PC won't boot with SATA drive connected - is it toast?

hp01jpc · 1 Mar 2010 at 17:07

As title really. My computer wouldn't get past POST this morning and after a bit of elimination I have isolated an SATA hard drive to be the problem. It's not the drive with windows installed so I can use the PC, but all my photos and music are on this drive. Some of it is backed up, but not all of it.

I don't think I can even get the PC to boot with the drive connected so it's not like I can run any diagnostics software on it.

Anyone suggest anything I could try to revive it? It's not too old - I think it's within it's warranty period, but ideally I would like to get the data back from it.

Cheers

Yjani · 2 Mar 2010 at 00:54

If you cant get into windows with the backup drive disconnected then it sounds like windows popped your Bootmgr file onto your backup drive, pain in the backside that it does that when you have more than 1 drive installed sometimes.

If you can get into windows then you should be ok to get your data back. Theres lots of programs that can recover it for you. Easeus Partition Recovery is a good free utility that ive used a couple of times before with success. The process takes quite a long time though, but worth it in the end

hp01jpc · 2 Mar 2010 at 12:10

Thanks for your help. I cannot boot the PC at all when the defective drive is hooked up. I take it I would be unwise to try to boot the PC with it unplugged then plug it in 'hot' so to speak?

I've ensured the boot priority in the BIOS is set to use the working drive first, but the bloody thing just won't boot

bledd · 2 Mar 2010 at 12:16

get a usb to sata caddy, and just plug it in when it's in windows

VortexA1 · 2 Mar 2010 at 12:18

Well you could take out the drive that stops the computer from booting.
Backup your windows data.
Reinstall windows and then plug it back in after. That might sort out the problem by putting the freshly installed windows first on boot priority(giving it a fresh boot mngr).

hp01jpc · 2 Mar 2010 at 14:55

Thanks for the suggestions. An external caddy thing would be handy to have anyway so I will give that a shot first. I will try reinstalling windows as a last resort I think.

Cheers fellas