Hello, I have an Acer Aspire 1600 laptop, It suddenly gave "Disk Error" message when booting - white text/dark screen/upper left corner. I reboot and it can not find HDD. The HDD is Hitachi DK23EA-40 (ATA-5 Enhanced IDE - not that I understand... ), original from factory. I can reach BIOS - the HDD is seen there (Primary), but that's it. I used the ACER recovery discs and they can not help. The issue (confusing) is that I keep on getting different error messages - all relating to HDD. Typical is to get after the "Press F2/F12" stage in start up (dark screen/white text): "Disk Error. Press any key to restart". With Win98 Acer recovery disc, I get a DOS prompt - managed to see c: driver <dir> content once - never again. Now it says "Volume in Drive C is MS-Ramdrive Directory C: File not Found." The WinXP Acer discs fail to find a large drive to install. Once reached the SafeMode options - still failed to boot.Is the HDD dead? Could it be contact issue? Memory? Would love your advice! :confused:

I would boot to the winXP cd, and then go into Recovery Console when it gives you the option, and run Checkdisk from there. Here are some more specific instructions:

How to run checkdisk from recovery console - Windows xp - Geeks to Go!

That *Might* help, but I suspect that the drive is going bad. I'm guessing it's 2-3 years old or older? Generally that's when a hard drive will start to fail. Most will last at least 2 years, but it's kindof hit and miss after that. You can take two of the same model, and one will last 3 years, one will last 10.

Thanks! Indeed, the laptop (and the HDD) are both >4 years old (bought it in Fall 2003), and they have travelled across the globe in VERY challenging settings (rain forests etc. ridiculously bumpy roads... the whole works). So, yes, I am not surprised if the HDD goes... The rest of the system worked fine though and it is a pitty to lose the whole laptop. I will run the checkdisk (if possible) application you suggested (although I am not optimistic) and I will start looking for a replacement of the HDD. I just hope that there is no other hidden problem. Thanks again! If something inetresting comes, I will inform the forum. :o

If the rest of it is in good condition, a new hard drive shouldn't cost more than $150. You can probably get it for a lot less, depending on how big you need it to be. It's cheaper than replacing the whole thing :)

Even if it doesn't fix the drive, checkdisk might be able to help you get some information off it.