- Nov 20, 2011
- 16
- 0
- 18,510
Hi everyone!
I just got a 3-year-old system. Motherboard is an Intel one.
A few days ago, it suddenly stopped working (Win7). The loading stops at the "Loading Windows" animated screen (with the multi-colored wisps). I tightened up the innards of the system (cords, GPU-card and Mem-kits) and did a System Restore via Startup Recovery.
Booted up fine with no problems... except we then noticed that one of the HDDs (a 250GB SATA) wasn't showing up on Windows. I did a reboot and checked BIOS: no luck.
So I rearranged the SATA cords. Trial and error later, I've determined that the SATA and Power cords were in working order. I also checked and all SATA controllers (0-4) were working fine.
Bottomline: the BIOS only detects 1 SATA HDD at a time. If I plug in the one with the OS, I boot with no issues. If I plug the one without the OS, then I get an error message saying Windows Couldn't Boot since essential hardware was missing (as expected).
If I plug in both then we have issues. Most times, it only detects the one plugged into the lower-numbered SATA Controller (0-1).
However, after multiple repluggings and restarts, I sometimes get lucky and have the BIOS detect both SATA disks... I then make sure to force the Windows HDD to be earlier in the Boot Order. When I do this, either the system freaks out and makes a long beep (or really rapid short beeps, can't tell), or the PC fails to boot (Boot0: Error).
So right now, I've left only the Windows HDD plugged into SATA0.
Setup:
PATA HDD 50GB (Master)
PATA DVDRW (Slave)
SATA0 HDD 80GB (Windows)
SATA3 HDD 250GB (Data Only) --> Currently unplugged.
Any ideas? My main suspect right now is the PSU... I think it could be having trouble supplying power to both SATA drives, so either one doesn't get power completely (thus doesn't get detected by BIOS), or the voltage/current is too weak when it's split between both (thus either the hardware beeping failure, or the Boot0: Error).
Have I missed anything? I really don't want to buy a new PSU if it's not the main issue. Unfortunately, I don't have tools like a Multi-Tester, so I can't do a manual check of contact-points... but I think they're all working fine, since I've tried mixing them and there weren't any effects.
It'd be great if I could get some advice! Thanks!
I just got a 3-year-old system. Motherboard is an Intel one.
A few days ago, it suddenly stopped working (Win7). The loading stops at the "Loading Windows" animated screen (with the multi-colored wisps). I tightened up the innards of the system (cords, GPU-card and Mem-kits) and did a System Restore via Startup Recovery.
Booted up fine with no problems... except we then noticed that one of the HDDs (a 250GB SATA) wasn't showing up on Windows. I did a reboot and checked BIOS: no luck.
So I rearranged the SATA cords. Trial and error later, I've determined that the SATA and Power cords were in working order. I also checked and all SATA controllers (0-4) were working fine.
Bottomline: the BIOS only detects 1 SATA HDD at a time. If I plug in the one with the OS, I boot with no issues. If I plug the one without the OS, then I get an error message saying Windows Couldn't Boot since essential hardware was missing (as expected).
If I plug in both then we have issues. Most times, it only detects the one plugged into the lower-numbered SATA Controller (0-1).
However, after multiple repluggings and restarts, I sometimes get lucky and have the BIOS detect both SATA disks... I then make sure to force the Windows HDD to be earlier in the Boot Order. When I do this, either the system freaks out and makes a long beep (or really rapid short beeps, can't tell), or the PC fails to boot (Boot0: Error).
So right now, I've left only the Windows HDD plugged into SATA0.
Setup:
PATA HDD 50GB (Master)
PATA DVDRW (Slave)
SATA0 HDD 80GB (Windows)
SATA3 HDD 250GB (Data Only) --> Currently unplugged.
Any ideas? My main suspect right now is the PSU... I think it could be having trouble supplying power to both SATA drives, so either one doesn't get power completely (thus doesn't get detected by BIOS), or the voltage/current is too weak when it's split between both (thus either the hardware beeping failure, or the Boot0: Error).
Have I missed anything? I really don't want to buy a new PSU if it's not the main issue. Unfortunately, I don't have tools like a Multi-Tester, so I can't do a manual check of contact-points... but I think they're all working fine, since I've tried mixing them and there weren't any effects.
It'd be great if I could get some advice! Thanks!
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