"A disk read error occurred" appears on screen after choosing to boot into Windows XP from GRUB.
[root@localhost linux]# fdisk -lu
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x48424841
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 204214271 102107104+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 204214272 255606783 25696256 af HFS / HFS+
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 255606784 276488191 10440704 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda4 276490179 312576704 18043263 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 * 276490240 286709759 5109760 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 286712118 310488254 11888068+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda7 310488318 312576704 1044193+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Here, sda is a 160GB hard disk with quite a few partitions and 3 OSes installed. I am able to boot into Linux and Mac OS fine, but not into Windows anymore. The Windows system is located on /dev/sda1.
I cannot recall how exactly have I used testdisk but it once said:
Disk /dev/sda - 160 GB / 149 GiB - CHS 19458 255 63
The harddisk (160 GB / 149 GiB) seems too small! (< 169 GB / 157 GiB)
Check the harddisk size: HD jumper settings, BIOS detection...
So far I have tried to "fixboot" and "chkdsk" from a recovery console on the affected windows partition (/dev/sda1), the plug off power cord for 15 seconds trick, reinstalling GRUB, repairing the MFT and boot sector of the affected partition via testdisk, what next please?
Thank you!