When I turned on my TR3AP3 today i was shocked to see this on my screen at the top left habd corner.

“A disk read error occurred”
Press Contl Alt Dlete to restart

I have tried that a bunch of times and still nothing. I get the same message.  What could this be and how do I fix it?

I have not dropped or spilled anything on it!

You’ve never heard of this problem?  :shock:

Your hard drive died… It sucks but it happens.  Once that happens there is no use trying to have it repaired.  If you had important files, you could take it to a PC repair shop nearby and see if they are able to scrape the data off the hard drive.

You don’t have to of dropped it or spilled anything on it.  Hard drives unfortunately are just very unstable (time for flash :mrgreen: ), especially the newer 1.8”.  Since they are relatively new to the market, there hasn’t been that much room for improvement.

So can I send it in to Sony for repair or what ?  Is the computer garbage now?

I’ve had it since April..

Well did you buy it directly from SonyStyle.com?  If you did, you need to call them and check to see if your warranty will cover it.  Since you’ve had it since April, Sony’s one year warranty should should cover it.  However, I’m not sure since I don’t know the specifics of Sony’s warranties having purchased mine from Best Buy.  You can check out the warranty plan here .  It is a PDF so ensure that you have Adobe Acrobat on your computer as well.

The whole computer isn’t garbage.  You only need a new hard drive and the system will be as good as it was the day you got it.  Also make sure you have the Media Recovery CD’s to reinstall the O/S and drivers(assuming Sony doesn’t do that for you, if anything they can send you some with your repaired TR, should you send it to them for a new hard drive.)

I just spoke to Sony and they said when i get home I should call them back and have them walk me through installing the recovery CDs, he said he doesnt think its the hard drive…will this not help at all?

Its worth a try.  Id say its better to try that before you send it to them for a new hard drive. I just know from relatives and friends’ computers that I have repaired, once that screen comes up, the hard drive is dead.  But maybe its not always the case.  There was a post in this forum from someone offerings software from Hitachi which scans your hard drive and is VERY good for checking it. I actually just put a post up requesting it.  If anything, after you check with the guys at Sony, if it doesn’t work try the software. (Hopefully someone will have posted the ISO for it by then.)
After that…  .... umm well baby steps…

I,ve had situations before where hardrive looked to be dead i.e not getting to boot XP. But on restoring a Drive Image it worked OK again so may not be a hard drive fault.

It is possible that the hard disk may be faulty or it could be a random read error due to corrupt system files. In terms of faultiness, it could be something very serious or a minor problem like a bad sector. Bad sectors can be marked and ignored although it’s usually better to replace the drive just in case.

You may also want to burn and run the below ISO to check the disk (assuming it’s a Hitachi one and not Toshiba):

http://www.hitachigst.com/downloads/dft373_25.iso

I actually believe the test can check Toshiba disks as well but you’re more limited with what you can do with it and you get no support..however it’s worth a try to check the surface.

You could also just restore the system using the CDs and see if that solves the problem as well.

sadly, i’ve only had bad experiences with hitachi 1.8”

now toshiba… hopefully this’ll last more than 4 months

jso, mine lasted 5

i bet hitachi is hauling ass to fix this problem especially with sony opting to use toshiba’s 1.8”

it’s funny how sony gave me the impression that I was the only with this problem.  And when I finally find a TR community, I find out there are more than just a few hitachi’s ticking away.  I love how corporations hide their problems. 

:|

[quote author=“gr00vy0ne”]You may also want to burn and run the below ISO to check the disk (assuming it’s a Hitachi one and not Toshiba):

http://www.hitachigst.com/downloads/dft373_25.iso

I actually believe the test can check Toshiba disks as well but you’re more limited with what you can do with it and you get no support..however it’s worth a try to check the surface.

I just tested my Toshiba drive in my S and it worked fine.  I was able to do this initial drive sector check test and the “exerciser” test perfectly.  The only thing I noticed was that the system didn’t detect my cache level on the drive.  This software was also used on my TR’s Toshiba(bad Toshiba )by Best Buy to ensure that my hard drive was in fact faulty.

I got home, put in the 1st of 2 recovery disks and that went fine, on the 2nd disk it just stopped and went back to “A disk read error Occurred”

Sony says it is probably the hard drive then and to be safe they are going to check the CD ROM…I bought an extended waaranty servie through SONY and they will come to my home next week with the parts to repair it but the parts may take a week to arrive to them.

I am going to die wihtout my laptop for over a week.

Normally, I’d ask if you would be so kind as to leave me the laptop in your will, but I’m not sure I’d want it after the above experience…