BIOS Update Nightmare

[b33fj3rky]

A couple days ago, for no good reason, I decided to update my computer's BIOS.

Horrible mistake.

The update went fine, but immediately afterward, Windows wouldn't boot. On the boot screen, right after "Verifying DMI," etc., I got a message: "A Disk Read Error Occurred: Press CTRL ALT DEL to restart."

Since then, Windows will never boot off that hard drive, and I always get the same "Disk Read" Error. (Why updating a BIOS would/could cause an error on the hard drive is beyond me...)

I ran various disk-checking software: the hard drive checks out fine.

I put an old, small hard drive in: the old, small hard drive boots up fine.

But the hard drive I had in when I updated the BIOS refuses to boot. I've connected it as a slave to another computer, and it works fine as a slave. I've tried FIXBOOT and FIXMBR in Recovery Console. I've tried a repair install of Windows. I've followed every single instruction from Western Digital (the manufacturers of the drive), which were:

"Problem:
The error message "A Disk Read Error Occurred. Press CTRL ALT DEL to restart" is shown when booting to a hard drive containing Windows 2000 or XP.

Possible Causes:
There are many possible causes for this issue. This error does not indicate that the hard drive is defective. To verify if the drive is functioning correctly and free from defect please test the drive from the directions in Answer ID 1083.

This is most likely caused by a change in the computer's BIOS or drive geometry settings. This causes the Windows Boot Manager to seek and use incorrect boot information from the hard drive.

Possible Resolutions:
IMPORTANT: The solutions provided may cause data on the hard drive to become unreadable or corrupted. It is suggested to backup the data before performing the solutions provided. You may be able to connect the hard drive as "Slave" to another computer system (running the same operating system) to access the data on the drive.

* Replace the IDE cable used to connect the hard drive to the motherboard. Ensure that the replacement IDE cable is an Ultra ATA 80-Wire/40-Pin conductor cable.


* Set you motherboard BIOS settings to Default and disable the IDE BUS MASTERING setting in the BIOS.


* Boot to your Windows 2000 or XP installation CD and enter into the Recovery Console. You may be able to repair the geometry changes made to the Windows Boot Manager program by running CHKDSK /r at the command prompt. The /r switch is the designation for "Repair" associated with Microsoft's CheckDisk utility.


* Use the same Windows 200 or XP Recovery Console to attempt to repair the Master Boot Record on the hard drive by using the fixmbr command at the command prompt."



No luck. No matter what I do, I can't get my Western Digital hard drive to boot up.

Any ideas what I could do, besides wiping the drive and reinstalling everything?

 

[danielk]

This is most likely caused by a change in the computer's BIOS or drive geometry settings.

Ah. I was just about to hazard a guess in that direction.

One thing you could try is to reset the CMOS data to SETUP defaults. Sometimes BIOS updates introduce changes to configuration settings which don't play well with the old configuration stored in the CMOS RAM. It isn't particularly likely that this will help in your case, but probably worth a try.

Also, does your BIOS have an option for NORMAL/LBA/LARGE/AUTO disk access? This should be set to AUTO or LBA.

Any ideas what I could do, besides wiping the drive and reinstalling everything?

If the drive geometry changed in way so that makes Windows not like it anymore, probably due to odd partition boundaries and stuff like that, a clean repartitioning might be required. It could be worse; at least you are able to access your data. Another idea would be to use the opportunity to buy a bigger hard drive, if appropriate.

In any case it does look like repartitioning should solve the problem, i.e. I agree that your hardware isn't really affected. Be sure to completely recreate the partition table though.

 

[b33fj3rky]

Ah. I was just about to hazard a guess in that direction.

One thing you could try is to reset the CMOS data to SETUP defaults.

Tried it, yah.

Also, does your BIOS have an option for NORMAL/LBA/LARGE/AUTO disk access? This should be set to AUTO or LBA.

Tried setting it to both AUTO and LBA; didn't work.

Another idea would be to use the opportunity to buy a bigger hard drive, if appropriate.

That sounds like a great idea! Indeed, I'm glad I haven't lost anything critical... I can still get all documents, projects etc. off the hard drive, so as soon as I get a nice new bigger drive and install Windows and all my programs to the new drive, I should be doing good. (I'm just not looking forward to finding & using every installer disk I have; that's going to take forever...)

 

[abkaiser]

Another quick thought would be to see if you can get the old (original) version of the BIOS - the version before you upgraded it. Load that up, and see if your drive boots again.

...And, of course, back up that drive ASAP, before doing anything else.

 

[b33fj3rky]

Another quick thought would be to see if you can get the old (original) version of the BIOS - the version before you upgraded it. Load that up, and see if your drive boots again.

Cool, I'll have to try that.

 

[El Greco]

You could also try bcupdate2

 

[The Gnomon]

Re: installer disks.
My solution to this problem is to create iso images using virtual-cd, save them somewhere else (external hard drive is a good place) and put them away. Also store the VCD program & key info on the external drive. Makes re-installing quick and easy(ier).