disc read error, can Acronis possibly help?

One night my computer restarted on it's own, thought nothing of it. when i turned the monitor on the following morning, was greeted by the msg "disc read error has occured. Press ctrl+alt+del..."

I wouldn't be worried except there's some info I'd like to retrieve.

I've been referred to use this software and understand I'd be able to make an image of my existing drive and save it for when i have this one replaced (since it's still under warranty). The only thing is I can't access anything except bios which does detect this hd and so, I don't know how i could go about this process.


I'd much rather try to correct this problem on my own and this alternative does seem plausible, i figured other users may be able to shed additional light? Any responses or help is much appreciated.

 

Acronis is a reputable company, True Image does have drive diagnostics, and their disk imaging program is widely recommended. That said, I have no personal experience using it to repair drives, instead preferring native tools, or OEM tools.

When you boot into the BIOS make sure the date and time correct and the drives are properly identified. If you make any changes, be sure to "Save and Exit, then consider replacing the battery.

If this were me, I would pull that HD and temporarily install it as a secondary drive in another computer - or in an external enclosure attached to another computer. Then I would attempt to copy any data I don't want lost.

Then run chkdsk /r from a command prompt (this can take hours to complete). Finally, determine the drive's maker and visit the maker's site to down load their latest drive diagnostics program. These typically must run from a bootable floppy or CD. See Hard Drive Diagnostics.

If all passes, you might as well run a full scan for malware while too. Then install back in original and see what happens.

 

I would examine the BIOS to see if the drive is detected properly. If it isn't there and the BIOS date/time settings are correct then it is very likely the drive has failed.

Putting it into another machine is a good idea because it eliminates any possible problems with the existing machine; it could have a bad disk controller rather than the physical disk being bad. In fact, you could have a cable that has come loose although it isn't very likely.

If you do get the disk to operate, even if the operation is marginal, copy your important files immediately onto another disk; this may be the one and only time it works!

You can run chkdsk /r (note the spelling of chkdsk).

Acronis' True Image is not a disk diagnostic and repair utility. It is intended to do backups of correctly operating disks only.

There are various data recovery programs like GetDataBack etc that are intended for data recovery from bad disks but the disk must have some degree of operating ability for them to work.

You should have been using True Image or other backup method before this happened.

 

Thanks, seekforever - corrected.

I think Acronis would disagree as they do offer some rudimentary diagnostics and repair - such as repairing the partition tables. That said, and as its name suggests, I agree, its primary purpose is creating image backups, and there are certainly better utilities specifically for diagnostics and repair.

 

I think you are referring to Acronis Disk Director not True Image but I'm certainly open to looking at the tools you mention in True Image if you can give me their location in the menus.

 

I was going by Acronis ads and the on-line manual, pg 15 that reports it can recover damage partitions. Please note, I said I think Acronis would disagree - not me - especially if you have the product in front of you!

 

Hello robwalker,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Products

If the issue still persists and chkdsk /r workaround didn’t solve it I would recommend you go into BIOS and set "Load Fail-Safe Defaults" or similar. A lot of user reports that loading default parameters solved the issue similar you have.

Best regards,
--
Dmitry Nikolaev