Hard Drive Issues

[naednek]

So, prior to building my PC, I had 3 hard drives

250 GB SSD - OS
250 GB SSD -
1.5 TB WD disk hard drive

Worked great for years. I had an issue with my audio after installing software\hardware for the wireless headset I received for christmas. Decided to reformat the computer to fix that, but then it wouldn't get past the Windows logo screen (windows 10) If I unplugged the two spare hard drives, I would be able to boot.

I tried clearing the CMOS, and no go. The hard drives don't even show up in the bios.

I've finally built my new machine thinking my MB was toast. Windows logo started spinning and I let it set for 10 minutes. It never got past the screen. Since this started in January, I had forgotten my original hard drive problem. But then it clicked. I'm still having issues with the hard drives using a different motherboard.

I find it weird that two types of hard drives are having this issue, and I can't figure out what to do. I haven't had the chance to check the bios of the new motherboard, so I'll be doing that tonight.

Any ideas?

[gilraen]

I had that happen years ago, before SSDs. I had 2 platter hard drives - a C: drive with the OS and another (bigger) D: drive for storage. D: drive died, and even though the C: drive itself was fine, Windows wouldn't load as long as the bad drive was plugged in. Try unplugging the other 2 drives (I'd start with the platter drive) and see if Windows loads.

[naednek]

I had that happen years ago, before SSDs. I had 2 platter hard drives - a C: drive with the OS and another (bigger) D: drive for storage. D: drive died, and even though the C: drive itself was fine, Windows wouldn't load as long as the bad drive was plugged in. Try unplugging the other 2 drives (I'd start with the platter drive) and see if Windows loads.

On the previous MB I tried that and had no luck.

[Anonymous Bosch]

It's worth remembering that SATA is a hot-swappable technology, and doesn't require drives to be connected at boot-time to be detected. So try the following:

• Go into the BIOS/UEFI settings for your motherboard and make sure hot-swapping is enabled for your SATA ports.
• Disconnect the problematic drives and leave your system open, so that your motherboard is still accessible.
• Boot into Windows.
• After Windows has finished booting, connect a SATA cable you are certain is functional* (as those can go bad, too) to the motherboard.
• Plug the other end of the cable into the back of the problematic drive and the OS should detect the drive.
• If the drive shows up, run CHKDSK on it to fix any corruption.

Don't forget the power cable where needed, and repeat as necessary for the other drive.

* If you're unsure about the reliability of your SATA cables, you can test that out by switching cables with the functional drive and seeing if a similar problem occurs.

[naednek]

don't think it's the cables as I used the new ones from the new motherboard

[Anonymous Bosch]

don't think it's the cables as I used the new ones from the new motherboard

That doesn't make much differernce. The cables could have been poorly manufactured or are shoddy quality because they came with the motherboard. The point being, SATA cables can go bad. So it shouldn't hurt to try swapping the SATA cable from the functional drive with one of the problematic drives to eliminate cables as a factor.