Windows 7 RC hosed my HDD on expiration

When Windows 7 RC expired on my Gaming PC, it did a lot more than reboot every two hours, it's made the HDD it was installed on completely unaccessible.


Yesterday when the RC epxired I got a blue screen that said it encountered a fatal error that was along the lines of "product expired".


I expected to be able to boot right back up, but instead at POST the PC just hangs and eventually asks me to insert boot media. I fired up UBCD and tried to run some HDD disgnostics. In some of them the disk itself would show up, but would come back every time with a "Device not ready" error. I'm posting this right now using a Linux live CD and the HDD light is stuck on solid 100% of the time the PC is on.

Like I said, nothing at all on my PC changed other than Windows 7 RC shutting down, and now I have what seems to be a useless HDD.


I've found at least one other post like this around the net, anyone know a way to access my drive again?


I've tried to fixmbr and fixboot using a Win XP disk but it won't even recognise the drive as existing. Same with the Win 7 repair option.

HittingSmoke said:

When Windows 7 RC expired on my Gaming PC, it did a lot more than reboot every two hours, it's made the HDD it was installed on completely unaccessible.


Yesterday when the RC epxired I got a blue screen that said it encountered a fatal error that was along the lines of "product expired".


I expected to be able to boot right back up, but instead at POST the PC just hangs and eventually asks me to insert boot media. I fired up UBCD and tried to run some HDD disgnostics. In some of them the disk itself would show up, but would come back every time with a "Device not ready" error. I'm posting this right now using a Linux live CD and the HDD light is stuck on solid 100% of the time the PC is on.

Like I said, nothing at all on my PC changed other than Windows 7 RC shutting down, and now I have what seems to be a useless HDD.


I've found at least one other post like this around the net, anyone know a way to access my drive again?


I've tried to fixmbr and fixboot using a Win XP disk but it won't even recognise the drive as existing. Same with the Win 7 repair option.

Probably not what you wan to hear but a format might reserect it

zigzag3143 said:

HittingSmoke said:

When Windows 7 RC expired on my Gaming PC, it did a lot more than reboot every two hours, it's made the HDD it was installed on completely unaccessible.


Yesterday when the RC epxired I got a blue screen that said it encountered a fatal error that was along the lines of "product expired".


I expected to be able to boot right back up, but instead at POST the PC just hangs and eventually asks me to insert boot media. I fired up UBCD and tried to run some HDD disgnostics. In some of them the disk itself would show up, but would come back every time with a "Device not ready" error. I'm posting this right now using a Linux live CD and the HDD light is stuck on solid 100% of the time the PC is on.

Like I said, nothing at all on my PC changed other than Windows 7 RC shutting down, and now I have what seems to be a useless HDD.


I've found at least one other post like this around the net, anyone know a way to access my drive again?


I've tried to fixmbr and fixboot using a Win XP disk but it won't even recognise the drive as existing. Same with the Win 7 repair option.

Probably not what you wan to hear but a format might reserect it

There's no way to format man. No OS will recognise it, UBCD HDD apps only give me device errors from it.

There's actually two paritions, one with Win 7 and one with data. Started literally the minute Win 7 RC shut itself down for the first time. I'm trying to stay calm and not be mad at MS about this, but the only explanation is the way Windows 7 handled the forced shutdown destroyed my drive. If anyone has any less dramatic ideas I'd love to hear them but I'm left with no other conclution at the moment.

FZ21Z said:

HittingSmoke said:

I'm trying to stay calm and not be mad at MS about this, but the only explanation is the way Windows 7 handled the forced shutdown destroyed my drive.

Or another explanation is that the drive was already on its way out, and it's an unfortunate coincidence.

It's still less than six months old, and it's not a low quality drive by any means. The chance that it would die on the exact moment of Win 7 causing a forced shutdown with blue screen would just be... insane.

How does software physically damage hardware? A shutdown is allot different to pulling the power plug or a power out while your machine is running and they both dont damage hardware.

Since the BIOS is not recognizing the drive, its a hardware problem. Check the drive in another machine and also try different cabling.

In any case, this instance is covered by warranty unless you say an Operating System caused the problem or they'll laugh at you, contact the company you purchased it from because I know some drives awhile back had firmware issues that would cause the drive to stop operating randomly and you can get a free replacement.

You can do a RMA check yourself for Western Digital here: WD Support > Warranty Services > Warranty Services for End User Customers

Seagate here:
Warranty and Returns Assistance | Seagate

Hitachi here:
Warranty/RMA

dmex said:

How does software physically damage hardware? A shutdown is allot different to pulling the power plug or a power out while your machine is running and they both dont damage hardware.

Since the BIOS is not recognizing the drive, its a hardware problem. Check the drive in another machine and also try different cabling.

In any case, this instance is covered by warranty unless you say an Operating System caused the problem or they'll laugh at you, contact the company you purchased it from because I know some drives awhile back had firmware issues that would cause the drive to stop operating randomly and you can get a free replacement.

You can do a RMA check yourself for Western Digital here: WD Support > Warranty Services > Warranty Services for End User Customers

Seagate here:
Warranty and Returns Assistance | Seagate

Hitachi here:
Warranty/RMA

I never said it physically damaged my drive.

Windows 7 RC doesn't do a proper shutdown on expiration, it causes a blue screen crash. So it was indeed closer to pulling the power plug than a "shutdown" as you've put it.

Here are the facts. I had Windows 7 RC installed. It was running fine. S.M.A.R.T reported my drive to be in perfect health. Fairly new drive. Windows 7 RC forces a blue screen crash and on reboot my drive is broken.

When I try UBCD I don't get an error reading the NTFS file system as has been suggested, I get an I/O Error.

The only factor bridging the time from my drive being in perfect health to it being completely dead is the forced blue screen that was caused by Windows 7.

I've read one other post with the same problem on some random forums found via Google.

HittingSmoke said:

I never said it physically damaged my drive.

Windows 7 RC doesn't do a proper shutdown on expiration, it causes a blue screen crash. So it was indeed closer to pulling the power plug than a "shutdown" as you've put it.

Here are the facts. I had Windows 7 RC installed. It was running fine. S.M.A.R.T reported my drive to be in perfect health. Fairly new drive. Windows 7 RC forces a blue screen crash and on reboot my drive is broken.

When I try UBCD I don't get an error reading the NTFS file system as has been suggested, I get an I/O Error.

The only factor bridging the time from my drive being in perfect health to it being completely dead is the forced blue screen that was caused by Windows 7.

I've read one other post with the same problem on some random forums found via Google.

Sigh, You obviously didn't listen and take my advice on checking the RMA status of your drive, it might be one of the units with faulty firmware that the manufacturers offer free replacements.

An operating system like Windows 7 didn't and cant do jack shit to damage your drive, You say its dead so it means something damaged the hardware, Software can not do this.

Also, A blue screen is designed to cause the system to shut down to prevent irreversible damage to the system under any circumstance.

Ive already posted the information you need to get it solved and explained enough, if you dont want to listen and decide to blame an Operating System then dont expect it to be covered by warranty.