How to fix track error when reading, writing, or formatting a disk

Updated: 07/13/2023 by Computer Hope

If you're receiving track errors when reading, writing or formatting a computer hard drive or floppy disk drive, it is likely that they contain errors or has corrupted data. If you are running Microsoft Windows, we recommend you first resolve this issue by running Microsoft ScanDisk and Microsoft Defrag if they are available to you.

If you're getting this error while you are formatting a hard drive or floppy diskette, the hardware has most likely failed and needs to be replaced.

Receiving track error when attempting to listen to an audio CD

Computer compact disc aka CD

If you're encountering a track error when attempting to listen to a CD (Compact Disc), follow the steps below.

  1. Verify that the CD is clean.
  2. Try the CD in another computer. If error is also encountered in another computer, it is a bad CD. If the error is not encountered on another computer, the CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read-Only Memory) is dirty or bad.

Receiving track error when attempting to create an audio CD

This error is commonly caused when the compact disc is bad or the file attempting to be created contains errors. We first recommend you try creating the same audio CD on a different disc. If the same issue occurs, the likely cause is that an audio file you are adding to the CD contains errors.