Hard drive failures?

[Deathmajesty]

So yesterday I was on the computer minding my own business, and then all of a sudden I hear my hard drive start clicking. Automatically I already knew that the hard drive is going to fail soon, and sure enough, the S.M.A.R.T. notified me saying "Backup Immediately! Failure Imminent".

So I'm like alright, I'll back it up... When I go to restart windows, something strange happened...

I'm running Windows 7 Ult. off an SSD for the speed while my HDD is holding all the data, and Windows won't boot with the HDD in?

My master boot is on my SSD (of course) and the slave is the HDD.. So why won't Windows boot with the HDD in? Then - when I take out the HDD, I turn on my computer, everything is fine...

All in short- I can't backup my failing HDD because Windows won't boot for me (SSD master, HDD slave). Any ideas on how I can fix all this?

I had thought about the whole "plug into USB" idea and all, but I lost my SATA>USB cable.

*Any more questions needed are welcomed!*

Thanks

 

[bignastyid]

A bad hdd can cause the system to not boot even of its not the boot drive, it messes with the sata controller. I have seen bad hdds cause a system to not post aswell. for data recovery a usb adapter is your best if not only option to try and recover it yourself. But the bad news is there is a very good possibility that any data that was not backed up is gone or not cheap to recover(data recovery company).

 

[Deathmajesty]

A bad hdd can cause the system to not boot even of its not the boot drive, it messes with the sata controller. I have seen bad hdds cause a system to not post aswell. for data recovery a usb adapter is your best if not only option to try and recover it yourself. But the bad news is there is a very good possibility that any data that was not backed up is gone or not cheap to recover(data recovery company).

Ahhh - thank you very much for that info! Yeah, this is the first time this has happened to me. I have had a previous HDD have that clicking noise, but it still booted.. I will give that usb another look or two... XD

 

[bignastyid]

They aren't very expensive if you need to buy another, and they are a good thing to keep around I use mine all the time.

 

[Dereck47]

More than likely when you installed your O/S on your SSD you also had your HDD connected and Windows mistakenly installed its hidden System Reserved partition (100MB) on your HDD instead of on your SSD.

Windows accesses the System Reserved partition at startup and if it is corrupted then you can't boot.

1.) Shut down your pc and disconnect your HDD.
2.) Boot into your motherboard's BIOS and change your 1st boot priority from your SSD to your CD/DVD drive.
3.) Insert your Windows installation disk into your CD/DVD drive, save your BIOS settings and reboot.
4.) Repair your Windows install. http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/howto-create-system-reserved-partition-after-being/9b1f0f20-618a-4187-bd38-93d508c148bd
5.) After repair is complete reboot into BIOS and change your 1st boot device back to your SSD.
6.) Save your BIOS settings and see if you are able to boot into Windows successfully.
7.) If everything is ok then shut down, reconnect your HDD, and see if you can backup any needed data.

 

[bignastyid]

More than likely when you installed your O/S on your SSD you also had your HDD connected and Windows mistakenly installed its hidden System Reserved partition (100MB) on your HDD instead of on your SSD.

Windows accesses the System Reserved partition at startup and if it is corrupted then you can't boot.

1.) Shut down your pc and disconnect your HDD.
2.) Boot into your motherboard's BIOS and change your 1st boot priority from your SSD to your CD/DVD drive.
3.) Insert your Windows installation disk into your CD/DVD drive, save your BIOS settings and reboot.
4.) Repair your Windows install. http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/howto-create-system-reserved-partition-after-being/9b1f0f20-618a-4187-bd38-93d508c148bd
5.) After repair is complete reboot into BIOS and change your 1st boot device back to your SSD.
6.) Save your BIOS settings and see if you are able to boot into Windows successfully.
7.) If everything is ok then shut down and reconnect your HDD.

If that was the case it wouldn't boot with the hdd removed either. And according to the description the only way to boot the system is with it removed so that's not the issue on this occasion.

 

[Dereck47]

You're right, I misread the post.
I read the 3rd paragraph where the system wouldn't work with the HDD in, but missed the next paragraph where it worked when the drive was removed.

Sorry for the confusion on my end.

 

[bignastyid]

Your right, I misread the post. I read the 3rd paragraph where the system wouldn't work with the HDD in, but missed the next paragraph where it worked when the drive was removed.

Sorry for the confusion on my end.

No problem I have been know to do the same thing myself