Hard drive wont boot, gets stuck on windows symbol screen

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darkhelmet82-1394177

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Aug 20, 2013
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I have a 1tb hdd that failed on me because of the pc being turned off while updating. have already installed new hdd and pc works fine, but i want to try and hook the 1tb up to see if i can retrieve some very important data and possibly reformat the drive to be used as a secondary storage. if i connect the 1tb hdd, the pc does what it did originally and gets stuck at the windows symbol and never boots, which makes me think that the pc is trying to boot from that drive, which still has windows on it. does any of this make sense and is there a work around? thanks in advance
 
Solution
kushvyas
I think when you put the old drive back the thing is that the BIOS takes it as 1st boot drive and thus may create this problem what you can do is that in BIOS try changing the new hdd as Boot hdd not the old one.

Or if you thinking it to keep as backup drive as external storage buy a casing and use it as external drive plugging it via usb and making it external drive.
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kushvyas

kushvyas

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I think when you put the old drive back the thing is that the BIOS takes it as 1st boot drive and thus may create this problem what you can do is that in BIOS try changing the new hdd as Boot hdd not the old one.

Or if you thinking it to keep as backup drive as external storage buy a casing and use it as external drive plugging it via usb and making it external drive.
 
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darkhelmet82-1394177

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ok i will try the bios, thats kinda what i was thinking but im not too familiar with changing things in there so i wanted to ask first. Not sure what you meant about using the hdd as external through usb. its just a regular sata hard drive. Thanks for the quick resoponse
ok i just re read your comment, i misunderstood. i didn't know you could turn it into external that way
 
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darkhelmet82-1394177

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but why shouldn't i be able to just leave it as an internal storage drive, assuming i get the whole drive boot order thing worked out?
 
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darkhelmet82-1394177

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awesome, so basically i just gotta go into bios and find drive boot order options or what ever it's called and make sure it's set to my working hdd? hopefully that's all it is and i will be able to get that precious piece of data off of there and in turn gain a new hdd. Thanks a lot!
 
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kushvyas

kushvyas

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Yes in BIOS there will be option for Selecting Hard Disk:
If you have Multiple drives it allows you to choose from then and simalar is case when you
are trying to Install OS with usb stick and at time of making it bootable you clicked USB-HDD then it
will be show in Hard drive part of BIOS not usb.
 
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darkhelmet82-1394177

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ok, update. did the bios thing, figured out how to specify a drive to boot from, however, the working hard drive was already selected for that. i played around with it and re selected the working drive for the hell of it but its the same problem. it seems to try to boot from the tb drive that is messed up and therefore just sits at the windows symbol screen and thats it, which means i have to keep turning it off with the power button and thats what got me into this mess in the first place. i can still access the recovery manager though and might possibly be able to reformat the drive from there, but my main objective was to retrieve some data off the drive before wiping it clean. any other suggestions for getting info off of a drive that wont let my pc boot up? i don't get it. all i have to do is unplug the drive an pc starts up no problem. errrrrrrrg!
 
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kushvyas

kushvyas

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If you are getting the old boot drive what you can do is there are 2 options:

1) Simple One Boot from LINUX os LIVE CD and get all your data to other disk.

2) If you thinking reformatting then there is option called "upgrade" while insatlling windows what it will do is not delete the old files and save them in c drive in folder called "Windows.old".
 
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kushvyas

kushvyas

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Another way is Disconnect your new hard drive, and insert your Windows install media. Boot from the dvd install media and click next at the first prompt. Then click "Repair your computer" where you normally would have selected Install Now.

Now click Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Automatic Repair. Windows should appear as the only entry in the list when it then asks you to choose a target operating system. The repair operation should begin. Once your system reboots, it should be able to boot up into Windows.
 
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darkhelmet82-1394177

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hmm, i like that option. so, could i remove all other drives and put the one with the problem(tb) in the pc by itself and do the repair? if so, would i then be able to put the other drives back in even though one will still have windows on it and have the option of booting from either drive?
 
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darkhelmet82-1394177

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ok, the only problem with this method is that when this problem originally occured, the first thing i tried to do was reformat the drive from the windows disc, which would not work at all. if i remember correctly it did the exact same thing it does when just trying to boot. maybe i should try the first method of "upgrading"
 
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darkhelmet82-1394177

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kushvyas

kushvyas

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Yes that is the trouble you have to go through , or if don't want to waste time to re-install/repair i suggest use USB stick to boot from LINUX(Ubuntu) and boot then click TRY UBUNTU. and then get your data's backup and format the old drive.
 
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darkhelmet82-1394177

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well i don't mind putting in the time at all. but if i cant get it to boot from the windows disc while the old drive is hooked up, then what other options do i have? Im not familiar with the linux thing. how do i actually do that? is that some way that can retrieve the info off of the messed up drive?
 
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kushvyas

kushvyas

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Windows will boot from one of the thing cd or usb.
Using linux is simple you dont actually need to install the os in computer just use it as tool:

1) First of all You need .iso (Image File ). (You can Download it from UBUNTU official Site FOR FREE (http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop)


2) Now you need any iso tool , I prefer Power ISO (http://www.poweriso.com/download.htm)

3) Now You will also need atlest 4gb Reommended 8gb usb flash drive.

4) Run Power Iso in Administrator mode.

5)Then go to TOOLS--> Create a Bootable USB Drive...

6)Browse the .iso file in Source Image file tab.

7)Select the Appropriate Destination Drive and leave rest to defaults.
(Note your usb disk will flashed during this process so data will be lost , taking backup is advised )

8) Click Start and let the process Finish.

9) Now to install Reboot pc and enter BIOS( press f2 or delete when it boots).

10) Now boot priority menu select the USB option and move it to TOP, save changes (f10 generally) and exit.

11) PC will reboot automatically and now your pc will boot from usb to the linux and then proceed to Installation.

12) Press TRY UBUNTU and then Desktop will appear and then you can Browse through both drives and see what you want to backup or move from old hdd to new one.
 
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darkhelmet82-1394177

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ok sounds pretty simple. question...could i possibly use the bios and tell it manually to boot from cd drive rather than usb, and maybe then i could get it to boot from windows disc and try the upgrade option or even the repair option?
 
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darkhelmet82-1394177

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awesome. maybe that will be my best bet. the reason i ask is because i do have a 4gb thumb drive but even wiped clean it's still under 4 gigs. Thanks a lot for the help. i'll update again after i try that.
 
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kushvyas

kushvyas

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it not an issue here sir UBUNTU setup is around 700 mb , but try booting from cd if you have.
Same can be done with UBUNTU is download the file and make bootable cd and boot from it , its really your preference.
 
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darkhelmet82-1394177

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cool beans, thanks!
 
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