HDD seems to have died, PC won't boot with it connected... why?

alipmcg

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Apr 16, 2014
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Until recently I had 2 HDDs in my PC, namely a SATA I 160gb drive (approx 10 yrs old) and a SATA II 250gb drive (approx 5 yrs old). The SMART data was suggesting that the 250gb drive had some bad sectors and might fail, so I was using that for the Windows and Linux partitions and the other for storing data.

Sure enough, last week the 250gb drive finally died, so I bought a SSD to replace it. I read that it is best to install Windows with only the target drive installed when partitioning manually (to avoid creating the pesky 100mb system reserved partition) so I disconnected the 160gb drive while installing OSes to the new drive.

Got Windows installed on the SSD and reconnected the 160gb drive, but when I turn it on it makes the horrible clicking sound and the computer doesn't even get to POST.

It wasn't reporting any errors before the other one died and I was careful removing the other one from the PC when I replaced it with the SSD. Is it at all possible for a software change to cause the disk to die? I've tried disconnecting the SSD and switching the IDE/AHCI modes available in BIOS but nothing stops that awful clicking.

I really hope I haven't lost my data. Anyone any suggestions? Thanks in advance
 
Solution
Boot on the ssd and put the 160gb hdd back in. Can you see it in bios? Have you loaded its drivers and installed them (if you have to)? In Device Manager? In Windows Explorer?

If not its a dud and bin it. If so, run Checkdisk and Seatools on it to look for errors. If OK, try MiniTools on it to get back corrupted data.

alipmcg

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It's actually more of a beep than a click. I just tried reconnecting it again and it did eventually get to POST and to GRUB and then Windows, but the drive wasn't visible.

Also, the beep/click is there when the drive is connected with a power cable, but it is constant when connected to power and SATA.
 

alipmcg

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Apr 16, 2014
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With only SSD connected everything works fine.

With SSD disconnected and HDD connected and booting from USB, it can't see the HDD, although a certain amount of fiddling with options in BIOS did allow the computer to recognise it at POST - it even said 'SMART status OK', which made me think it was going to be recognised in Windows or Linux, but it wasn't :(
 
Boot on the ssd and put the 160gb hdd back in. Can you see it in bios? Have you loaded its drivers and installed them (if you have to)? In Device Manager? In Windows Explorer?

If not its a dud and bin it. If so, run Checkdisk and Seatools on it to look for errors. If OK, try MiniTools on it to get back corrupted data.
 
Solution