Hard drive refuses to boot Windows on any system it's plugged into

[Mr Inohk]

The situation I'm in right now is a bit beyond me. Recently my brother's computer has stopped booting up into Windows 10. When you turn it on, it tries to boot, gives one of several BSOD errors (MEMORY_MANAGEMENT came up as I was typing this, though SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED is just as common). I've tried to boot off a Windows 10 recovery drive, which threw the same collection of BSODs, then a Windows 10 (and later 7) installer. The Windows 7 installer wouldn't even start to boot, and the Windows 10 install drive threw the same exceptions. I tried to boot off an Ubuntu 17.10.1 installer but that wouldn't boot either(GRUB wouldn't even load). However, when the hard drive isn't plugged into the system, all of the above drives would boot just fine, albeit uselessly as the hard drive isn't plugged in.

So I decided to take the drive with me to my place to try and get it fixed on my computer. I plug it in and boot off my SSD only for it to crash on the login screen, then proceed to do the same bootloop that my brother's machine was doing, only this time it's booting off my SSD so its just faster bootloops. I'm at a loss as to what I need to do. It's the same thing on my computer, where I can't boot off of anything while this hard drive is plugged into my machine.

At this point I just want to get this drive wiped and Windows reinstalled, but with the inability to boot without shitting itself, I don't know how I'm supposed to go about it.

 

[topheron]

You know the answer... you've got a bad hard drive

That hard drive needs to be discarded.

The only good side is that you can replace it with an SSD and get a much faster computer...

Yeah, I know. It sucks when hard drives die, but in a situation like yours where the electronics on the drive are shutting down any computer it is plugged in to, there isn't much hope.

Buy a replacement for the hard drive (preferably a SSD), and encourage your brother to do frequent backups so that he can restore quickly if his NEXT hard drive or SSD dies.

 

[Mr Inohk]

You know the answer... you've got a bad hard drive

That hard drive needs to be discarded.

The only good side is that you can replace it with an SSD and get a much faster computer...

Yeah, I know. It sucks when hard drives die, but in a situation like yours where the electronics on the drive are shutting down any computer it is plugged in to, there isn't much hope.

Buy a replacement for the hard drive (preferably a SSD), and encourage your brother to do frequent backups so that he can restore quickly if his NEXT hard drive or SSD dies.

I was hoping it wouldn't come to this. Thanks for the advice. I've got a couple other drives lying about that he can use until i can get him a proper replacement. Marking as solution.