Windows 10: Disk I/O error on startup

Recently I had an issue where my pc was slow to start up. I managed to determine that it was due to my external hard drive, as when trying to access it I got the device I/O error. I have noticed that windows starts fine if the drive isn't plugged in at startup. But here's the thing that confuses me: if I plug the drive in after startup is complete it recognises the drive straight away and I can use it no problem. I've run diagnostics on the drive and they all came back fine. I restated the machine after confirming the disk was okay and once again the startup was slow and there was an i/o error

:)

 

Startup gives a disk read error.

This is a problem my Mom is having with her computer, so this might be slightly vague.
Until today she was having no problems. However, today she turned the computer on,
got the startup blurb, it went to the Windows loading screen but decided to just stay
on that screen with the Windows loading bar just continuing on its merry way.

She decided to restart the computer, the startup screen came up but then it apparently
went to blue screen of death. She pressed whatever key it was and it went to another
screen that said, 'Disk read error - press Ctrl, Alt, Delete to restart'.

Now since I been speaking to her it just goes straight to the disk read error screen
after the startup screen, no Windows loading, nothing.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

 

Windows 10 100% Disk Usage on startup.

Hi,

Thank you for responding.

I suggest you to try the below steps and check if it helps.

Step 1: First of all, take a note of the processes or applications that is running when the computer runs with high disk usage. Also, we need to find the applications that are running at startup.

Follow the steps to check for the processes under Task Manager:

• Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager.
  
• Click on Processes tab. Check if any of the processes consumes high memory usage.

Bad sectors on the hard drive can be a cause for high disk usage.

Check which process is utilizing the Hard Disk on Windows 8.1, you may try the following steps.

• Open Task Manager and click on
  Details tab.
• Right click the columns headers and click "Select Columns".
• From the "Select Columns" window, check: I/O Reads, I/O Writes, I/O read bytes, I/O write bytes and then click
  OK.
• Now the columns will be added to the view and will display how much each process is utilizing from the hard disk.
• Sort by I/O read bytes or I/O write bytes by clicking on the column header to see which process is utilizing the Hard Drive most.

Step 2: If you have not run the 'check disk' scan or tried optimizing the drive, follow the steps from this article.

Improve performance by optimizing your drive

(Note: This applies to Windows 10 also.)

Important: While performing check disk on the hard drive, if any bad sectors are found on the hard drive, it tries to repair that sector and any data available on that might be lost.

Hope it helps. Feel free to get back to us for any further queries or issues related to Windows Operating System, we will be happy to help you.

 

Laptop won't create a startup disk.

Hello Heidi,

We still can't identify the possible cause of this startup disk issue you're experiencing. For us to isolate and assist you better with this, kindly answer the following questions:

• What is the exact error message when attempting to create a startup disk?
• Have you tried creating a startup disk using another laptop? If yes, are you also having issues with it?
• Any troubleshooting steps you've tried so far?

We look forward to your reply.