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loading pbr ... disk i/o error ... replace the disk

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Latest post 11/03/2009 06:42 PM by asbaker. 4 replies.
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Joined on 04/04/2009
Posts: 5
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loading pbr ... disk i/o error ... replace the disk

21 May 2009 05:38PM

Hello, I have a dimension 9200, with 4 drives. It was working fine untill a few hours ago, when I restarted from an update, and received this error message:

loading pbr for descriptor 2....done

disk i/o error

replace the disk

 

The only changes that have been made since last succesful boot were: I reformatted a external harddrive to fat32 for xbox use- the process- started trying to use dos to format, but didn't work, downloaded a program- swissknife- which also didn't work, and then used a seagate disk utility, which did work.

 

This was a drive that had not been connected- though now that I think about it, the seagate utility used the term "add harddrive" to do the reformat, so maybe the system is expecting that external drive to be there? I will try plugging that back in to see if that does the trick

continued to use the computer, everything was fine

also updated windows media player to version 10, and then rebooted

then restarted with error.

I'll post after i try plugging the external fat32 back in.

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4 Replies:

Joined on 04/04/2009
Posts: 5
Points 175

Re: loading pbr ... disk i/o error ... replace the disk

21 May 2009 05:46PM

plugging the usb external drive back in didn't do anything, same error. Any ideas?

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Joined on 04/04/2009
Posts: 5
Points 175

Re: loading pbr ... disk i/o error ... replace the disk

21 May 2009 06:16PM

Also, last week I had a drive that was starting to fail, and replaced it with a new seagate 1tb drive & it has been working fine.

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South Jersey
Joined on 07/06/2001
Posts: 31,196
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Re: loading pbr ... disk i/o error ... replace the disk

22 May 2009 06:11AM

Hi, Sidewaysup:

That error indicates a problem with the MBR for one of your hard drives, and then the message tells you the drive has failed. If you're not sure which one it is, run the Dell diagnostics from your Dell Resource disc on your hard drives.

Good news, replacement drives are fairly cheap.

Please post back and let me know if you need more help. If my suggestions have helped you solve your problem, you can click Accepted Solution next to my post to tell other forum users where they can find help. Feel free to send me a PM if you like, but I will post suggestions in the forum, not by private message.

Osprey

CD/DVD FAQ

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Joined on 04/15/2005
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Re: loading pbr ... disk i/o error ... replace the disk

03 Nov 2009 06:42PM

sidewaysup:
loading pbr for descriptor 2....done

I know it's been a long time since this question was posted but I have a solution that has not been posted and hope someone else will find it here. It has worked for me on 2 different Dell 530 computers. The 2nd one (today) was very resistant and took 6 attempts to get to the c: prompt in step 5 but it eventually did (whew!). I don't know if it matters but I did remove power for half an hour and removed al USB plugs except keyboard and mouse before starting.

1.         start computer and press F12 and change 1st boot to CD

2.         insert Windows CD (or Dell's restoration or reinstallation CD) and reboot

3.         says setting up Windows – takes a long time to get to a menu

4.         *** CHOOSE R for recovery console****

5.         at the c prompt, type     fixboot    and then press Enter key

6.         Says “The target partition is c: Are you sure you want to write a new bootsector to the partition of c:

7.         type in y (for yes) and press enter, Says something about boot sector is corrupt … writing new boot sector… success

8.         reboot and press F12 again. Change 1st boot to the hard drive name (SATA something) and press enter and REMOVE the Windows CD.

 

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