Question PC won't boot because of failed hard drive, disconnecting the drive - cant detect boot device

astrospud

Honorable
Dec 10, 2013
23
0
10,510
Some years ago my hard drive was acting up and wouldn't boot, so I went and bought a new one. I just plugged in the new one without removing the old one and installed windows on it. Once I was in I realised all my files were still accessible on the old drive, which was great. I copied them over and then I removed the old drive and tried to boot, it said it couldn't detect a boot device. I plugged it back in and it worked fine, so that's how I'd been using my computer for the last few years. Today, my computer just restarted itself and I got a message like AHCI port 2 device error and also disk read failure, on the old hard drive. I tried restarting a couple times and manually selecting to boot from the new hard drive in the bios but same thing. I tried to take out the old one but I got that same mesage I got years ago about not detecting a boot device. Not really sure what to do at this point other than going out and buying a new drive, reinstalling windows and just copying over all my stuff from the working hard drive and getting rid of both of them, but I would appreciate a cheaper solution.
 
Honestly, i think you should just buy another drive

"Not really sure what to do at this point other than going out and buying a new drive, reinstalling windows and just copying over all my stuff from the working hard drive and getting rid of both of them, but I would appreciate a cheaper solution. "

It was bound to happen, but why get rid of both of them??

Get a new drive (ssd maybe?) connect it to your pc, disconnect all other drives
do a fresh win install

insert "old" working drive, copy any files you need from it, and format it

That's it
 

astrospud

Honorable
Dec 10, 2013
23
0
10,510
Honestly, i think you should just buy another drive

"Not really sure what to do at this point other than going out and buying a new drive, reinstalling windows and just copying over all my stuff from the working hard drive and getting rid of both of them, but I would appreciate a cheaper solution. "

It was bound to happen, but why get rid of both of them??

Get a new drive (ssd maybe?) connect it to your pc, disconnect all other drives
do a fresh win install

insert "old" working drive, copy any files you need from it, and format it

That's it
I tried switching the sata port the old drive was plugged into and it somehow boots now. Any idea on how to fix the issue where it doesn't boot if the old drive isnt plugged in?