want to save, install Windows in different folder, say WindowsA.All your stuff will be saved on the Hard drive-My Documents.Good luck and keep us posted.

your hard drive has been corrupted due to improper shutdown

Usually Dell will install the restore files on a hidden partition called D: when the computer comes from cold start press F12 multiple times there should be a black boot screen allowing you to select from a menu...

After searching and reading many doomsday comments about this error message and what it means and what caused it, I found the simple solution with the Acer Aspire One ZG-5 mini-laptop displaying the "A disk read error occured... Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart" error message, the probable simple solution is to Press Alt+F10 during reboot and the laptop will go into the Acer eRecovery mode.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• It may or may not ask for a password or require creating a password, this password will be required to use eRecovery in the future. If you forget this step, you will need the recovery disks in the future to reformat the system.
  
• Also please note that depending upon the options you choose you may lose any data on the computer because it restores the original operating system as the computer came out of the box.
• Also, because restoring or recovery is a lengthyprocess you will need to plug the computer into the AC power supply.

Follow the instructions as they appear on the screen to restore or recover the operating system.

Also, it is a good idea once you have restored or recovered the operating system to go on the Acer website and download any patches or updates available.

Hope this helps.

Donald
[email protected]

Sounds like the hard drive has errors.
Boot to a windows XP cd.
Repair using the windows console.
at the repair console type:

chkdsk /R (hit enter)

Let that run, it takes a long time.
If it's able to repair the drive enough for operation it will.

If it cannot you will be forced to replace the hard drive.

HTH
Aaron

Boot to the Diagnistics FN+POWER at boot, run hard drive diagnostics. The PBR Descriptor 2 message is part of the normal boot process (directing the boot loader to Primary Boot Recond 2, the C: Drive) but usually flashes on an off so fast most people never notice it. Since the boot process is not going past the re-direct it is indicative of a bad hdd (Since the re-image process crashed)
Most likely you are looking at a hard drive replacement.
Regardless you are going to need an XP CD (you'll have to reinstall windows or run recovery console at a minimum)

check power chord or port of hard drive if u dont find any prob. pleace re insert power cord with card board packing. definetly u solve the problem.

the hard drive is crashed you need to replace the hard disk

There are a couple of possibilities.

1. The hard drive is defective.

2. The operating system is corrupt.

The easiest way to test this is to run the restore cd that came with the computer to reload Windows.

If you get this error while running the restore cd then you will need to get a new hard drive.