System will not boot properly when connecting older SATA HDDs

I recently installed a brand new 1TB SSD, which for now is both my boot drive and data drive. I have a 512 GB flash drive I am temporarily using for backups.

I am now attempting to connect two older HDDs (WD 640GB SATA) so I can access previously stored docs, photos, graphics etc. When I connect them, the system will not even complete boot-up. I have tried connecting both at once, and also separately. I have connected them using different SATA ports, and I have used different SATA cables known to be good.

Also, all of the info I have found indicates that on newer systems, SATA HDDs do not require jumpers.

I have looked in BIOS, the SSD is selected as the boot drive (UEFI), and secondary boot is disabled.

What should I look at next? Thanks in advance ...

P.S. The two 640GB drives are identical. They were previously working fine, when I had a WD Raptor 250GB (10k rpm) as the boot drive.


SYSTEM:
P/S: Corsair CX750M
Mobo: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD5
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T
RAM: Patriot 16GB DDR-3 (PC3-14900)
Graphics: AMD Radeon R7-200 w/2GB vRAM
OS: Windows 10

Were the two drives ever part of a RAID setup?

What happens during the boot process? What is the last message seen?

Go into the BIOS and make sure that Fast Boot is disabled. Check that the drives are seen by the BIOS.

You could also try a USB to SATA adapter on the drives.

Steve - No, I have never used a RAID setup.

jdc - There is no error message, it just doesn't complete boot-up. However, it is now completing boot-up even with the older SATA HDD connected.

But the system is still only detecting the 1 TB SSD. I am attaching a screenshot of the HDD section of BIOS.

Secondary boot selection is now set to "Windows Boot Management." It was previously just "Disabled."

Attachment 15761

That screen capture is of the Boot section of the BIOS. There should be another section that actually shows the devices connected. That is where you should see the 1TB SSD and any other devices (CD/DVD drive, other HDDs, etc.) Check there to see what devices are shown. Make sure that all SATA ports are enabled.

jdc, I have looked through ALL sections of the BIOS, there is no location where connected devices are shown.

As I mentioned, the two SATA drives I wanted to look at are identical -- WD 640GB. One of them IS recognized and I was able to view all folders and files.

I disconnected it and then connected the other identical HDD. On boot-up, instead of booting into Win10 from the SSD, the system began a disk repair of the SATA drive. Earlier, it showed an ETA of over 5 hours for completion. After 2 hours, the ETA grew to over 7 hours, with no apparent progress (77% remaining).

Many online sources indicated that if progress was halted, it would cause no problems to stop the disk repair. So, I stopped the disk repair, shut down and disconnected the faulty SATA HDD.

I am abandoning use of the native Windows app (chkdsk?) to perform the repair, and intend to use an app from online, such as Paragon, MiniTool etc.

The problem is -- how do I use such an app if Win10 won't boot with the defective SATA HDD connected? I of course cannot hot-plug the SATA HDD after powering up and booting into Windows.

Reminder -- BIOS is set up properly for Win10 to boot from the SSD, but that will not happen with the defective SATA drive connected. That drive MAY have Windows 7 on it, but I don't know why the system would try to boot from that drive when only the SSD (UEFI) is set to boot.

The motherboard manual for that motherboard is available at the link below:

https://download1.gigabyte.com/Files...d5_v.3.x_e.pdf

There should be a sections that shows the connected devices somewhere. If the BIOS does not see the drive, then you will not be able to do anything with it, and the system probably will not boot, even if it is NOT set as the boot drive.

Check the BIOS to make sure that the drives are not connected to SATA ports that are part of a RAID configuration. That information should also be in the BIOS.

You may have to try a USB to SATA adapter on the problem drive if you cannot figure anything out from the BIOS. No guarantee that will work, however.

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-.../dp/B00HJZJI84

That's what I was thinking, although that one is for 2.5" drives. I think I'm going to go with this:

https://www.newegg.com/unitek-y-3324...quicklink=true

It works for 3.5" drives, and will take older IDE drives, of which I have a few I want to look at.

Thanks, all!

Okay . . .

I purchased a Unitek SATA/IDE to USB 3.0 adapter unit, with 12V power adapter and USB cable.

As I said, I am trying to access two identical SATA HDDs (WD 640GB).

The system did "see" one of the drives just fine, but not the other. When I touch the HDD I can tell it is spinning, but the system does not detect it.

*** I just remembered this is the HDD that Win10 had been trying to repair with chkdsk. So, I guess the repair must be accomplished for it to be detected.

I don't have the time for chkdsk to take several days to complete repairs. I have spent a lot on various things for this PC -- is there another free or inexpensive app that will do it? It will of course need to be an app that will still work and do the repairs despite my system not detecting this drive.

Returning to the issue with BIOS ... I have not found any section in BIOS that actually lists connected drives -- only a place to select boot options.

Looking at my motherboard manual, the System section in BIOS is supposed to show connected drives, under the subheading "ATA Port Information." There is nothing listed there, not even my SSD which is working perfectly.

A related (?) issue is the system displaying my 512GB flash drive. It shows in File Explorer even when the flash drive is not connected. When I insert the flash drive into a USB port, it is displayed multiple times. :confused: (see the attached screenshots)

Attachment 15766

The 512GB flash drive is also displayed twice in Disk Management.
Attachment 15767


ALSO -- when I attach the "bad" HDD using the USB adapter module and power it up, File Explorer displays fine at first, although the "bad" HDD does not appear. But if I then click on Drive C: to expand it, the entire File Explorer window greys out with a spinning timer circle. As soon as I power off the USB adapter module, File Explorer works fine again.

The BIOS not showing any connected drives, even the working C: drive, is concerning. We cannot tell for sure if the computer hardware can access the problem drive, or if it is a Windows issue.

There is also the issue with Windows showing a drive that is not connected.

There are two possibilities:

1. The drive has a hardware issue, and any potential data recovery would need to be done by a professional resource like OnTrack.

2. It may just be some sort of data corruption. If attached to a system that can detect the drive and communicate with it, recovery software might be able to repair the formatting or directory structure and recover the files.

Using your current system, I am not sure how you would want to proceed. If you have a different computer available, try connecting the problem drive to that using the USB to SATA adapter to see what happens.

Another option would be to boot from a live Linux disc like UBCD, and then copying the files.

See post #6
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/sh...oot-CD-5-Guide