Windows 7 won't boot with backup drive plugged in...

[R4ekwon]

Wonder if you guys can help. I booted into Windows 7 64 Bit this morning to find 7 Windows Updates, I installed them all and then restarted the machine as part of the process.

On bootup, the system hung on the splash screen and wouldn't boot in so I naturally restarted thinking it was just a one off... but it wasn't. Even booting into safe mode the system was hanging in the same spot every time. Initially I thought the Windows Update had effected the RAID drivers for my main drives but after unplugging a backup 500GB Western Digital SATA drive, the problem was resolved.

I have tried clearing the CMOS, taking the backup drive completely out of the bootup sequence, the RAID config clearly states it is not part of the RAID yet every time I try to boot with this drive plugged in, the system won't let me into Windows. This is a drive that has worked fine for over a year and still contains all the data in an uncorrupted format.

Clearly there has been a conflict somewhere with the Windows Update but I am totally out of ideas for a quick fix. The hard drives are all in cages and I don't want to have to resort to taking it all apart if there is a fix someone else has come across.

Any help appreciated, cheers!

 

[Hawkeye22]

The drive enclosure may be going bad. Try removing the drive from the enclosure and hooking it up directly to the motherboard. If this fixes the problem you can either leave it as an internal drive or buy a new enclosure for it.

 

[ricky_critic]

Hi,

Check the following steps to fix your problem:

1. Keep tapping F8 during the early boot phase.
2. Select Repair from the menu.
3. Enter the Administrator's password when prompted. It is often blank.
4. Select System Restore when prompted.
5. Set Windows back to a point before this problem occurred.

 

[bnb23]

i am having the exact same problem. i have 4 hard drives (3 internal, 1 external) and i've narrowed the issue down to one of them causing my issue. hanging at startup whether safe mode or not. 1 out of about 10 times i'll make it to the desktop without a problem, but immedietly freeze. this is a fairly new issue for me as well and may have something to do with a recent windows update.