After formatting 2nd harddrive THROUGH Windows, PC no longer boots with that HDD in it.

[GalaxyYT]

I'm looking to sell my pc to build a better one. I have 5 hard drives, however, only one "works". I formatted all of them except one through Windows (probably a mistake). Now, EVERYTIME I try to boot up the pc with ANY 4 of those hard drives installed, the pc doesn't boot. I tried using a different sata cable, different sata power cable, unplugging all of my other hdds (the one with windows on it), and all I get is the BIOS screen. Any help would be nice!

 

[Paperdoc]

If I understand correctly, among your five HDD's there is ONE that contains Windows that you left working, and then you Formatted all the others. Now it won't boot. I think I know why and how to fix.

Every since Win 7 (maybe Vista), Windows has an interesting feature designed to fix a certain problem for you with no hassle. When Windows is first Installed, it looks for a second HDD besides the one that Install is going to. On that second drive it makes a small semi-hidden Partition and writes to it a copy of certain important system files. Then it does the main Install on the main HDD, which becomes the C: drive. After that, on EVERY boot-up, it checks the system files on the C: drive as it loads them for errors. If there are any errors, it goes to the spares on the other drive, copies over good copies, and completes the boot process. It fixes itself if it has corrupted system files on the C: drive! The "problem" comes when you do something like what you did. You see, the system will look for those backups on the second drive on EVERY boot. If you wipe out those backup copies on the second drive so they cannot be found, it will not boot!

There's a way to defeat this process and fix your machine. You will need your original Windows Install disk, or at least an Install disk for the same version of Windows. First, open your case and disconnect ALL of the extra drives, leaving only the C: drive that contains Windows connected. Next, place the Install disk in your Optical drive and set the machine to boot from that optical drive first, then boot from there. It will start up the Install process, and select the only HDD available for the place to do that. But DO NOT do a normal Install! Look through the menus for a "Repair Install" option and do that. This will make it check all the stuff already installed on that C: drive and fix any corrupted or missing files. It will discover that the only HDD in the system does NOT contain those hidden backup files and will put them on that C: drive. When the process is done, exit out of Install, remove the disk in the optical drive, and boot up again. This time it should boot up cleanly with only the C: drive attached.

Now, to be sure you don't have another problem, reconnect all those other data drives. Boot directly into BIOS Setup and check the Boot Priority sequence. Make sure that it is allowed to boot from your proper C: drive, and will NOT try any other HDD. SAVE and EXIT to save those changes. It should boot cleanly from your C: drive, no matter whether any (or no) other HDD is present and connected.

 

[GalaxyYT]

If I understand correctly, among your five HDD's there is ONE that contains Windows that you left working, and then you Formatted all the others. Now it won't boot. I think I know why and how to fix.

Every since Win 7 (maybe Vista), Windows has an interesting feature designed to fix a certain problem for you with no hassle. When Windows is first Installed, it looks for a second HDD besides the one that Install is going to. On that second drive it makes a small semi-hidden Partition and writes to it a copy of certain important system files. Then it does the main Install on the main HDD, which becomes the C: drive. After that, on EVERY boot-up, it checks the system files on the C: drive as it loads them for errors. If there are any errors, it goes to the spares on the other drive, copies over good copies, and completes the boot process. It fixes itself if it has corrupted system files on the C: drive! The "problem" comes when you do something like what you did. You see, the system will look for those backups on the second drive on EVERY boot. If you wipe out those backup copies on the second drive so they cannot be found, it will not boot!

There's a way to defeat this process and fix your machine. You will need your original Windows Install disk, or at least an Install disk for the same version of Windows. First, open your case and disconnect ALL of the extra drives, leaving only the C: drive that contains Windows connected. Next, place the Install disk in your Optical drive and set the machine to boot from that optical drive first, then boot from there. It will start up the Install process, and select the only HDD available for the place to do that. But DO NOT do a normal Install! Look through the menus for a "Repair Install" option and do that. This will make it check all the stuff already installed on that C: drive and fix any corrupted or missing files. It will discover that the only HDD in the system does NOT contain those hidden backup files and will put them on that C: drive. When the process is done, exit out of Install, remove the disk in the optical drive, and boot up again. This time it should boot up cleanly with only the C: drive attached.

Now, to be sure you don't have another problem, reconnect all those other data drives. Boot directly into BIOS Setup and check the Boot Priority sequence. Make sure that it is allowed to boot from your proper C: drive, and will NOT try any other HDD. SAVE and EXIT to save those changes. It should boot cleanly from your C: drive, no matter whether any (or no) other HDD is present and connected.

Thanks for your help. After trying this, the pc reaches the Boot Screen (Press F11 to access boot menu, etc), but doesn't get any further. I set it to boot from the Optical Drive BEFORE installing one of the "damaged" hard drives. I tried getting to the boot menu, but it just spit out the message "Boot menu selected..." and nothing happened. The weird thing is, when I have my working hard drive in, something at the bottom flashes saying something like "SATA 4" and then boots Windows.

 

[amiga78]

If I understand your question correctly. It boots with the one drive with windows on, but if You put in any of the other drives it doesn't. Is that it?

Some MoBos will try booting from the first SATA channel with a drive and if that drive is empty (no bootloader) it will not look further. Try rearranging the drives so the windows drive is on the first SATA channel. (SATA0 not SATA1)

Also in BIOS on many MoBos you can select which SATA channel to boot from first. Could be that the windows drive isn't on the one selected as first.

 

[GalaxyYT]

If I understand your question correctly. It boots with the one drive with windows on, but if You put in any of the other drives it doesn't. Is that it?

Some MoBos will try booting from the first SATA channel with a drive and if that drive is empty (no bootloader) it will not look further. Try rearranging the drives so the windows drive is on the first SATA channel. (SATA0 not SATA1)

Also in BIOS on many MoBos you can select which SATA channel to boot from first. Could be that the windows drive isn't on the one selected as first.

I'll try that, and update with results. Thanks.

 

[GalaxyYT]

Update: Sadly, that did not work. I have the Windows install disc in my optical drive, and the Sata cables are in the right order. (I couldn't get them in the first two because of the distance)

SATA_3 and SATA_4

Optical Drive

Hard Drive (one of them)

Boot Screen (stuck here)

 

[GalaxyYT]

ANOTHER Update: I waited and got to the bios for some reason. The BIOS doesn't see the hard drive at all, or that's what it appears like.

Video: (if you don't see it or the video doesn't work, tell me and I'll get pics.)

Here's the raw link to the video:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/312068702533320704/312071764987346964/video.mov

 

[GalaxyYT]

Okay, this is kinda weird, but ANOTHER UPDATE:
NOW, the hard drive is being recognized, but when I boot from the DVD I get a tiny flashing bar at the top left. Stuck there.

 

[Paperdoc]

Let's review and check a few items.
1. Your SATA ports are set to use IDE Mode. That is a work-around added to BIOS's specifically for people who used SATA drives with Win XP. The problem was that Win XP never had a device driver built in for AHCI devices, so one was supposed to add such a driver at the time of first installation of XP, and that required a process that uses floppy drives. As an alternative, setting BIOS to the IDE Emulation Mode forced it to limit the actual SATA AHCI device (a SATA drive) to doing only what an older PATA device could, and then Win XP was happy being deceived. This process is NOT necessary with later Windows versions that DO include drivers "built in" for both PATA and AHCI devices. HOWEVER, it appears that, if your HDD was originally set to IDE Emulation Mode when Windows was Installed (no matter which version), changing that to AHCI Mode later would make the disk un-readable, and you'd have to change it back to IDE Mode. So, do you NEED to have that in IDE Mode, or does it actually work properly if set to SATA or AHCI Mode? This MAY have a bearing on whether a HDD is detected, maybe not. By the way, some mobos allowed you to set this mode option separately for each SATA header, whereas others only had a master setting for ALL of its SATA ports at once.

2. All of these first things should really be done with only your optical drive and your one HDD (the one with Windows already on it) attached. That way confusion with any of the other four drives can be avoided. You want to get it working smoothly before adding other drives.

3. Your video shows setting the FIRST possible beet device to the optical drive, but no others. You do need to set the HDD as the second possible boot device. Now, I realize that it appears in the video that might be difficult since no HDD appears to be recognized, but it is needed.

4. If that one HDD is not recognized in BIOS when connected to the SATA4 port, test whether it can work on another SATA port.

5. AFTER you can get eh system working with only the optical unit and one SATA HDD installed, do that Repair Install process to fix the bootability issue.

6. Once it with boot cleanly with only those two units installed, shut down and add ONE more HDD, then try again. etc.

7. IF adding an extra HDD causes it to hang, the HDD may be faulty, so try another. But IF all of them give a problem, there MAY be another impact of the SATA port Mode setting (item 1 above). If your actual C: drive that works is Partitioned and Formatted using one of those two possible modes, but your other HDD's were re-Partitioned and Formatted using the opposite mode (you said you did that on another machine), Windows may not be able to read them even though the mobo BIOS can detect them. That would cause Windows to experience a read error and freeze up as it re-tries to get data from that added drive at boot time.

 

[GalaxyYT]

Let's review and check a few items.
1. Your SATA ports are set to use IDE Mode. That is a work-around added to BIOS's specifically for people who used SATA drives with Win XP. The problem was that Win XP never had a device driver built in for AHCI devices, so one was supposed to add such a driver at the time of first installation of XP, and that required a process that uses floppy drives. As an alternative, setting BIOS to the IDE Emulation Mode forced it to limit the actual SATA AHCI device (a SATA drive) to doing only what an older PATA device could, and then Win XP was happy being deceived. This process is NOT necessary with later Windows versions that DO include drivers "built in" for both PATA and AHCI devices. HOWEVER, it appears that, if your HDD was originally set to IDE Emulation Mode when Windows was Installed (no matter which version), changing that to AHCI Mode later would make the disk un-readable, and you'd have to change it back to IDE Mode. So, do you NEED to have that in IDE Mode, or does it actually work properly if set to SATA or AHCI Mode? This MAY have a bearing on whether a HDD is detected, maybe not. By the way, some mobos allowed you to set this mode option separately for each SATA header, whereas others only had a master setting for ALL of its SATA ports at once.

2. All of these first things should really be done with only your optical drive and your one HDD (the one with Windows already on it) attached. That way confusion with any of the other four drives can be avoided. You want to get it working smoothly before adding other drives.

3. Your video shows setting the FIRST possible beet device to the optical drive, but no others. You do need to set the HDD as the second possible boot device. Now, I realize that it appears in the video that might be difficult since no HDD appears to be recognized, but it is needed.

4. If that one HDD is not recognized in BIOS when connected to the SATA4 port, test whether it can work on another SATA port.

5. AFTER you can get eh system working with only the optical unit and one SATA HDD installed, do that Repair Install process to fix the bootability issue.

6. Once it with boot cleanly with only those two units installed, shut down and add ONE more HDD, then try again. etc.

7. IF adding an extra HDD causes it to hang, the HDD may be faulty, so try another. But IF all of them give a problem, there MAY be another impact of the SATA port Mode setting (item 1 above). If your actual C: drive that works is Partitioned and Formatted using one of those two possible modes, but your other HDD's were re-Partitioned and Formatted using the opposite mode (you said you did that on another machine), Windows may not be able to read them even though the mobo BIOS can detect them. That would cause Windows to experience a read error and freeze up as it re-tries to get data from that added drive at boot time.

THANKS SO MUCH! It's working now, I had to get a new Windows Install Disc, and once I did that, boom. Windows 10. I think once I waited on the BIOS screen for 20 minutes, something happened to the HDD (one of the "broken" ones) and caused it to work again. Maybe my mobo formatted it? I have no clue. But thank you guys so much!

 

[Paperdoc]

Glad to hear you got it working.