HDD removal procedure?

The_Arbiter · 8 Jul 2020 at 06:50

Am trying to troubleshoot a pc that keeps rebooting. In regard to non boot drives that contain non windows files, but files that are used after boot such as desktop backgrounds and steam, is there a procedure to remove these drives from the motherboard and psu?

Thanks!

BUDFORCE · 8 Jul 2020 at 07:31

Hmmm, windows 10?

Was windows installed when the other non-boot drives were plugged in?

The_Arbiter · 8 Jul 2020 at 09:28

BUDFORCE said:
Hmmm, windows 10?

Was windows installed when the other non-boot drives were plugged in?

Yes and yes.

Well one SSD was installed after win10 installed which then had Steam moved to it. It's a WD Blue which has been flawless for months. If anything i think the WD 3TB HDD could be an issue as it has hung on loading from day 1 even with WIN7 installed previously. I turned off the sleep settings i could find for it, can't remember if that was a 3rd party thing (intel/gigabyte) or Windows

Thanks

Minstadave · 8 Jul 2020 at 09:30

Just pull them, no need to do anything special.

BUDFORCE · 8 Jul 2020 at 11:39

I've had an issue like this.

Win 10 likes to install itself across all the drives that are connected, even if it doesn't look like it.

I wasn't able resolve it without reinstalling win. Even trying to bootfixer on the win 10 install file. If you get it sorted though let me know how you did it.

EDIT: I mean by all means try pulling the drive and see if Windows still boots, if it does then bingo.

The_Arbiter · 11 Jul 2020 at 21:00

BUDFORCE said:
I've had an issue like this.

Win 10 likes to install itself across all the drives that are connected, even if it doesn't look like it.

I wasn't able resolve it without reinstalling win. Even trying to bootfixer on the win 10 install file. If you get it sorted though let me know how you did it.

EDIT: I mean by all means try pulling the drive and see if Windows still boots, if it does then bingo.

Thought i'd give it a few days before replying to see what happens. But i didn't remove the HDD in the end.

The crashes were "fixed" by removing all USB connections and reinserting only a few. I left out my USB DAC and all fine. Though i managed to get a crash with one of the controllers i use in a usb3 port.

I'm also using an AV receiver atm which does cause havoc with windows sleep. But haven't always used it as i sometimes need freesync.

I think it's either drivers or motherboard. PSU "shouldn't" be an issue as low power GPU and CPU.

So can't help/comment on the HDD situation as rather not go that route atm as system seems stable