Windows won't Boot with Bad HDD

[rsnfunky]

Dear All,

I have win 7 installed and 3 hard drives. One Seagate HDD has all of a sudden turned bad with multiple bad sectors.

I am unable to connect this HDD on windows as after the first windows screen during boot it just hangs. Windows boots perfectly well when this bad HDD is disconnected.

How do I disable windows from reading the HDD during boot? The HDD is detected during BIOS POST. I want to load into windows and copy all the data. Part of the data has already been copied.

Thanks in advance.

PS: The HDD cannot be mounted on Linux as there is some error in it's NTFS table which cannot be corrected with NTFSFix.

 

[blackmancer]

you could try booting into safe mode. press f8 as the machine boots up. transfers will be slower in safe mode, but you may have a better chance at getting it. also. try the freezer method - place the hdd in a plastic bag, pref esd bad, remove the air out of it, seal it up, place in the freezer for afew hours and bring it out and try. has breathed a few more puffs into a hdd before.

 

[rsnfunky]

OS reinstall is not required as the OS is on a drive which is OK. The drive which has failed contained data.

Windows does not boot in safe mode also hangs on loading STPD.sys. Will again try the freezer method again today. Yesterday has kept the HDD in the freezer for 4-5 minutes (without the plastic bag) as it had heat up.

 

[blackmancer]

i'd be cautious about not wrapping it up and leaving it bare to the elements