I get disk read error on boot up.

[ghost_rider5]

I have a HP that the hard drive quit. I have a E-machine that the
hdd is good. It is formated in ntfs with XP. When I put it in the HP
I get a disk read error. I put it in another E-machine and it will
boot up fine. I can read it fine if I set it as slave and use a small
hdd as master in the HP. Does e-machine have a way of blocking
it from from being used in another machine. Bios recognises it. Any
suggestions on how to change it so I can use it in my HP.

[techsheaven]

It is not blocked, but you may need to update the HAL, or the disk controller may be bad.

HAL is a Hardware Abstraction Layer used to adapt various hardware to the Operating System.

I would put the drive back in the E Machine and add the "Bad" drive to it also. Boot and try to access it. You may have to exclude it from the BIOS boot options.

If you can read and write to the drive, You probably have a good drive, but bad disk controller.

If you can assess it, go to My Computer and note the Drive Letter. Assuming it is D:\ do this:

Click Start > Run

Type CMD and press Enter Key

In the Command Prompt Window, Type the following:
chkdsk d: /f

If your drive have another letter assigned to the volume, substitute it in the command id place of d:

If it finds and fixes errors, Try putting it back in the HP

It may be helpful to blow out any dust -- especially along the RAM modules.

Good Luck

[Xlphos]

Hello,

Are you saying that you can't boot up whilst using the E-machine hard drive in the HP machine?

If this is so I believe it is because the operating system installed on that hard drive is configured for your E-machine and not the HP one.

Try installing Windows on the hard drive when it is in the HP machine.

If it is another issue, like being unable to read the disk try the previous post steps.

[mechbas]

The drivers of most OSs are specifically configured for a specific machine and trying to boot a drive on an incompatable (hardware) system just won't work.
The drive is probably good, however, the OS install is incompatable with the specific machine of your choice.

[keveenanderson]

there is a no compatibility maintain between e-machine and HP computer system. so first of you can format that drive and install XP with HP computer system and then that hard disk use with e-machine so u can easily use that hard disk with e-machine and hp computer system.