Vista not loading correctly /w 2 SATA drives

[inshead]

This may be a lengthy explanation so I apologize in advance. I have a user that previously had a Seagate SATA drive with Windows Vista pre-installed in a Dell machine. When I got the computer, I was unable to boot Windows, get into Safe Mode with or without command prompt, use a last known configuration, or use the provided Windows Vista CD from Dell. I will add that when trying to boot Windows normally from the boot menu, I would get a BSOD with a "Unmountable_Boot_Volume" error.

I was able to run a diagnostic on the drive that came back with no errors so I assumed a MBR or some type of boot sector issue. I took this drive out and threw in a brand new similar Seagate SATA drive. I went through a brand new Windows Vista installation on the new drive and booted up just fine with no problems. Once I ran through the updates and made sure the rest of the system was working correctly, I added the old drive in as well to see the results and possibly run a drive repair. Once I turned on the Sata-3 port in BIOS for the motherboard to see the new drive, the new Windows Vista install stopped booting correctly. I was able to load into Windows but as soon as the OS began to load, Explorer would crash forcing me to shut down.

With both drives installed, I am unable to boot into safe mode as it freezes during the loading process. I was, however, able to get to Safe Mode with Command Prompt at one point. From command prompt, I was unable to view any contents of the old drive. All I could view was apparently the recovery partition that Dell had pre-installed but I was able to correctly view every directory of the new drive. BIOS appears to automatically set these 2 drives up in a Raid config and everything is detecting correctly in BIOS when both drives are installed.

Now I know that Windows Vista can have problems with dual boot scenarios but this is a first time that I have ran into this type of issue with Vista. I assumed that once I installed the new drive with a fresh install, that I should be able to boot from that allowing me to fully repair and backup the old drive. However, it appears that once the new drive boots, somehow the previous install on the old drive is conflicting.

 

[hang-the-9]

Try a different drive, you already know the original one has some issues, even though the disk scan was OK. I'm thinking a new drive along with the one you used for the OS will boot OK.

 

[inshead]

Well that is ultimately what I did. I pulled the original drive to put in a brand new drive. Ran through the Windows Vista installation without a problem and booted up to do the updates without any issues. When I plugged the secondary drive (old one with the same OS install on it) back in, thats when the new Windows install began locking up and I was unable to access safe mode.

Weird thing is I just spent the last 2 hours building a test kit with a fresh Windows Vista install on it, plugged my customers faulty drive in as the secondary and everything booted up just fine without problems. I was able to just back everything up and am currently still waiting on it to format. This didnt really solve the initial issue I was having but it is a remedy the same and will be just fine, just wish I knew what was causing the boot issue.

 

[hang-the-9]

Well that is ultimately what I did. I pulled the original drive to put in a brand new drive. Ran through the Windows Vista installation without a problem and booted up to do the updates without any issues. When I plugged the secondary drive (old one with the same OS install on it) back in, thats when the new Windows install began locking up and I was unable to access safe mode.

Weird thing is I just spent the last 2 hours building a test kit with a fresh Windows Vista install on it, plugged my customers faulty drive in as the secondary and everything booted up just fine without problems. I was able to just back everything up and am currently still waiting on it to format. This didnt really solve the initial issue I was having but it is a remedy the same and will be just fine, just wish I knew what was causing the boot issue.

When I said try a new drive, I meant a new drive as a secondary instead of the one with issues. I've seen faulty hard-drives do funny stuff, like disable the DVD drive when used, although the drive itself booted fine. Causes some issues with the SATA controller. That drive and the original system just came up with a bad combination between the drive and the motherboard.

 

[inshead]

Well the build originally had a DVD drive & CD Burner connected to SATA-1 & SATA-1. I had tried them on different controllers, different boot orders, etc. I assume this is what you meant? I tried putting the faulty drive on SATA-1 & 3 at least that I know for sure with the same results as well as trying without any other removable storage type drives.

 

[hang-the-9]

Well the build originally had a DVD drive & CD Burner connected to SATA-1 & SATA-1. I had tried them on different controllers, different boot orders, etc. I assume this is what you meant? I tried putting the faulty drive on SATA-1 & 3 at least that I know for sure with the same results as well as trying without any other removable storage type drives.

I meant to try a second hard-drive along with the new good one, in place of the bad one. That way you will be sure that the issue is with that drive that's giving errors, and not just the fact that you have 2 hard-drives in the system. By now though it's pretty obvious that the issue is with that drive and that system together, so doing this now does not have much point.