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Resolved Solution to a disk read error occured when installing Windows XP!

Discussion in 'Windows XP' started by Evan Omo, 2009/03/25.

  1. 2009/03/25
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff Thread Starter

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    Hi all. I was getting tired of running Windows Vista on my computer mostly because it was dreadfully slow and it was a resource hog. Despite all the performance tweaks I did to Vista all my games ran slow and after I installed Internet Explorer 8 my computer slowed down to a crawl. I got fed up with my slow Vista system and decided that I would back up all my data and perform a fresh install of Windows XP Pro.

    I booted from the Windows XP CD and deleted and created a new partition. After that Windows formatted the harddrive and copied the Windows files. The computer then rebooted and wouldn't continue setup. I was greeted with a black screen with the following error message, A disk read error occured. Press ctrl+alt+del to restart. I was stuck on that message. I tried various troubleshooting steps to fix the problem but couldn't figure it out. :( I finally read online that Windows XP can only install on a harddrive thats less than 137 GB's in size. I had a 320 GB harddrive. So I created a new partition that was less than 137 GB's and low and behold Windows XP installed fine with no problems. :)

    For those users who get this error message when you are trying to install Windows XP on a harddrive thats larger than 137 GB's, you have to create a partition thats smaller than 137 GB's to get Windows XP to install correctly.

    So my question is why does Windows XP have to be installed on a harddrive thats smaller or has a partition thats less than 137 GB's? Is the behavior that I experienced by design or is it a Windows XP Operating System limitation? I would appreciate some information on this matter. Thanks! :cool:
     
  2. 2009/03/26
    Steve R Jones

    Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

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    If you slipstream SP2 to your XP cd the problem will go away and you can create one large drive if needed.
     

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  4. 2009/03/26
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    How to enable 48-bit Logical Block Addressing support for ATAPI disk drives in Windows XP

    In addition to Steves suggestion, I would also slipstream SP3 to get those updates integrated as well. First SP2, then SP3 (both need to be slipstreamed in sequence).

    Slipstreaming Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Create Bootable CD

    Slipstreaming Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Create Bootable CD

    I don't know if you can slipstream RTM>SP2>SP3 before burning but I think so. (I already had a XP SP2 CD.)

    Christer
     
  5. 2009/03/26
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff Thread Starter

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    Thanks guys. I already have a Windows XP SP2 slipstreamed CD. I'll slipstream SP3 on the CD as well. When XP setup asked what drive I wanted XP installed on, it showed my drive as being 320 GB's in size. It recognized the full size of my harddrive. I looked in my BIOS and my drive is listed their as being only 137 GB's in size. :confused: I guess that could explain the problem why I couldn't get XP to install on one large partition.

    When I had Vista installed I had to expand my 137 GB partition in disk managment so that my entire drive (320 GB) was one partition. I'll look at the links but I am starting to think that my computers BIOS could be the cause of the problem.
     

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