Did I just Destroy my system...?

[yozo67]

So I installed an old HDD a few minutes ago, and it booted up fine. Stupid me decided it would be a bright idea to tie the two SATA wires together (via ziptie for cable management) while it was powered on. It then abruptly shut down, and restarted itself, an asked if I wanted to enter Start Up Repair or run Windows Normally, I opted for Start up Repair. It's my guess that maybe I disconnected one of them momentarily?

Simple question...what do you guys think? Did I just send my 3 week old build to the graveyard? The GPU and CPU seem to still be running.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I think you just disconnected them temporarily, I seriously doubt anything was harmed. In the future, when performing cable management, do it when it's turned off.

And, choose run Windows normally. Startup repair may work, and it may fubar your installation. I'd power off, choose the normal startup and go from there. If it won't boot, run the repair. If it won't repair, you may have to do a clean install.

 

[yozo67]

I think you just disconnected them temporarily, I seriously doubt anything was harmed. In the future, when performing cable management, do it when it's turned off.

And, choose run Windows normally. Startup repair may work, and it may fubar your installation. I'd power off, choose the normal startup and go from there. If it won't boot, run the repair. If it won't repair, you may have to do a clean install.

So should I click "Cancel" or Hard Reboot?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Is it currently running the repair installation? If so, is it making any progress or is it frozen in place somewhere in the process?

 

[yozo67]

Is it currently running the repair installation? If so, is it making any progress or is it frozen in place somewhere in the process?

It's currently running Startup Repair, and it says it's repairing disk errors. It's been there for about 30 minutes now. It has a cancel button.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Just let it go for now then, it's too late to stop the process once it's past a certain point. If after about an hour and a half it's still not finished, then you'll probably need to reinstall windows. Do you have installation media to reinstall from?

 

[yozo67]

Just let it go for now then, it's too late to stop the process once it's past a certain point. If after about an hour and a half it's still not finished, then you'll probably need to reinstall windows. Do you have installation media to reinstall from?

I have the original Installation disc.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, that's good. If it doesn't repair properly, and unfortunately if it doesn't, and if you don't have any important documents or files that were on there backed up somewhere else, you may lose them and need to simply install fresh and start over as outlined at the following link. I highly recommend disconnecting any secondary internal drives that may be attached to the system during the installation process to avoid any possibility of accidentally removing the data on those drives and to prevent any chance of issues with the boot partition.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

 

[yozo67]

Ok, that's good. If it doesn't repair properly, and unfortunately if it doesn't, and if you don't have any important documents or files that were on there backed up somewhere else, you may lose them and need to simply install fresh and start over as outlined at the following link. I highly recommend disconnecting any secondary internal drives that may be attached to the system during the installation process to avoid any possibility of accidentally removing the data on those drives and to prevent any chance of issues with the boot partition.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

New problem, please forgive me for trying this as I was self-investigating via Google while you were gone. I hard rebooted and attempted to start windows normally (as many recommended), and it took me into CHKDSK. It's currently replacing invalid security ids. Some sites are saying my drive is going bad (I bought it 3 weeks ago?) others are saying it's bricked. Sorry to stray from your instruction, forgive me, but this is what's happening now. Any pointer from here?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Try the clean install. Boot to the Windows installation disk, and see what happens. Be sure to delete all existing partitions, but ONLY on the target drive, as outlined in the tutorial I linked to above. Don't skip steps, follow the tutorial EXACTLY step for step. If you have more than one hard drive or SSD, disconnect all of them except the one you are installing windows on until after the installation.

 

[yozo67]

Try the clean install. Boot to the Windows installation disk, and see what happens. Be sure to delete all existing partitions, but ONLY on the target drive, as outlined in the tutorial I linked to above. Don't skip steps, follow the tutorial EXACTLY step for step. If you have more than one hard drive or SSD, disconnect all of them except the one you are installing windows on until after the installation.

One step ahead of ya, chief. Windows is installing now. Thanks.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, hope it goes well. The fact that it's installing is a good sign, so hopefully the drive is fine. Good luck.

 

[Shaun o]

If you cut any sort of data or power from a hard drive while in operation, you will create errors on the disk that is in operational use.

That includes if and when your system is booting, or if the system is sat at windows desktop.
If the data cables were pulled during mid reading or writing of the drive.
You will end up with corruption of data on the drive.

No physical damage to the hardware should occur, but the data on the drive will be scrambled, or corrupted.
Running a scandisk or, chkdsk can repair the problem but it may take some time.
If it fails then your best option is to format the drive and start with a clean OS installation.

 

[yozo67]

If you cut any sort of data or power from a hard drive while in operation, you will create errors on the disk that is in operational use.

That includes if and when your system is booting, or if the system is sat at windows desktop.
If the data cables were pulled during mid reading or writing of the drive.
You will end up with corruption of data on the drive.

No physical damage to the hardware should occur, but the data on the drive will be scrambled, or corrupted.
Running a scandisk or, chkdsk can repair the problem but it may take some time.
If it fails then your best option is to format the drive and start with a clean OS installation.

Yes indeed, Windows is installing fresh now. Thanks for the info, though.