Aspire 5734z wont run system disk

rodsstuff

My daugher lost her password for her computer. I am trying to restore the computer with the recovery disks. When I start the computer with the system disk the files start to load then  I get an error screen from windows boot manager. 

"Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer."

File: \Boot\BCD

Status: 0xc00000e9

info: An unexpected I/O error has occurred.

I hit continue, it goes through the same loading files and then I get the error again

 

finlux

Hi rodsstuff

 

This is not a straight forward problem (are they ever??)

 

Error 0xc00000e9 can point to the following problems:

 

1. Optical drive failure - likely to be, but not necessarily a laser issue

2. Hard drive fault

3. Cannot read the data correctly on the recovery disk, due to dirt or scratches

 

If you have another laptop/computer to try the recovery disk on (obviously not to actually install!) to see if it reads it OK. If it does, then it's not likely the recovery disk and will point to problems 1 or 2.

 

You can then try to swap out the optical drive (with a spare, or a borrowed one) to see if it helps. You may also try a USB optical drive - just remember to boot from it and not the internal one. If this fails too, then it is likely to be the hard drive.