[SOLVED] Secondary HDD causing black screen (with cursor) after logging in to Windows 10

[hockayak]

I have recently had to reinstall windows 10 onto my SSD after copping a virus which Norton couldn't do anything with. My setup is exactly as it was, with a few non SSD HDDs in there etc.

After the system recovery (install of Windows 10), the PC didnt boot back up properly. It took a few off/ons to get it going again. All was fine, windows login screen no setup required as it was a recovery. Log in as per usual, loaded to a black screen, with cursor. I could ctrl+alt+del to the task manager, but couldn't reload explorer.exe, or rather it loaded in the task manager but didn't do anything at all. I played around removing HDDs to find the problem. Its a 2TB HDD, when i remove it, all is perfect. When it's in, same black screen with cursor after login.

I thought i'd use an old SATA - USB dock i have, so I put the faulty HDD into the external dock, connected via USB to my PC. Loaded up Win10, perfect. Then clicked power on to the HDD which was faulty, only to find that file explorer finds a new drive, great. Click the drive to view contents.... the screen goes black, with cursor. Flick power off on my external SATA dock, and the desktop is back and full functionality once more.

It's really odd, i'd love to get the contents of that HDD back, but i find it weird that its not a full on system crash. As I said, when i powered off that dodgey drive, Windows 10 kicked back up properly. Anyone have any ideas of the problem and how best to sort it, other than buy a new drive (as i will do that anyway) - Id like to recover it if possible.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Most likely you have multiple boot or EFI partitions, on multiple drives. I would highly recommend disconnecting ALL existing drives, and then do a CLEAN install of Windows. That's the only way to correct the issue. A recovery, or refresh or reset, or restore, none of these are going to do the job properly. Likely, that drive has your boot or EFI partition on it. This is not uncommon and on some systems it won't even boot at all if you remove the secondary drive with the boot data.

It's true that you'll have to reinstall all your applications and such, so if you are able to get into windows now just backup any important files to one of the other drives, then power off, disconnect everything except the SSD you want Windows on and follow these directions to the letter.


http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-3567655/clean-installation-windows.html


You WILL want to first go into the bios and disable CSM (Compatibility support module) unless you are using an older non-UEFI graphics card or other PCI add in cards that are not UEFI compatible. You will also want to ENABLE the UEFI mode which is usually located in the secure boot sub settings. This will ensure that windows installs in UEFI mode with a GPT partition rather than an older style MBR partition.

After completion you can reconnect the other drives and sort out any other partition issues that might still exist on those drives by finding and removing any non-primary partitions that might be on them, but hidden, using a partition manager like Gparted.

 

[hockayak]

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. Since reading your reply, i have done all of the steps involved, including reinstalling from USB, a clean install with the CSM disabled etc. I actually, sadly, get the exact same result. If the SATA HDD is plugged in from boot up, in any of the motherboard SATA connections, it doesnt find it in Win 10, or apparently in the bios boot options either. If i hot swap the drive while logged in to Win 10, after approx 10 seconds, all onscreen visuals disappear, leaving the black screen and white cursor. Its not a crash per se, as i can still get to task manager, i cant reload explorer.exe though, it just never shows. If i then remove the disk, screen flicks back to fully operational status and i can resume as if nothing happened. Its not really a system crash. It's just as if the computer cant read the new disc, doesnt know what to do, then poops itself until the disk is removed.

Do you have any other ideas? Before i reinstalled Win (as above) i would temporarily see the drive mapped in file explorer, but now i get nothing at all.
I really appreciate the suggestions. I have read some of the "Black screen with cursor after opening Win 10" threads and tried some of those solutions, but im not making progress.

 

[hockayak]

Follow up:
When using the drive via the usb dock - plugging in briefly displays the drive (as letter K for me) but gives no size estimate. If i click on the drive at all in file explorer, the file explorer program hangs with a blue circle (waiting). Then nothing happens, after this the drive stops doing its thing and just sits still and silent and the computer forgets it was there and carries on. No black screen when plugged in via USB.

Could the drive size have any impact? Its 2Tb?

I also used Disk manager to check that my new C:\ drive install was the UFEI version not MBR and it is still an MBR partition. Im assuming that this could still be the problem. Im not sure what UFEI and MBR are or what the diff are but, when i load to bios F11 or whatever just after power on, it says UFEI bios, at the top so i must be able to do it in there some how.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Does the drive show up in the bios?

If so, download Seatools for DOS, create bootable media and run the short DST (Drive self test) and Long generic. You can also use Western digitals lifeguard tools version of the same tests.

I'd also probably try to see if I could connect that drive to an entirely different system, and whether or not it shows up there so you can at least try to get your data off it and onto another drive, optical disks or something. If you can't, then it's probably a failed drive. I've never heard of such a thing but perhaps the infection actually caused some physical damage to the software on the drive. I imagine it's possible although it would be pretty rare if it was.

More likely would be that it was simply a faulty drive or that there is a problem with the storage controllers on your motherboard of some type.

Make sure you have installed ALL of the latest drivers from your motherboard product page including the chipset, storage controller, audio, network and that you have the latest bios installed.