Windows 7 - HD Errors. Added 1. Install W 7. Both show at first. Now gone.

Dell XPS 17 L1701X

Hi -

So ... I have trial tomorrow and I'm panicking.

My hard drive (with about 300g of data I actually use), started having errors. I'm out of town but I happened to have another hard drive with no important data. I installed it (physically), booted from it, and installed Windows 7 home premium from a resource recovery disk.

At first, both drives showed up. I got an error saying my pc was predicting imminent failure of the one I was seeking to back up. I reboot, and it's gone.

I've researched the other threads and attempted the fixes (i.e. computer management stuff, take ownership, refresh hard drive list) to no avail.

One thing I just thought of is that the (now) primary drive has home premium and the (failing) secondary drive has just plain ol W 7. Not sure that would effect anything.

Timely replies get my heartfelt gratitude.


P.S. I'm working on a different PC atm, so I can't screen shot. But what shows is an un-assigned OEM Partition, CD-Rom drive, Disk 0 (main), and a recovery volume. All simple, all healthy.

I did notice that the failing drive was assigned number 5 when I could see it.

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

I think your next step should be to physically disconnect the failing drive, which I assume will be connected to Sata port 0 then connect the replacement drive to that port and see what shows up then.

Thanks for the prompt response. Let me see if I understand in lay man's terms.

I added what is now the main drive into the secondary physical slot. Are you saying I need to physically change this?

In the system startup, I have the computer booting from the new drive.

Yes. Connect it in the slot that the failing drive occupied.

Ugh. Ok. Thanks.

And I can't boot the system. I get a warning that hard drive failure is imminent and I should back up my data. I'd like to do that, but I can't get to the OS. If I attempt several times I can eventually get to the safe mode options, but regardless of which I select, the system still fails to load.

Thanks in advance for any advice.