[SOLVED] Secondary Hard Drive suddenly died

[JxXxn]

Hi all,

I have 2 drives in my PC(c: and d) which ran fine until today.c:/ is primary OS and d:/ is for data
When I boot up my PC today,it took so long to boot up,>10 mins.
When it finally booted up,everything I tried to do(e.g. clicking on folders,virus scanning) took so long to respond that I gave up.
When I managed to open up My Computer,I realised that my d: is there but I cannot access it as it hang the whole PC again

So what I did is I removed my d drive and wala,the PC boot up instantaneously and ran normally like before,however plugging it back will make the PC hang in every task.I have tried plugging in to another port and changing power source and it is not working.

So I would like to ask:
1.)Does that mean my d drive is corrupted?Why would having a corrupted drive freeze the whole PC even though this is not a primary drive?
2.)Anything that I can do is access and recover my files in d:/ ? I tried chkdsk and it is not working as once the drive is plugged in,it will hang the whole PC
3.)I am thinking of plugging my d: as a external drive to see if I can run a repair to recover my files,any programs that can run and recover my files?

 

[gmagdna]

You don't say how the drives are connected but I'll assume SATA and Yes, a failing or failed secondary drive can cause your issues. You don't say anything about your total system but most have a single SATA controller (on the mobo) and a bad drive ties up the controller. No doubt there's also a controller timeout delay in play here. Regardless, connecting the secondary drive through a USB caddy should let you run at normal speed, determine the drive issue, and attempt to recover data. What recovery program, you ask? Opinions are as many as many as stars in the sky. Recoverit is free, may work, generally well liked and easy to use.

 

[USAFRet]

1. & 2. Yes. A failing drive can absolutely impact the system booting up, and subsequent access.

3. Yes, try that.

4. Invent a time machine. Go back in time to before this drive died. Start a comprehensive backup routine. When (not if) this drive dies, you 'data' is still safe and 100% recoverable.