Hard Disk causing bootup issues

JahovaRaptor

Reputable
Dec 16, 2015
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Alright, so this is actually a fairly recent issue and I'm not exactly sure what's causing it. My computer uses 2 different drives, a 128GB Toshiba SSD which holds my OS(Windows 7) and a Western Digital Blue 1TB HDD for all of my games. The SSD is about a year old and the HDD is about 2 and this issue has never arose in the past. Within the last couple of months my HDD will randomly disappear from my 'Windows Explorer' and will not read at all. So I turn off my PC and boot it up again without second thought, and I'm stuck at the 'Starting Windows' screen. This is odd, because normally my PC boots up before the Windows logo is even able to fully form. And when I say stuck, I mean I left it here for an hour at one point, and it never went anywhere. The unusual part about this is, if I unplug the SATA cable connecting it to the MOBO, my PC boots just fine. After a few times of turning it off and turning it back on, unplugging and re-plugging the drive, it finally shows back up and works just fine. There doesn't seem to be any sort of pattern to this, and according to my PC the drive is healthy. If anyone knows what could be causing this issue I would really appreciate it. Here are my specs:
Intel i7 4790
MSI Gaming 7 Z97
AMD Radeon R9 290
16GB Team Group RAM
Kingwin 750 Watt PSU
Toshiba 128GB SSD
WesternDigital Blue 1TB HDD
 
Solution
Welcome to the community, JahovaRaptor!

I'm really sorry to hear about your issues with the WD Blue drive! :( I'd recommend you to try swapping the SATA cable and changing the SATA port on the MOBO. The cable might be faulty, thus causing bootup issues with the WD Blue connected to the system.
Another important thing that you should do is backup your data before proceeding with the troubleshooting. Afterwards, I'd recommend you to use WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics for Windows to run the QUICK and EXTENDED tests in order to find out what is the health and SMART status of the HDD.
Here's a link to the software: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=xZzISt

If you have access to another computer, I'd even try plugging the WD Blue...
Welcome to the community, JahovaRaptor!

I'm really sorry to hear about your issues with the WD Blue drive! :( I'd recommend you to try swapping the SATA cable and changing the SATA port on the MOBO. The cable might be faulty, thus causing bootup issues with the WD Blue connected to the system.
Another important thing that you should do is backup your data before proceeding with the troubleshooting. Afterwards, I'd recommend you to use WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics for Windows to run the QUICK and EXTENDED tests in order to find out what is the health and SMART status of the HDD.
Here's a link to the software: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=xZzISt

If you have access to another computer, I'd even try plugging the WD Blue there to see how it will be detected. I'd also check the motherboard manufacturer's website for any recent updates on the SATA controller drivers for your model.

Keep me posted!
SuperSoph_WD
 
Solution