disk error

[Elaine]

turned on pc and got a n message "a disk read error occurred press ctrl+alt+del" to restart no idea how to fix this as screen keeps re-appearing any ideas? thanks

[squarebear]

Oh dear. Looks like your hard disk might have packed in.

First check that you are not booting your PC with a floppy disk or USB memory stick/flash card attached.
If it still doesn't boot, open te machine and check the hard drive connections on the motherboard.

Otherwise, it looks like time to ask Santa for a new hard drive and you can put your backups on the new drive.
You do backup your important files I take it?