A disk read error occurred. Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to re-start

[coradean]

Hi,
I am pretty much a noob with computers. I know that this topic has already started but each problem I read sounds a bit different to mine.
Basically, we had our PC taken away by a computer guy to load up all of the software it needed to get going (this PC had been packed away for a while and we brought it out when my son moved out and took the other PC with him!) He brought it back, connected it to the wi fi. It was all good when he started it but the next time we started it we were getting the "disk error" message. After you press ctl alt del, it starts up , takes a while though. Other messages then come up " Google Chrome- your preferences file is corrupt or invalid. Google Chrome is unable to recover your settings" and "Microdoft Windows: The system has recovered from a serious error, A log of this error etc...."
The PC is working right now.
My son said it could be the hard drive, but how do I know ?
(BTW, computer guy is on a course so cannot be contacted)

[Geek-9pm]

Here is the best advice under the circumstances.
You need to backup everything from  the hard drive to a new drive.
Please read the link below.

Data Recovery Tutorial: How to Slave a Hard Drive
http://www.dtidata.com/resourcecenter/2007/04/23/how-to-slave-hard-drive/
This is a tutorial from Jacqui Best about the proper procedure for slaving your hard drive prior to running data recovery software on it. This would also be the procedure to follow if you were to run speed clone to sector clone a noisy drive or if you have a partition problem and need to repair or recover data from a partition or if you need to restore or undelete a file.

It is very important to not download data recovery software directly to the effected hard drive. If you don’t have a second drive or don’t have either a USB drive or USB capable data recovery software, then you must hook the drive up as a slave to run the software.

Here is the logic for this  kind of approach.
A. The hard drive may fail with no further warning.
B. The cost of data recovery is well over $1100.
C. A new hard drive is under $100.
D. Prevention (preemptive action) is better that a cure.

If you can not use the recommended procedure, best come back and let the forum know and get some more ideas from other members.