5punk

I have a laptop which I built a fresh copy of XP on last week (on a brand new hard drive) and it was fine for days but then today when it tries to boot it simply says:

disk read error, press CTRL + ALT +DEL yada yada yada

I've tried booting from XP build CDs to try and run a repair but it shows the 'Setup is inspecting your hardware' message, then the screen goes black and nothing else happens so I can't get to the recovery console or anything.
I've tried using an app called fixmbr on the disk when it is in a different machine but still not working. I've booted to Knoppix so I know all the data and everything is there but it just don't want to play

Any ideas? (I suspect XP is an innocent bystander in this one but I can't be sure)

I have also tried Raspberry as well as blackcurrent jam

I had this problem the other night, try moving a couple of SATA cables around if you can, if it's IDE, make sure they're seated properly.

Are you running knoppix off the same hdd or a different hdd/usb thingy? A brand new hard drive failing after a few days suggests something like b0rked bot arm or read/write head problems to me, possibly some part or other on the hdd spazzing after being tested then left alone for a while.

Has it been dropped in the intervening week?

looks like the disk is screwed, put the old one back in and it's all fine again. RMA tiem!