from my favorite disk imaging program support website, a very helpful guide to fixing disk read or write errors due to glitchy items like bad IDE cables: http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=152
Image Validation Fails with Image Stream Corrupt or Byte-for-Byte Validation Failure Message
This problem can be caused by overclocking, overheating, a hardware problem, or a BIOS or firmware bug or configuration issue.
To determine if the mainboard, memory, or CPU is at fault:
- Download and run either the Microsoft Windows Memory Diagnostic or memtest86 (or try both of them).
- If you use the Windows Memory Diagnostic, run the extended tests overnight.
- If you use memtest86, run all seven of the default tests and allow it to run overnight.
If the memory diagnostic does not report any errors, check the following:
If none of the above helps, the problem may be due to weak sectors on the drive surface. If the issue you are having involves a hard drive, download and run the hard drive manufacturer’s diagnostic utility or a third-party utility designed to scan and repair hard disk surfaces. Below are links to some major hard drive manufacturer’s home pages:
ExcelStor
Fujitsu
Hitachi
Seagate/Maxtor
Samsung
Seagate
Sony
Toshiba
Western Digital
If you still have not narrowed down the problem, try adjusting the system BIOS parameters below, for the drive(s) with which you are experiencing the problem. These settings, if available, are typically found under “Integrated Peripherals” or in the “Drive Configuration” section.
- Disable “Block mode”
- Disable “32-bit access”
- Switch to a different PIO mode
- Switch to a lower UDMA mode, if using UDMA