Startup gives a disk read error

[Tommygunn]

This is a problem my Mom is having with her computer, so this might be slightly vague.
Until today she was having no problems. However, today she turned the computer on,
got the startup blurb, it went to the Windows loading screen but decided to just stay
on that screen with the Windows loading bar just continuing on its merry way.

She decided to restart the computer, the startup screen came up but then it apparently
went to blue screen of death. She pressed whatever key it was and it went to another
screen that said, 'Disk read error - press Ctrl, Alt, Delete to restart'.

Now since I been speaking to her it just goes straight to the disk read error screen
after the startup screen, no Windows loading, nothing.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

 

[idunno]

did the computer make any foul noises? this sounds like a HDD failure. which if it is
can cost around 600 dollars to repair/extract data. is it in a laptop by chance? first i'd say
take the case off and listen to the HDD to see if it winds up.

 

[snowchick7669]

Do you have any USB devices attached to the machine?

If you have a flashdrive attached, then the machine tries to boot off that and has trouble

Other then that, it sounds like your HDD might be the problem

 

[Tommygunn]

The problem has been sorted, she took it to a tech.
Thanks all the same.