Windows 7: 2nd SATA drive causes Win7 startup hang, but works in USB case?

lagrafx · 01 Oct 2011

I have Windows 7 installed on my primary IDE drive.
I have two additional data drives on SATA ports.
One SATA drive has now malfunctioned and causes the BIOS to hang.
The SATA drive will work if I remove it from the motherboard and put it into a USB case. In the USB case all folders and data are still there.

Does anyone know what may have caused the drive to not work on the motherboard anymore? Can the problem be fixed so I can put the drive back on the motherboard?

thanks.

Corazon · 01 Oct 2011

Might be a fault with the SATA port on your motherboard that the drive in question was plugged into. If you have another spare port, try that one instead...see if the BIOS still hangs with it connected.
The fact that 1. the drive itself works fine and 2. going the USB route also works suggests it's a SATA port issue.

Britton30 · 01 Oct 2011

Welcome to Seven Forums lagrafx. You may have a bad motherboard SATA header, try connecting it to another one.
The drive itself could be near end-of-life. Here are links to several drive testing tools from different manufacturers.
7 Free Hard Drive Testing Software Tools

The SATA or power cable could be the culprit too, try a different one.

theog · 01 Oct 2011

I would Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
HD Diagnostic

richnrockville · 01 Oct 2011

Quote: Originally Posted by lagrafx

I have Windows 7 installed on my primary IDE drive.
I have two additional data drives on SATA ports.
One SATA drive has now malfunctioned and causes the BIOS to hang.
The SATA drive will work if I remove it from the motherboard and put it into a USB case. In the USB case all folders and data are still there.

Does anyone know what may have caused the drive to not work on the motherboard anymore? Can the problem be fixed so I can put the drive back on the motherboard?

thanks.

Welcome to the windows 7 forums.

You might want to check the boot sequence in the bios to make sure that the ide is the first drive in the boot sequence. some only allow 2 hard disks in the hard disk part and if the ide is not the first, then your sata drive might be trying to boot and not work properly.

give the bios a try to see what it says.
Rich

gregrocker · 01 Oct 2011

In addition to Rich's important suggestion to check that the IDE is set first HD to boot in BIOS setup, in Disk Mgmt your IDE drive should be marked System Active and be the only HD marked Active.

Please post back a screenshot of your maximized Disk mgmt drive map with listings, using Snipping Tool in Start Menu, with all drives plugged in.

lagrafx · 02 Oct 2011

Here is a screenie of my disk managment screen.
G is the drive in question. It was working fine with the other drives until recently.
Now the only way the computer will start is if I keep G in an external USB enclosure.
Nothing has been changed in the BIOS.
Note G says 'Active' because I only marked it active to see what it would do a moment ago.

question still is:
Can G be repaired or remedied so that it can go back inside the comp as a data drive?

lagrafx · 02 Oct 2011

thanks for the replies so far.
the drive in question will not work regardless of the SATA port used on the mobo or the SATA cable used.
the other SATA drive works fine in either SATA port and with either SATA cable.

so i'm wondering if the drive has some type of boot sector in it even though it's not the primary boot drive?

Britton30 · 02 Oct 2011

Did you try any of the HDD tests?

If you have another OS on the HDD it may have a boot sector and you would've been presented with a choice at boot time.

Corazon · 02 Oct 2011

I notice in your screenshot that your F: drive (disk 1) is also set to active. I understand that you only set G: (disk 2) as active as a test, but the only active drive that should be active is C: (disk 0).
Is it possible that disk 2 won't work properly because disk 1 is set as active? Try setting both disks 1 and 2 as not active now and see if that solves your issue...

Windows 7: 2nd SATA drive causes Win7 startup hang, but works in USB case?

2nd SATA drive causes Win7 startup hang, but works in USB case? problems?