[SOLVED] If You Can Solve This, You're A Wizard.

[LunarAlias17]

I have a desktop with two HDD drives (1 TB WD Black, Win 10; 250GB WD Blue, Linux Mint) that stopped booting. One day I turned on the system and the 1TB HDD automatically booted (even though the 250GB HDD was my main). So I unplugged the 1TB and the 250GB wouldn't boot; I just got a black screen with a white cursor. No beeps or lights from the motherboard. Took out all peripherals, etc, no dice. "Alright," I figured, "the 250GB is dead." So I only attach the 1TB, and I get the same black screen on boot. At this point I'm thinking it may not be an HDD issue, right?

Welp. I bring the 250GB HDD to a different desktop build I have (that I know works), unplug the HDD in there and attach the 250GB. Same black screen and cursor. Alright, HDD issue then? I unplug the 250GB, plug in the HDD that was already working in that desktop, and now it's giving the same problem. This must be some next level hacking. Three dead drives across two desktop builds.

If you can solve this, you're a wizard. I'm completely out of ideas. :/

UPDATE: I was sort of able to solve this issue by first resetting the CMOS in each motherboard. I then detached all HDDs and booted a USB stick (running Linux Mint). Once running Linux, I attached the SATA cable onto the HDD and Linux recognized it. Restarted and two of the HDDs are working again! Don't ask me how, although the third HDD (250GB WD Blue) seems to be defective. Thanks for the help guys!

 

[IInuyasha74]

That is strange how it's spreading. There have been viruses in the past that could infect the firmware on storage devices and cause issues. It's doubtful, but plausible something like that could be happening here.

Have you tried formatting one of the drives and installing a new OS? It's worth a try. I know it wouldn't explain the strange events you are seeing, but sometimes its easier to treat a problem than determine what caused it, and this sounds like one of those times.

 

[punkncat]

At the risk of spreading this...what happens if you dock this on an already running system like a "hot swap"? Can you see any files?

 

[LunarAlias17]

Have you tried formatting one of the drives and installing a new OS? It's worth a try. I know it wouldn't explain the strange events you are seeing, but sometimes its easier to treat a problem than determine what caused it, and this sounds like one of those times.

I can try it out, although half the time the PCs don't even see the drive connected.

 

[LunarAlias17]

At the risk of spreading this...what happens if you dock this on an already running system like a "hot swap"? Can you see any files?

Unfortunately those were my only two systems...

 

[punkncat]

Unfortunately those were my only two systems...

Urg….hope you have OS already on a USB put up somewhere.

 

[fzabkar]

Do all the drives still spin up?

Can you get into BIOS?

 

[LunarAlias17]

Do all the drives still spin up?

Can you get into BIOS?

I can get into the BIOS for both, yes. All three drives spin and I'm not hearing any clicking.

Urg….hope you have OS already on a USB put up somewhere.

I do! As an update, I attached a bootable USB with Linux to the second desktop with it's HDD detached. While running on the Linux USB, I attached the HDD's sata cable and the drive was recognized. Restarted and the drive is working again! I have literally no explanation. One desktop down, one to go...

 

[digitalgriffin]

I can get into the BIOS for both, yes. All three drives spin and I'm not hearing any clicking.


I do! As an update, I attached a bootable USB with Linux to the second desktop with it's HDD detached. While running on the Linux USB, I attached the HDD's sata cable and the drive was recognized. Restarted and the drive is working again! I have literally no explanation. One desktop down, one to go...

The way its supposed to work is the boot strap loader looks for the master boot record. This then loads up and determines which partition to load from.

Some distributions allow milti boots (windows and linux) and allow you to choose. Some drives will not report back to bios until they are up and ready. So while some drives are up and operating the others appear invisible until they reach ready state.

If a mbr doesn't see the partition it may default to the remaining partition.

This all sounds fine and dandy to explain your issues but the last time i saw an initilization error timeout was the 90s with ATA drives during spin up.

 

[digitalgriffin]

Im a dummy. I totally forgot that boot order priority gets changed in bios when you switch around drives on some systems. That is probably the reason right there