System will not boot properly when connecting older SATA HDDs

[star-gazer777]

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

[Steve R Jones]

Were the two drives ever part of a RAID setup?

[jdc2000]

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.

[star-gazer777]

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."

HDD detection issue.png

[jdc2000]

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.

[star-gazer777]

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.