Problem with installing second HD

[destrutr]

My Alienware Aurora A4 system came with a seagate 1 tb st31000524AS drive. When I try to add in my old computers storage drive a 1.5 tb st31500341as it causes my Windows 7 system to not boot. The computer hangs at the Startup Repair (recommended)" / "Start Windows Normally" console screen. Either option brings me back the same place. When I go into the bios it has an UEFI boot system. I have made sure to select the 1tb drive as the first boot option and I continue to encounter the same problem. I tried booting to a windows 7 recovery disk. and It could not find fix anything. I'm at a loss of what to do. They system is brand new but I can't add my backup drive to it.

thanks

 

[Pinhedd]

Hi,

If this is a brand new system you should check and see if there is a firmware update. UEFI is fairly new (okay it really isn't that new but BIOS was around for 30 years and manufacturers never figured out how to use it) and is often plagued with bugs like this

 

[destrutr]

I've checked for bios updates. I have the newest

 

[Pinhedd]

was the 1.5TB ever used as a system disk?

 

[destrutr]

no it wasn't. It was just a storage disk for my old system. It was partitioned into three 500 gig drives. None of which contain an operating system

 

[Pinhedd]

Sounds to me like it might not like the partition table, which is odd. If there's nothing on there that you don't mind losing I suggest that you format it

 

[destrutr]

unfortunately its got most of my data on it as it was my storage device. and I don't have a way to archive the data at this time.

 

[Pinhedd]

See if your motherboard supports hot-swappable SATA drives. If it does you can bypass the UEFI OPROM which might be causing the problem and mount it directly within windows. To do this:

1. Ensure the particularly SATA port that the HDD is attached to has hot swap enabled.

2. (optional) Connect the SATA data connector to the 1.5TB hard drive but leave the power connector disconnected.

3. Power on the machine as normal and boot into windows.

4. If you skipped step 2 while the machine was off, do it now while it is on.

5. Carefully connect the power connector to the 1.5TB drive. The SATA power connectors are manufactured with an extended ground pin which ensures that ground is always connected first, allowing it to be connected and disconnected safely while running.

The 1.5 TB drive should mount automatically

 

[destrutr]

Not hot swappable. I can hook it up via external usb. However, that just kills the drive performance.

 

[Pinhedd]

If you have an Alienware Aurora R4 it should have hotswappable SATA ports. Alternatively you can always get an eSATA enclosure which is hotswappable by nature.

You can try hotswapping it anyway and just skip step #1, it might work