Interpreting "Failed to Read" errors

Howdy,

I just launched V9 and after a few moments it displayed "Failed to read from sector 63 of hard disk 2". I then got many more of the same for different sectors.

How can I figure out what hard disk 2 is??

I ask because I have two drives in the box, and each has two partitions.

Would disk 2 be the second partition on the first drive?

Thanks for any tips on understand this, and also for suggestions on how to proceed,

Kenneth

 

First, failed to read suggests that you have a seriously damaged and most likely failing hard drive. The drive that you were trying to backup is the one that produced the error message.

Run CHKDSK /R on each partition immediately. Then try to make another image.

 

Hi John,

I appreciate your comments, but still have my original question...

I have two disks in the box, each with two partitions.

The 4 partitions are called C, E, F, and G.

TI is telling me it can't read sectors of "2-1".

I am trying to figure out which of the four partitions that might be.

So I don't really understand the phrase "the drive you were trying to backup" because I don't see how TI would kow which of the four partitions I was trying to backup because at the point of the error, I have not selected any partition. I will also add that when I launch TI I can see the word "analyzing" on the lower left of the screen. Then, rather rapidly, some characters flash by. They are C, E, 2-1 and then I get the error message. If, BTW, that is telling me that C, and E, are all right, that would be great because right now, only C has anything on it.

Part of my confusion relates to my assumption that if, as I suspect, it is telling me that it is checking Partition C, then E (which would make some sense) then, what in the world is "2-1"?

And finally, if you might know, what sort of check of the partitions could TI be doing that quickly? It "checks" C, E, and 2-1, in perhaps two seconds.

Sincere thanks again,

Kenneth

 

I get this same kind of error without fail for my external USB drive running from the version 8 rescue-CD (not from Windows though), when I first invoke the backup command, have clicked "Next", and it starts reading all of my partition parameters.

In my case, it's identifying the problematic drive as Disk 3. I have two internal hard drives and 2 external USB hard drives. The "lower" lettered USB drive partitions (E: & F: ) are on the one being referred to as Disk 3. I have no doubt as to which drive is which based on my observation of drive activity lights and the fact that, when I get to the place to select a partition for backup, TI fails to see the two partitions on that disk as "Local Drive" and empty, despite them having volume labels and several folders of data on each. This is no surprise to me since Windows XP device manager will number my internal drives first, then my external drives, and then my removable media drives (CD-R, CD-RW, and USB flash drive).

So, although this may be merely anecdotal evidence, I would say it will identify the drive with your boot partition as Disk 1 and your second internal drive as Disk 2 and that "2-1" refers to the first partition on your second disk.

I hope that at least puts things in a more rational framework.

Although I fervently agree with John's advice that you check the integrity of your drive immediately I've done that every way I know how to, including from in Windows' Recovery Console, and have found nothing wrong with my drive.

 

Disk management (XP) shows my two intenal hard drives, and one external hard drive as:

Drive 0 for the first internal drive C: and E:
Drive 1 for the second internal drive D:
Drive 2 for the external drive F:

John

 

Hello All,

As it turns out, I have some sort of Registry problems...

I had scanned my disks in a variety of ways, but found no errors.

Then, I attempted the first of three stages of the fix of my Registry, launched TI, and the disk errors were no longer displayed. (Good news huh...?)

But then I continued the Registry fix process.

When done, I launched TI, and all appeared well.

But, when I attempted to exit from TI, my system rebooted... Every time.

I am now preparing for a re-install of Windows.

All the best,

Kenneth