2 sata hdd, problem getting in to windows.

[Ankface]

Some weeks ago my samsung hd300lj harddrive stopped working correctly. i couldnt get pass the win xp loading screen. i then bought a wd10EARS 1 TB harddrive and installed win xp on it and it works fine. however when i plug in the samsung to try and recover some files using it as a storage disk, I cant then get into windows even though im booting from the workin WD10EARL disk. i get pass the loading windows screen but then the screen just stays black. I am also unable to get in by safe mode. Help would be appriciated because i need some schoolwork from the broken drive

 

[Ubrales]

Have you tried using this defective drive as an external drive plugged into one of your USB ports? You may need an enclosure or an adapter like this: http://www.apricorn.com/product_detail.php?type=family&id=39

 

[Paperdoc]

Check in BIOS Setup that the Boot Priority Sequence only tries to use the new HDD (and maybe your optical unit) and does NOT try to use the old HDD for the boot process.

It appears your old HDD has some problems - hardware or software is not clear so far. I suggest you go to the Samsung website and look there for a downloadable set of hard drive diagnostic tools you can use to test your old Samsung drive. Use these (either as a bootable DOS disk or as a Windows application, whichever you got). If you can find and fix a hardware problem, maybe you can get back to using that older drive for data. If it has an un-fixable hardware problem, you can decide how much work and money you are willing to put into recovering its data. If the tests say there are no hardware problems with the old HDD, you can start looking for the software problems to fix.

Diagnostic tests usually are best used with the HDD installed internally as a normal hard drive, rather than in an external case connected by USB.

 

[Ankface]

i have not tried that. will do if it doesnt i dont find any other solution though it was 40 bucks for that piece

 

[Paperdoc]

If the Boot Priority Sequence is set correctly and it still does not boot properly with the old drive connected, that is another indication that it has a hardware fault and Windows cannot access it as it is trying to boot. For that situation I recommend you get from Samsung's website their diagnostic tools called ESTOOL. Find it here:

http://www.samsung.com/ca/support/download/supportDown.do?group=&type=harddiskdrives&subtype=hdd35&model_nm=HD300LJ&disp_nm=HD300LJ&language=&cate_type=all&dType=D&mType=SW&vType=&prd_ia_cd=05040800&model_cd=&menu=download

Click on the Software tab. It looks like the file available is an .iso Image file. That is, it is an exact image of what needs to be burned onto a CD. You need a CD-burning software package (such as Nero) capable of burning an .iso file to that CD-R. Once it is made, you put it in your optical drive, set the machine to boot from that drive, and boot. It will load a mini-DOS into RAM without ever trying to use Windows, and you can use its menus to run all the appropriate tests on your old drive to look for hardware problems. MAKE SURE at the start that you specify that it is to test the correct (old) drive unit. Most tests are non-destructive of the data on the HDD. However, pay attention - some tests or repair procedures DO destroy data on the disk. Do NOT run these if you are trying to recover data from it.

By the way, for those who still have a floppy disk drive, there is also a version of ESTOOL available there for making a bootable floppy instead of a CD.