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"A disk read error has occurred." What now?

Anonymous
2023-03-08T21:00:08+00:00

Yesterday I turned on my computer and I got "A disk read error has occurred Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to restart".

It was working absolutely fine the day before. I turned it off normally and it had no updates before it shut down.

I'm going to use a friend's laptop to download the media creation tool thing to try to fix my issue, but I've been reading up on it and I'm confused as to what will happen. Will it try to repair my computer's issue, or will it do a fresh install? I don't have my product key anymore. My computer is running Windows 10, but it started with XP. So if it's a fresh install will I have to buy a new product key? I have a Microsoft account, and can see my computer listed under my devices, but obviously it doesn't have my key listed.

Basically I'm wondering how screwed I am. I honestly was planning to make a backup yesterday, but my computer had other plans. 😮‍💨

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Performance and system failures

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  1. Reza-Ameri 45,811 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-03-11T21:31:41+00:00

    If you perform a Clean Install of Windows meaning boot and install Windows, there is a menu ask for partition, if you don't modify the partition which Windows has been installed and chose to install Windows on the same partition as the previous version of Windows, then it will show you a message that your files will be placed in a folder called Windows.old and when you install your Windows, you may open the folder and retrieve your files. However, you have to reinstall your applications. In case, you format drives , then you will lose your data.

    Normally, if you change the hard drive only, your activation won't run into problem and should work fine. The real problem is when you change motherboard or you have some other major hardware change and that also depends on your license. However, incase if you change hard drive and run into activation issue, you may look for solution in this forum or if you won't find it, you may ask a new question.

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  2. Reza-Ameri 45,811 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-03-08T21:04:02+00:00

    In case Windows 10 already installed in your PC and it has been activated, then you may install Windows 10 using the installation media and when your PC connect to internet, it will be activated and you don't need to enter product key. However, if the Windows was inside the system and it wasn't activated, you might run into activation issue.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-03-10T01:14:39+00:00

    Thanks. Windows was activated on my PC. So that's at least good.

    Unfortunately I got an "automatic repair couldn't fix your PC" error.

    Do you know if I will lose all my data if I reinstall Windows?

    If my hard drive is bad and I need to install windows on a new hard drive will I need to purchase a new copy of Windows?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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