TopFarmer wrote:

> run FDISK -L , if you can

About 3 seconds after the disk is booted, the following (famous?) error message is displayed:

Disk Read Error Occured. Press CTRL ALT DEL to restart

Therefore, CHKDSK cannot be run.

The Windows XP system CD gives the same message as above.

The manufacturer's recovery disk can be read, but it sounds like a disk image. It will restore the PC to the programs and data that was on the machine when bought. All his own data would be overwritten. Knoppix of course can be read.

TopFarmer wrote:

> Can you find out what is the last thing the neighbor did?

The machine gave the above error at boot. Pressing CTRL ALT DEL solved the problem. Same again at next reboot. This happened for a few days. On the last day, the machine would not start.

He should probably have taken it back to the shop sooner. (The shop says that he needs a new hard drive. They said nothing can be done. They have obviously never heard of stuff like Knoppix.)