Hard Drive Failure After Restart?

So, I had Windows 64 bit installed and working fine on my machine for HTPC purposes, but I grew tired of certain software I really needed to work not working, even after trying many settings. I decided to reformat my computer and install x86 instead. It went through the initial setup and restart just fine without any errors, but when the motherboard went to post on restart, it hung during post at the following:

3rd Master: Maxtor 6V200E0 VA111900
Ultra DMA Mode-6, S.M.A.R.T. Capable and Status OK

and won't go any further. I can't even get into the bios setup. Here's the weird thing... if I take the drive out and place it in another machine, it boots fine and I can read and access everything just fine. Also, if I place another hard drive in the problem PC, it boots as normal and gets past posting. It's like it suddenly has problems booting with just this drive connected and it's driving me mad. I've tried reformatting the drive in another machine, but no luck. I mean, x64 was running fine on this drive! Why would it suddenly stop posting with this drive, but work with others, even when other PCs can still use this drive?

Anyone seen this before?

WindowsStar said:

Have you checked your BIOS settings for that drive? I have seen AHCI work for x64 but not for x86. For the life of me I have no idea why some drives will not work in AHCI mode for x86 and but fine in x64?? This is a mystery to me.

Edit: that is repetitive. UGH! It is late.

Yes, it is late. lol

I'll check on that and get back to you, but I have reformatted the drive on another PC, removing all x86 files from the drive and it still won't post with it connected to the trouble PC. For some reason, it just doesn't seem to like this drive anymore.

No luck. Any other suggestions? This thing is driving me mad. I've tried different cable and connector combinations with the same result.

I ve been getting results with non responsive drives, and w7 refusing to install to them, and leaving you with a blank screen, and a message (not the same as yours). What I did was delete the partition in custom install, and recreate it, then continue to install to the new partition.

You may have a bad Sata connection on mobo.

theog said:

You may have a bad Sata connection on mobo.

I tried every connection on the motherboard. The thing is, any other drives I connect to it get past posting and work just fine. I don't think it's a connector or cable issue because of this. This is driving me mad!

I've repartitioned, reformatted, reformed the mbr, done just about everything I can think of and it's still not working. It posts in every other computer I connect this drive to except this one and it posted fine in this one until I tried to install Windows 7 x86.

whest said:

I ve been getting results with non responsive drives, and w7 refusing to install to them, and leaving you with a blank screen, and a message (not the same as yours). What I did was delete the partition in custom install, and recreate it, then continue to install to the new partition.

I can't even seem to get to that point though. My computer just won't post with this hard drive anymore.

You might be able to create a bootable cd with this software and try to fix it - I havent used this software, but it looks easy enough - but, if your pc wont post with it connected it might be a good time to buy a new hard drive - they are really cheap now.

Free Download Partition Wizard

Partition Wizard Bootable CD allows user to boot computer directly to manage partition.