2nd internal HDD causes Win XP to Freeze

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OMID-313

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Hi everybody.

We've got two PCs with different motherboards, graphic cards, HDDs, etc.

PC1: HDD1: Maxtor - SATA - 240 GB - Win XP - Partition Drives C,D,E
PC2: HDD2: Samsung - SATA - 500 GB - Win 7 - Partition Drives C,D,E,F

Both HDDs have been bought almost 5 years ago.
Now I want to have the both hard drives in PC1.

I mounted and screwed the HDD2 on PC1 and plugged its SATA and power cables. (I'm almost sure I plugged them correctly.) When I booted the system, I entered the BIOS settings and set the first booting priority to HDD1 (win XP).

The Problem:

When the win XP loads (from HDD1), the desktop appears and the mouse is working. But when I start to click/right-click on anything, the mouse goes to the waiting symbol (sand glass) and nothing works! I can still move the mouse, but no clicks, nothing works. I wait for long, but no help. So I have to reset the PC physically. And then again and again this happens on each load of win XP. The only solution is to remove the HDD2 cables, which brings the system to the normal working conditions. (But again when I re-plug the HDD2 cables, again the win XP doesn't work, and freezes on desktop.)


I want to have access to the HDD2's files and documents from within the win XP.

Now what should I do?
Any help would be highly appreciated.


UPDATE1

I just checked the BIOS settings of my PC1, and found the followings:

SATA AHCI Mode: Disabled
SATA Port0-3 Native Mode: Disabled

Note: My motherboard is Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L and it has 6 SATA ports (port0-5) all 3Gb/s.


UPDATE2

After plugging HDD2 again, I tried to boot win XP in "safe mode", and this time it worked!
The desktop appeared successfully without any problem.

And also I was able to see HDD2's partition drivers in "My Computer".
I was also able to copy/paste my files and data.
 
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OMID-313

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Thanks @bjsm for your reply.

Actually, I already tried that, but unfortunately, win7 HDD doesn't boot successfully and gives an "Out of Range" Error (as described here).
 
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bjsm

bjsm

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Put your win7 HDD back in the original pc, plug the xp hdd on that computer. If you are trying to run your win7 HDD on a new system without reinstalling it you will have all sorts of problem. Try what i suggested
 
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OMID-313

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Thanks again @bjsm for your sugestion.
This is probably what I will have to do at the end.

But I want to know what actually causes my win XP to freeze on its desktop.
It seems to me that win XP must treat HDD2 as a removable flash memory. It must be able to show the contents of HDD2 in my computer.

But why doesn't it happen?
Why does it freeze!?
 
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Paperdoc

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I would bet the problem is "IDE Emulation" on the SATA ports, etc. Follow this to understand.

PC1 uses a SATA HDD and Win XP. Win XP never had support for SATA devices (actually, AHCI devices) built in, so it could not boot from or use a SATA HDD unless you did something. There were two choices. The "right" way was, when Win XP was first being installed, you had to have the proper AHCI device drivers on a floppy disk and use the F6 key early in the Install process to install the AHCI driver into Win XP so it COULD boot and run from such a unit. But many people could not do this, or did not want to. So BIOS makers built a work-around into the BIOS code as the second option. In BIOS Setup there is a line where you can set the SATA Port Mode to a few possibilities, and one of them is "IDE Emulation". Set this way, the BIOS limits the SATA port to behaving exactly like an IDE port (which limits its functions slightly). Then you CAN install Win XP to that SATA drive and boot and run from it, because the drive appears to be only an IDE unit that Win XP can handle with no problem. My guess is that is exactly what was done with PC1 when XP was first installed, so it still does NOT know how to use AHCI devices.

Now, PC2 also has a SATA HDD but has Win 7 installed on it. There would have been no reason to set that machine's BIOS to limit its SATA ports to acting as IDE ports because Win 7 DOES have built-in drivers for AHCI devices. So that 500 GB unit from PC2 probably always was used as an AHCI device.

The problem now, however, is that PC1 with its Win XP OS does not know how to deal with an AHCI device. Luckily, there is a simple solution. Since the 500 GB HDD is intended only to be used as a data storage device, and not as the Win XP boot device, the driver that is needed does not need to be specially installed. It can be added simply just as any driver for a new device can be added to Win XP.

To start, you need to find the AHCI device driver for Win XP on your exact mobo. This may be on a CD that came with the mobo for PC1, or you may have to go to that mobo's manufacturer's website to get it. Disconnect the 500 GB unit so your PC1 works OK, then put that driver in a known spot on your machine. Now shut down, re-connect the 500 GB unit, and boot up again. Go directly into Device Manager (Start ... right-click My Computer ... Choose Manager ... Device Manager) and right-click on the SATA unit. Choose to Update its Driver, and use the choices to NOT let Windows just go looking for it - you already know where it is, so tell the driver installer to go there. When it is done, back out and reboot, and Win XP should now be able to use that 500 GB SATA HDD properly.
 
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OMID-313

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Thanks @Paperdoc for your helpful and comprehensive reply.
I do really appreciate your time.

Actually, the PC2 had Win XP installed on it 4-5 years ago. I installed win 7 on it only last year. So the behavior of both motherboards on SATA or AHCI would probably be the same.

Installing the drivers for AHCI device might solve the problem; but unfortunately my win XP freezes on desktop, thus even if I download the drivers, I can't reach the device manager to install the drivers (because the HDD2 is plugged in, which causes win XP to freeze).
 
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OMID-313

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Thanks again @Paperdoc for your point.

Actually, HDD2 belongs to PC2, which boots in it successfully with no problem.
I think it's not faulty.
 
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OMID-313

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Dear @Paperdoc and @bjsm ,

Please check my recent updates on this topic:


UPDATE1

I just checked the BIOS settings of my PC1, and found the followings:

SATA AHCI Mode: Disabled
SATA Port0-3 Native Mode: Disabled

Note: My motherboard is Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L and it has 6 SATA ports (port0-5) all 3Gb/s.


UPDATE2

After plugging HDD2 again, I tried to boot win XP in "safe mode", and this time it worked!
The desktop appeared successfully without any problem.

And also I was able to see HDD2's partition drivers in "My Computer".
I was also able to copy/paste my files and data.
 
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Paperdoc

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Good info. So clearly the HDD2 is OK. The BIOS settings you cite do say that all your SATA Ports (at least 0-3) are using IDE Emulation. AHCI mode is self-explanatory; "Native" mode means "as a true SATA device", and really means AHCI mode, too. Since both are Disabled, it must be using IDE Emulation. As you have said in a late post, it is highly likely that HDD2 was operating in this mode in PC2 before. So one certainly would expect it to operate in PC1 as a data unit.

I can make two suggestions to try.
1. Go into BIOS Setup with both HDD's installed. Check the Boot Priority Sequence to be sure that HDD2 is NOT showing at all in the list of devices to try to boot from. If you change anything, SAVE and EXIT. You'll probably have to enter Windows in Safe Mode again.
2. In Safe Mode, go into the Device Manager and find that HDD2 unit. Right-click on it and choose to Update the driver. Maybe it's using the wrong one somehow. Probably it should be using the same driver as the one used for HDD1 that works.
 
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