Force-stopped file system check - now disk freezes system on startup

[Apolllo]

Hi there.

Recently, I installed a brand new 2Tb Seagate disk. I'm also running 2 other disks and an SSD system disk.

It was working fine, but I noticed that it had a small partition that I hadn't created myself, so I used Partition Wizard to try to merge it with the main partition.

Not sure how, but I think I somehow screwed up. After the merge, Windows (7) told me the disk needed reformatting. Instead of reformatting it, I went back to Partition Wizard to run a file-system check and repair.

The check and repair was literally taking hours. Since all the files on that disk had already been backed up, I just decided to force the computer to restart with the intention to just reformat the disk after restart.

Didn't work. Now, when that disk is connected up, the computer won't even get past the BIOS screen. It just freezes at the BIOS splash screen.

When I start up the computer with the new disk unplugged, the computer works fine. But if I get the computer running and then plug in the new disk, there's no indication anywhere that the disk is there.

 

[Kasper Jorgensen]

That small partition is needed by Windows. Which disk are you talking about not working, the new disk or your system disk?

 

[Apolllo]

Kasper:

It's the new disk that's not working (not the system disk).

(1) If plugged in before booting up, the whole system immediately freezes at the BIOS splash screen.

(2) If plugged in after booting up, there's no indication anywhere (Disk Management, Device Manager, etc) that the disk even exists.

 

[Kasper Jorgensen]

Is it possible for you to test the drive on another computer, maybe a friends computer?

 

[Apolllo]

Just an update:

I connected the disc to an external USB port (using an SATA to USB cable). And it showed up! I then performed a full (not quick) format, which took around 20 hours. After that, the disc reports no errors.

So I connected it internally (to the motherboard SATA connector) again. The computer wouldn't even get to the BIOS screen. Which means that it's kind of detecting the disc, but the disc is stopping the computer from booting up.

I connected the disc to various internal SATA connectors and it was the same story - no bootup. Then I connected an old (non-system) disc to the SATA port I was using for the new disc. The computer would boot into the OS (which it wouldn't do with the new disc connected), but the bootup was noticeably slow and the (old) disc wouldn't show up in either the BIOS or in Windows.

Could my forcing the checkdisk process to stop have somehow damaged the SATA connector on the motherboard? Sounds unlikely to me, but, well, I have no other answer.

 

[Kasper Jorgensen]

No it will not damage the sata port. Did you set the sata ports to AHCI in bios?

 

[Apolllo]

It was in IDE mode. I switched over to AHCI mode. Still no luck - still couldn't even boot into the BIOS menu.

I connected another disc to the same SATA port and it was fine.

Could it have anything to do with the labeling of the disc? Why would it show up as healthy through the USB port? Something was obviously altered during that disk check operation, but what?