Help with frustrating Hard Drive Boot Problems!

Steves1982 · 2 Jul 2012 at 21:04

I will keep this as brief and simple as possible!

My PC has an SSD as a boot/windows drive and 3 internal SATA disks for storage. It has been running smoothly for a year or so with no problems.

I changed nothing but a few days ago windows wouldn't boot past the windows logo. I restarted and tried safe mode which always stopped at CLASSPNP.SYS. I googled this error extensively and managed to fix it by replacing the file from the system32\driver folder from my other PC.

Then a couple of days ago the same problem happened again and the previous solution didn't work. I have narrowed it down to my hard drives. If I disconnect all my HDDs expect my SSD windows will boot. However if I attach any HDD (and it doesn't matter which one or to which port) windows will not boot past the windows logo or CLASSPNP.SYS in safe mode. I have a hot swap enclosure in my machine and if I plug any hard drive in once windows is booted it is recognised. However I cannot access it or give myself permission to access it as access is always denied.

I have tried a fresh install but the error always returns after a few reboots. I have reset the BIOS, tried various settings but nothing helps.

I think it unlikely that all 3 hard drives would fail at the same time but cannot for the life of me solve this problem

Any ideas please as this is infuriating me!?

ANDARIAL · 2 Jul 2012 at 21:10

can you the hard drives in another pc?
can you run a hdd test?

Socrates470BC · 2 Jul 2012 at 21:12

Maybe be obvious, but worth checking.

Have the BIOS settings been changed so that the system is trying to boot off one of the HDDs?

Steves1982 · 2 Jul 2012 at 21:13

ANDARIAL said:
can you the hard drives in another pc?
can you run a hdd test?

I can't check the hard drives in another PC easily. I did leave them all connected an entered the repair your computer console, scanned with chkdsk /r and they all returned no errors.

Steves1982 · 2 Jul 2012 at 21:16

Socrates470BC said:
Maybe be obvious, but worth checking.

Have the BIOS settings been changed so that the system is trying to boot off one of the HDDs?

Thanks but I checked that and everything is as it should be. It will boot as far as the windows logo, I hear the click from my sound card as usual just before windows appears but that is where it stalls. There is also a few strange lines of what I can only describe as graphical corruption along the top of the screen. The only solution is to remove all the hard drives and then its fine.

ANDARIAL · 2 Jul 2012 at 21:30

overclocked?if so try at defaults 'in fact default all bios settings. infact clr the cmos or remove battery
one stick of ram,memtest'then try another,memtest etc till all are done separetely
onbord gfx? try removing the gfx card and use onboard .
some more things for you to try or think about :-)

Steves1982 · 2 Jul 2012 at 21:32

ANDARIAL said:
overclocked?if so try at defaults 'in fact default all bios settings.
one stick of ram,memtest'then try another,memtest etc till all are done separetely
onbord gfx? try removing the gfx card and use onboard .
some more things for you to try or think about

Thanks, I've tried all of those apart from using on-board graphics. Will give that a go next and cross fingers!