Vista - Vista freezes after installed 2nd hard drive

Hi, I have an external hard drive (Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 500Gb USB) which used to work just fine until yesterday when Vista started to freeze every time I wanted to access the data that was on it. I called Seagate service dep, told me they will replace it as it was on warranty. The thing is I had a lot of photos/videos with my little baby that I dind't want to lose. So I opened the case took the hard drive out. It is a SATA. I plugged it in my desktop as a second hard drive. BIOS recognized it with no problems. The problem is that after it shows on the screen that Vista is loading, it freezes.I tried many times it does it over and over again. I don't know what to do...I don't want to lose those pictures.
Mother Board M2N68 LA

Can you please hel me?Please.......

Well I understand you dont want to lose .. Pictures. But anyway, what is your ram, what is your 2nd hard drive capacity? I had a 140GB and I had 768 ram, and then, my computer failed because I had too low cpu speed and ram.

You might have to remove the hard drive that causes the problems and get a lower capacity, preferably one with 100 or less GB. Sorry if this is too little but come on how fast can you fill in 100GB..

One possible cause for this problem is that when this hard disk is connected to the desktop, the BIOS is attempting to boot it. There should be a setting in the BIOS setup where you can choose which hard disk will be booted.

If that is not the problem (the BIOS is booting the usual boot hard disk as before, but adding this hard disk internally causes Vista to freeze when starting) you could try connecting it to the desktop PC using a USB adapter instead of internally and don't connect it until after Vista has finished booting.

If doing it that way you can't retrieve files from it using Explorer, you could try using file recovery software instead of Explorer.

There is no reason to get a disk with lower capacity. All editions of Vista (and also XP with SP2) have no problems accessing a 500 GB hard disk. Only early versions of XP without any service packs is limited to reading hard disks smaller than about 128 GB.

Apparently, I have a Windows XP SP3 that cant even handle 140. OldBloke, care to explain why mine doesnt work? HMM? ^^

I don't have enough information to diagnose your problem.

There is no need for other people to stop using 500 GB hard disks in Vista, just because your Windows XP SP3 system cannot access your 140 GB hard drive.

Thanks for you quick response. I have an HP a6000n. I tried again and this time I waited longer(10 min). Finally Vista finished loading!!!! BUT I accessed My computer, saw both hard drives. the one that has Vista on it "c:"and the other one as "N:"(that I've just plugged in). Tried to access N then I got message "NOT Responding". After a while tried Computer/manage/device manager......my hdd was gone. Tried My computer again...hdd was gone......I have no idea...maybe the hdd is toasted.

Oh dear, it doesn't look good.
I suggest that on the desktop PC, you download Seagate's Seatools for Windows hard disk diagnostics. It works on most brands of hard disk, not only Seagate brand disks.
Seagate Technology - SeaTools

Have you looked in device manager?
If the disk doesn't appear there, there's no hope that Seatools for Windows will be able to see it or test it.

In case this is only a problem with Windows not being able to see it, you could try Seatools for DOS (runs from a bootable CD).

Sometimes a hard disk can be so faulty that no software available for us to use on home PCs can retrieve your files from it. If that's the case, you can send it to a file retrieval company which has suitable hardware as well as software, but it's terribly expensive. Often they are willing to check it out and then quote for rescuing the files if they decide it's possible, so you don't have to pay if they can't do it.

Good luck...

Thank you! I will try Seatools. Hope will work...

Ooops, I just noticed you wrote that is has disappeared from device manager -- so don't bother with Seatools for Windows, just try Seatools for DOS

If it's a Western Digital brand HD, you can get a similar free diagnostics program from WD's website.

Tried Seagate tools for DOS. It found the hdd. Run long test .....88 errors that couldn't be fixed. "Block#3276957 Failed Repair"

Did the test again...message "A SMART trip was detected prior to the test starting".....