Problem with HP EliteBook 6930p Notebook

[Ernest]

Hi,

Tried using my old ext HDD which is able to boot for 6910p but not for 6930p. It showing error "A disk read error occurred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart".

The laptop is comes with latest bios F06.

Will appreaciate if someone here can help.

Thank you!!

[Paxton]

If you change the SATA Device Mode in the BIOS, to IDE. This should end up working for you.

[Curt]

Run a checkdisk from the windows recovery console. To do this, insert your WinXP installation cd and wait untill you get the option to enter the recovery mode. It might be the case that you'll need to load drivers for your hard disk controller (this is usually the case if you have a SATA hdd), you'll need a driver disk and when the setup asks to press F6 to load the drivers, you should do this.
So, when you are in the recovery console you'll have to select your windows installation (there should only be one) and you'll have to enter the administrator password.

Then you type the following:

chkdsk /r

and let the computer do it's work. The /r option finds bad sectors, re-allocates them and tries to recover information.

If you get a message that there isn't a hdd or a windows installation available, then one of the following things might be wrong:

• completely dead hard disk drive (in this case, the BIOS shouldn't find the hdd either)
  
  
• you haven't loaded the drivers for the hdd controller