Windows won't boot with failed drive

[tronracer]

So Windows will not boot even with the Windows DVD. I even swapped the DVD drive and finally found out it will not boot when the storage drive attached. The WD 640GB Black drive is less than a year old and all I'm storing is music, movies and pics. I have SATA connections and there is no OS loaded on the WD black Drive, so I'm not sure why windows will not boot when it is attached as it's not in the boot sequence in the BIOS.

I can boot up when I disconnect the WD Black drive, but not when it is connected.

If it's a bad drive, is there a way that I can recover all my data?



Tsunami Dream Aluminum case

Power Supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

Motherboard: ASUS P5N-D Motherboard - NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI, Socket 775, ATX, Audio, PCI Express 2.0, Gigabit LAN, S/PDIF, USB 2.0, Firewire, Serial ATA, RAID

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Processor BX80571E7400 - 2.80GHz, 3MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB, Wolfdale-3M, Dual-Core, Retail, Socket 775


RAM: OCZ SLI-Ready Dual Channel 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory (2x2048MB)

Video Card: ASUS EN9600GSO/DI/512MD3/V2 GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

OS Drive: Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 1.5Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Storage drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Basic Sony DVD optical drive…
Windows Vista Ultimate

 

[COLGeek]

Have you tried to switch the SATA connection for the WD Black Drive? Also, does the BIOS see the WD?

If bad, recovering data will depend on whether you can access the drive at all, if you can't get it to work internally or in an external enclosure, you may have to send to a data recovery service (it will be expensive). If you can access the HDD, you can move the data (obviously).

 

[tronracer]

I have tried to switch the connection using different Sata ports on the MOBO and different cables. Yes the Bios sees the drive and correctly names it.

 

[COLGeek]

Do you have access to another computer that has an E-SATA connection? If so, see if that computer can allow you to access the HDD and recover you files. It may be time to RMA the WD, but would be good to get your files first. An alternative would be to stick the WD into a device like the one below to see if you can access the drive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153133