Forum: USBoot

on Sun 09 of Sep., 2007 15:52 CEST, by utkin

I used USBoot for more than half a year without problems (WinXP SP2 on Targa USB HDD), but today it failed to boot, showing "A disk read error occurrred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del" to start. Using Chkdsk does not cure the problem. No virus is found, I have access to all unprotected files. What WinXP repairing measures I can take without risk of losing the possibility of booting - you see, I have not access to booting Windows in SOS mode? Can I, at least, access protected folders (\Documents and settings\<username>? Many thanks!

on Sun 09 of Sep., 2007 16:23 CEST, by admin

Hi utkin,

> I used USBoot for more than half a year without problems (WinXP SP2 on Targa USB HDD)

so the cause of the error will most likely not be directly connected to USBoot.

> but today it failed to boot, showing "A disk read error occurrred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del" to start.

please give a much more detailed description of the boot up to the point when the error message is being displayed.

Apart from that, what did you do last BEFORE the error occured ?

>Using Chkdsk does not cure the problem.

If the problem is not connected to filesystem issues but for example to bootsector or MBR then checkdsk will be of no help at all.

>No virus is found

Which need not necessarily mean that you haven't got one in the end ...

> I have access to all unprotected files.

What do you mean by "unprotected" eek

> What WinXP repairing measures I can take without risk of losing the possibility of booting - you see, I have not access to booting Windows in SOS mode? Can I, at least, access protected folders (\Documents and settings\? Many thanks!

I must admit that I don't fully understand this question. Especially what do you mean by "protected" ???

Gerd

on Sun 09 of Sep., 2007 18:10 CEST, by utkin

> Apart from that, what did you do last BEFORE the error occured ?
Nothing special. Just edited DOC files with Microsoft Word. And browsed some Internet pages, I admit.
No new programs, no updates (I suppose, as my automatic Microsoft Update was On eek

).

> >Using Chkdsk does not cure the problem.
> If the problem is not connected to filesystem issues but for example to bootsector or MBR then checkdsk will be of no help at all.
Now I see... The whole file system looks healthy.

> Which need not necessarily mean that you haven't got one in the end ...
Yah, Norton Antivirus did not find anything. Now the disk is under a 6-hour scan by McAffee frown

... Ah, now it is already have finished - as well, nothing interesting!
Here is the content of the root directory. Something missing?

29/05/2007..21:20....462.......asmruntime.log
10/04/2007..12:05....0.........AUTOEXEC.BAT
10/04/2007..13:19....332.......boot.ini
02/08/2007..14:29..............Cmd
10/04/2007..12:05....0.........CONFIG.SYS
04/08/2007..13:26..............Documents.and.Settings
07/09/2007..21:18....319.......drmHeader.bin
04/05/2007..16:06....2,056.....my.cnf
13/05/2007..11:10..............Origin50
04/05/2007..16:12..............phpdev
08/09/2007..18:28..............Program.Files
25/05/2007..11:56..............QUARANTINE
31/08/2007..18:55..............SWP30
31/08/2007..19:44..............Temp
10/04/2007..12:54....2.........USBoot.phase-I
10/04/2007..13:11....2.........USBoot.phase-II
10/04/2007..13:11....12........USBoot.SystemRoot
10/04/2007..13:14..............USBoot_1.16
05/07/2007..17:35..............Utkin
05/06/2007..11:52..............VXIPNP
05/09/2007..17:08..............WINDOWS

Any suggestion? Can I use MBR repair tool from the Win XP CD / Repair Console
(I forgot the name, but they seemingly provide one)?
Thank you!

on Sun 09 of Sep., 2007 17:21 CEST, by utkin

> I must admit that I don't fully understand this question. Especially what do you mean by "protected" ???
> Gerd

Dear Gerd,

I meant those folders that are "private" for respective users under WinXP, so that only the user itself can access them.
Enterprise Edition Win XP makes C:\Documents and settings\* folders private by default - at least mine did so. I can access all "normal" files on USB disk, but I cannot open those in :\Documents and settings\*.*

As to the rest, the things are simple: start boot from USB drive and see the black-and white screen with two stupid lines of Bill Gates's style suggestion:
A disk read error occurred.
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.

I am much more physicist than a computer engineer biggrin

, so I'd prefer not to take severe measures like MBR repair without knowing that it is safe for USB Windows cry

.

on Wed 12 of Sep., 2007 12:42 CEST, by utkin

As to the private folder access, I already resolve the problem disabling Simple File Sharing model and taking the file ownership as described in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421.

on Wed 12 of Sep., 2007 12:43 CEST, by utkin

The remaining question is - whether I can repair the MBR using repair tool from the Win XP CD / Repair Console (FIXMBR)?

on Wed 12 of Sep., 2007 19:54 CEST, by admin

> The remaining question is - whether I can repair the MBR using repair tool from the Win XP CD / Repair Console (FIXMBR)?

In general you this should not have any negative effekt on USBoot's preparations.

But to be on the safe side I would recommend a full disk backup before executing any steps for repair.

Gerd

on Sat 17 of Jan., 2009 02:39 CET, by raka28

i 've finish all phase and installation is successfull, after i restart PC. and try boot from usb. there message Disk Read error press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart. By the the way i use Mainboard Intel 845 and Fujitsu Usb HDD please help!

on Fri 30 of Oct., 2009 07:59 CET, by luther349

that happen to me to after abought 3 months. only way i fixed it was a reformat and reinstall.

on Thu 07 of Jan., 2010 07:39 CET, by ove1024

I've been booting XP Prof from a usb drive since Nov 08. However, I have had this same problem of every a few months - the usb drive fails to boot with the "A disk read error occurred" before the Windows booting screen (the moving vertical bars in the bottom of the screen) shows up. I have tried a number of things without being able to get around this problem easily. This problem seems to occurred randomly after a normal shutdown of the Windows system. I disabled Windows update after it happened one more time. It lasts about 3 months and today I failed with the same message again. It appears that it does not have much to do with the usboot but somehow some damage is done to the MBR or related resources with the usb booted system. I also boot from the internal disk on the same system equally frequently and has never have the same problem. The failed-to-boot usb disk can be accessed from another computer as a normally just fine (as a non-booting disk) and a full scandisk does not reveal any error.

The way I have been fixing this problem, a rather tedious one, is to dup a backup disk with a working usboot. Then I wipe out all the files including Windows system file in the dep'ed disk, and copy everything from the newly failed disk to the dup'ed disk. Any it would work for a few months. The only thing carried over from the backup disk is the MBR and the file partition. (This way I am able to keep what I last have in the failed-to-boot disk.)

Any suggestion or way to fix this problem is most welcome and appreciated.

on Fri 08 of Jan., 2010 06:10 CET, by Maxfutur

is EWF filter/driver installed?

If not, that can be the problem.

It has to be installed while setting up windows for USB.

on Fri 08 of Jan., 2010 16:47 CET, by ove1024

what is the EWF filter/driver? how do I find out if I have it? I was able to run the usboot and the error only occurs once two or three months. I was running usboot v2.07, that was done around Nov. 08.

On the other hand, I inspect the MBR between a good disk and the one the having this error. They are almost identical, with the exception of byte 244 and 245, which is supposed to be zeros normally according wikipedia. In the bad disk it has non-zero values. Setting them to zeros does not fix the problem.

on Sat 09 of Jan., 2010 21:07 CET, by ove1024

Another update. After comparing the MBR between working and the failed disks of the same geometry, I found they are identical with the exception of the disk id. Then I compare the two NTFS Volume Boot Record, they are also identical with the exception of the MFT (Master File Table) and its mirror addresses. Inspecting the MFT content does not reveal anything unusual. The failed to boot drive are perfectly accessible as long as I do not boot from it. checkdisk does not report any error on it. This is very strange.

on Sun 10 of Jan., 2010 14:35 CET, by admin

You could try the following approach to close in on the cause of this issue:

Place your Windows Installation on a second primary partition and just keep the bootloader, bootmenu etc. on the first primary one. Then make a backup of both so that later when facing the problem again you will be able to selectively restore each of the two partitions in turn to narrow down the factors of your problem.

Gerd

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