Vista freezes after installed 2nd hard drive

N

nicholas2008

New Member
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.......:cry:
 

My Computer

System One

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..
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
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    Pentium 4 OC'd to 3.0GHZ and a Pentium Dual Core E2180 @2GHZ
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    Gigabyte GA-***** and a ASUS model
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    Happy right now ^^
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.
 

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System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    home assembled
    CPU
    Intel Q9450 quad core
    Motherboard
    Asus P5Q Pro, Intel P45 chipset
    Memory
    4GB : 2 x 2GB G.Skill DDR2 800MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte 9600GT
    Sound Card
    Realtek onboard the mobo
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ 24"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    2 of Samsung HD501LJ SATA2 500GB
    and a few IDE hard disks on USB for backups
    PSU
    Corsair TX-650 and APC UPS
    Case
    Antec P180
    Cooling
    OCZ Vendetta2
Apparently, I have a Windows XP SP3 that cant even handle 140. OldBloke, care to explain why mine doesnt work? HMM? ^^
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Pentium 4 OC'd to 3.0GHZ and a Pentium Dual Core E2180 @2GHZ
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-***** and a ASUS model
    Memory
    768MB DDR1 / 2GB DDR2
    Graphics Card(s)
    RADEON 9800 PRO / NVIDIA Geforce FX5200
    Sound Card
    Intel built-in AC'97 Audio / Realtek High Def Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung SyncMaster 913V/213BW / Acer X193
    Screen Resolution
    12**x10** / 10**x7** / 16**x10**
    Hard Drives
    1: 320GB SATA
    2: 20GB SATA
    3: 40 GB SATA
    4: 150 GB SATA
    PSU
    Not sure
    Case
    ASUS ASPIRE / HP Pavilion 754n / Custom
    Cooling
    Not sure
    Keyboard
    NeXXTech Office KeyBoard / Acer Keyboard / UNITECH
    Mouse
    Razor DeathAdder / Logitech Wireless / Acer Wheel mouse
    Internet Speed
    100MBits per second
    Other Info
    Happy right now ^^
Vista Dan said:
Apparently, I have a Windows XP SP3 that cant even handle 140. OldBloke, care to explain why mine doesnt work? HMM? ^^
Click to expand...

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.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    home assembled
    CPU
    Intel Q9450 quad core
    Motherboard
    Asus P5Q Pro, Intel P45 chipset
    Memory
    4GB : 2 x 2GB G.Skill DDR2 800MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte 9600GT
    Sound Card
    Realtek onboard the mobo
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ 24"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    2 of Samsung HD501LJ SATA2 500GB
    and a few IDE hard disks on USB for backups
    PSU
    Corsair TX-650 and APC UPS
    Case
    Antec P180
    Cooling
    OCZ Vendetta2
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.
 

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System One

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...
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    home assembled
    CPU
    Intel Q9450 quad core
    Motherboard
    Asus P5Q Pro, Intel P45 chipset
    Memory
    4GB : 2 x 2GB G.Skill DDR2 800MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte 9600GT
    Sound Card
    Realtek onboard the mobo
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ 24"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    2 of Samsung HD501LJ SATA2 500GB
    and a few IDE hard disks on USB for backups
    PSU
    Corsair TX-650 and APC UPS
    Case
    Antec P180
    Cooling
    OCZ Vendetta2
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.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    home assembled
    CPU
    Intel Q9450 quad core
    Motherboard
    Asus P5Q Pro, Intel P45 chipset
    Memory
    4GB : 2 x 2GB G.Skill DDR2 800MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte 9600GT
    Sound Card
    Realtek onboard the mobo
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ 24"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    2 of Samsung HD501LJ SATA2 500GB
    and a few IDE hard disks on USB for backups
    PSU
    Corsair TX-650 and APC UPS
    Case
    Antec P180
    Cooling
    OCZ Vendetta2
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".....
 

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System One

I think as a last resort I would leave the drive alone for a few hours then boot the system with some sort of linux live cd and see if I could get access to the files.
 

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    Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO Black 64GB (4x16GB) 3600MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4
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    350 Mb/s
Talking about last resorts, there is always the freezer trick. Wrap the hard disk well in a sealed plastic bag to avoid moisture and place it in the freezer for several hours. When you get it out of the freezer and reconnect it to the PC you have very little time to retrieve files from it (if the trick works at all) because it will warm up fairly quickly. Maybe 15 minutes? probably best to boot the PC and have a space ready on another hard disk where you will copy the most important files to, before connecting it via USB.

Sounds like a crazy idea I know but there are plenty of reports of it actually working. Google "hard disk freezer" or similar, for example:
Freeze your hard drive to recover data: Myth or reality? - [Geeks are Sexy] technology news

I have never tried it myself (never needed to) but I have seen it recommended several times so I thought I should mention it as a possibility.

If that fails you may soon be faced with a decision about how valuable the files are to you. Maybe it's time to start researching which data retrieval companies have a good reputation and get an idea of how much it will cost.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    home assembled
    CPU
    Intel Q9450 quad core
    Motherboard
    Asus P5Q Pro, Intel P45 chipset
    Memory
    4GB : 2 x 2GB G.Skill DDR2 800MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte 9600GT
    Sound Card
    Realtek onboard the mobo
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ 24"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    2 of Samsung HD501LJ SATA2 500GB
    and a few IDE hard disks on USB for backups
    PSU
    Corsair TX-650 and APC UPS
    Case
    Antec P180
    Cooling
    OCZ Vendetta2
nicholas2008 said:
That is a interesting option, never heard of that. I will leave it as a last option. Thank you
Click to expand...

It makes sense to me that it could work, but only for particular kinds of hard disk fault. No hope of it working if the drive's electronics are broken for example.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    home assembled
    CPU
    Intel Q9450 quad core
    Motherboard
    Asus P5Q Pro, Intel P45 chipset
    Memory
    4GB : 2 x 2GB G.Skill DDR2 800MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte 9600GT
    Sound Card
    Realtek onboard the mobo
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ 24"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    2 of Samsung HD501LJ SATA2 500GB
    and a few IDE hard disks on USB for backups
    PSU
    Corsair TX-650 and APC UPS
    Case
    Antec P180
    Cooling
    OCZ Vendetta2
OldBloke is right. Try the freezer. Disks get hot and excessive heat will cause a drive to break (expanding metal, etc.). Anyway, stick it in a ziploc bag and throw it in the freezer for 24 hours. If you're lucky you may get 20 - 30 minutes out of it before it fails again. Be ready to copy data when you install it. I have personally seen this work.
 

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    XFX 780i
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    8GB OCZ SLI 5-4-4-12@800
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    XFX 8800 GTX 768MB (2)
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    Auzen X-Fi Prelude / Logitech Z-5500 Digital 5.1
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung Syncmaster 214T
    Screen Resolution
    1600 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    300GB VelociRaptor / 750GB / 500GB / 750GB
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    Antec 1000W TPQ
    Case
    Antec 900
    Cooling
    4 x 120mm, 1 x 200mm
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Entertainment Desktop 8000
    Mouse
    Logitech G7, Razer Lachesis
    Internet Speed
    3Mb
I tried HDD Regenerator V1.51, no success...After a Surface test looks like the first 156 MB are fine(out of 500 GB!!), the rest of the sectors are all bad.....I don't know what could have happened to this HDD....nobody used it as a soccer ball.....Probably I'll try the recovery data companies even if it's expensive......
 

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System One

A program I forgot to mention before is Spinrite. It costs $89 :eek: but there's a "money back if not satisfied" guarantee :)
GRC | Hard drive data recovery software  

You could read about it and decide whether to fork out the money for it (no free trial period like there is for most shareware). It can fix some kinds of errors and not others of course.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    home assembled
    CPU
    Intel Q9450 quad core
    Motherboard
    Asus P5Q Pro, Intel P45 chipset
    Memory
    4GB : 2 x 2GB G.Skill DDR2 800MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte 9600GT
    Sound Card
    Realtek onboard the mobo
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ 24"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    2 of Samsung HD501LJ SATA2 500GB
    and a few IDE hard disks on USB for backups
    PSU
    Corsair TX-650 and APC UPS
    Case
    Antec P180
    Cooling
    OCZ Vendetta2
Tried Spinrite, after 2 hours at level 2 showed around 89 hours left and unable to restore all the sectors scanned....thank God they do refunds....anyway I'm not going to buy Seagate HDDs again..
 

My Computer

System One

Hi Nicholas,

You need to give Spinrite plenty of time to do its work - if you check out these podcasts GRC*|*Security Now! | Featuring episode #162** and testimonials http://www.grc.com/sr/testimonials.htm, you will find cases where people have run this program with complete success, sometimes taking a month or more to do its job and sometimes as little as a couple of hours. It really depends on what is wrong with the drive, how big it is (capacity), and how much of it is in use (i.e. has data stored on it). A hard drive of 500GB is going to take far longer to check than one of, say, 40GB.
This is a tool that is well worth adding to ones computer maintenance toolbox, and I recommend it.
 
Last edited:

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    Intel Core-i5-3570K 4-core @ 3.4GHz (Ivy Bridge) (OC 4.2GHz)
    Motherboard
    ASRock Z77 Extreme4-M
    Memory
    4 x 4GB DDR3-1600 Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B (16GB)
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    MSI GeForce GTX770 Gaming OC 2GB
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition on board solution (ALC 898)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ViewSonic VA1912w Widescreen
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    OCZ Agility 3 120GB SATA III x2 (RAID 0)
    Samsung HD501LJ 500GB SATA II x2
    Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 1TB SATA II
    Iomega 1.5TB Ext USB 2.0
    WD 2.0TB Ext USB 3.0
    PSU
    XFX Pro Series 850W Semi-Modular
    Case
    Gigabyte IF233
    Cooling
    1 x 120mm Front Inlet 1 x 120mm Rear Exhaust
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 3000 (USB)
    Mouse
    Microsoft Comfort Mouse 3000 for Business (USB)
    Internet Speed
    NetGear DG834Gv3 ADSL Modem/Router (Ethernet) ~4.0 Mb/s (O2)
    Other Info
    Optical Drive: HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH10LS30 SATA Bluray
    Lexmark S305 Printer/Scanner/Copier (USB)
    WEI Score: 8.1/8.1/8.5/8.5/8.25
    Asus Eee PC 1011PX Netbook (Windows 7 x86 Starter)
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