[d2comp]

I have a Gateway MX8715 laptop that came installed with Vista. I was ok with it until a few weeks back I keep getting the sporadic blue screens and shutdowns on the machine. After 5 days of trying to figure out how to resolve it - I made the decision to purchase Windows XP and just install it on this computer and not deal with Vista anymore. I chose to go the dual boot route in case I changed my mind and followed all the online instructions and got it to work including finding all the XP drivers. However, I wanted to make the XP partition bigger and in a daring move I decided to try and reformat the drives and start all over.......and then the problems began!

I can definitely install Vista with no problem but when I try to go back and add XP like I did before - I get the "A DISK READ ERROR OCCURRED. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart" and the computer just hangs. I can install the Vista disc and go through the repair startup mode and then it boots up to Vista again but can't get it to boot into XP and to be honest I am not entirely sure that it actually installed again. I am a newbie to this and really am unsure what to do now and hoping someone can help me......

[Elvandil]

Can you show us Disk Management?

Right-click Computer > Manage > Disk Management.

You might want to test the drive.

Free Hard Drive Testing Applications:
Manufacturer's Tests
HD Tune
CheckDisk 1.03 (Marks bad sectors as unusable.)
HDAT2 (Diagnostics and bad sector recovery)
MHDD Low-level Diagnostics
Bootable Hitachi Drive Fitness Test Floppy or CD Image (works on most drives)

Hard Drive Manufacturers' Diagnostic Utilities Links:
TachTech
BleepingComputer

[d2comp]

Sorry I just got off work to respond to your request - here is a shot of the disk management and I used HD Tune and it came up the hard drive was healthy.

[Elvandil]

The disk error may well be the CD and not the hard drive. Any scratches or smudges?

If possible, try a different XP CD, or try a commercial lens cleaner for the drive (sometimes helps).