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Hard drive hangs at POST

David_W
Rising Star
Posts: 2,305
Thanks: 33
Registered: ‎19-07-2007

Hard drive hangs at POST

I'm using 3 SATA and 1 IDE drive.  My 1 SATA is a Maxtor Diamondmax 22 500GB drive which is causing the issue I have.
When I turn on my PC it detects the "real" IDE drive and then goes on to detect the SATA drives (but says detecting IDE drives).  if I have the Maxtor plugged in, it now hangs at detecting IDE drives.  If I unplug it, it will detect the other 2 drives and my dvd-rw.  i've tried plugging the Maxtor into other sata ports, changing the sata power connector, praying to arcane gods of PC goodness, but all to no avail, no matter which slot I plug it into, which sata cable I use or which PSU cable I use, as soon as I plug in the Maxtor it hangs.
Its quite annoying because all my good stuff is stored on the 500GB drive, ideally I would like a solution where I can continue to use the drive.  Its a new drive, 3 months old so has 2 years 9 months warranty left, but I really don't want to have to RMA it unless it is the only real viable option.
Help?
26 REPLIES 26
StickyMick
Grafter
Posts: 325
Registered: ‎29-11-2008

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

Does the PC actually boot right through to Windows without the dodgey SATA drive installed?
David_W
Rising Star
Posts: 2,305
Thanks: 33
Registered: ‎19-07-2007

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

Yeah, I was testing Win7 so installed it on my IDE drive first, it went OK so I stuck it on my SATA drive, so I had an OS ready and waiting for me.  Its just today that the problem has started and no amount of coaxing can get me past the detecting IDE drives if I have the Maxtor plugged in.
StickyMick
Grafter
Posts: 325
Registered: ‎29-11-2008

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

You could try an external USB caddy to try and rescue the data off the drive.
I was actually looking at one of these the other day http://www.storagedepot.co.uk/Enclosures-and-Cases/sc884/p640.aspx.
David_W
Rising Star
Posts: 2,305
Thanks: 33
Registered: ‎19-07-2007

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

Can't hurt to give that a try, and if it doesn't then I guess RMA is my only option
zebo-the-fat
Grafter
Posts: 53
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

I had a similar problem, a SATA drive hanging at POST, this happened when I used an adapter to power the drive from a normal 4 pin molex power connector. When I replaced the power supply with one that had "propper" SATA connectors it worked fine! I think that the adapter was missing one supply line (3.something volts I think) some SATA drives work without it but mine needed it.
I hope this helps
samuria
Grafter
Posts: 1,581
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Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

Have you tried the fault drive on it sown with no other drive connected?  If you remove the faulty one can you then boot windows if so in disk manager(admin\computer managment\diskmanager) what does it say about each disk does any say system?
A lot of bios wont boot if the find 2 drives with a partition set as active on them so if you had a drive which was active and installed windows to a second drive this could causes it. If windows boots from the first drive and then loads the second its ok but if it boots directly from a second drive it may not like it.
see
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/228004
if you have 2 active partitions you can change them as follows
Open up a command prompt and type DISKPART.
Type LIST DISK
Type SELECT DISK n (where n is the number of the old Win98 drive)
Type LIST PARTITION
Type SELECT PARTITION n (where n is the number of the active partition you wish to make
inactive)
Type INACTIVE
Type EXIT to exit DISKPART
Type EXIT again to exit the command prompt
Reboot
David_W
Rising Star
Posts: 2,305
Thanks: 33
Registered: ‎19-07-2007

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

I have tried the hard drive on its own yes, but it doesn't get near the boot stage it just locks up during POST.  I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that if I plug it into one of them USB things that it will be readable in Windows so I can get my stuff off it before I RMA.  Then I'll replace it with a Samsung.  Hopefully if it does work in the USB I can use disk tools too to check if the disk really is faulty.  I'm thinking the controller inside the drive has bit the dust.
VileReynard
Hero
Posts: 12,616
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Registered: ‎01-09-2007

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

Why not just disconnect all disks to see if you can get it to do the POST check?

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

David_W
Rising Star
Posts: 2,305
Thanks: 33
Registered: ‎19-07-2007

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

It POST's when I remove the Maxtor, as soon as I plug the Maxtor back in, it hangs, just having the Maxtor and nothing else still causes it to hang.
VileReynard
Hero
Posts: 12,616
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Registered: ‎01-09-2007

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

Unless putting it back in (cable problem) or swapping cables with other SATA drives causes the problem to move,
then you have a dead disc.
Does it spin-up at boot time?

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

David_W
Rising Star
Posts: 2,305
Thanks: 33
Registered: ‎19-07-2007

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

I've tried different cables, different sata ports all to no avail.
I'm not sure if it spins up or not, its a very quiet hard drive and I have several fans that enjoy making noises.  I'm going to try the external USB option, I can get a cheap one from Aria, the theory being if I *can* get it to work through that, I may be able to use seagate/maxtor tools to examine the drive for errors, well thats the theory anyhow, I just am not looking forward to taking my PC apart again Sad
VileReynard
Hero
Posts: 12,616
Thanks: 582
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Registered: ‎01-09-2007

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

Try touching the drive at moment of power-on - if you feel nothing then it's dead, dead, dead.

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

David_W
Rising Star
Posts: 2,305
Thanks: 33
Registered: ‎19-07-2007

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

I tried it recently and just felt the vibrations from my whole PC, I never realised how forceful that could be, its like a washing machine on super-spin.
I've put in a support request with Segate (they bought Maxtor) and so far have not heard a sausage from them, which isn't good, by the time they get back to me the warranty will probably be out of date.
Mav
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 22,371
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Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

I had a similar issue with a drive (also Maxtor IIRC) whereby it would hang during POST  - never actually tried it on its own but whatever combinations of drives/DVDs I did try I got the same result. Had over 50GB unbackedup (is that a word?) data.
I took the disc out and connected it externally, after the PC had booted, with no luck at all. I even tried it connected externally to two other PCs with no luck.
Data recovery was too expensive so thought I'd lost it all.
I took it along to a local PC shop who connected to one of their PCs and managed to get about 54GB off (ie nearly averything) before the drive gave up for ever.
Luckily it was still under warranty so I obtained an RMA and packaged it off Smiley
Good luck, as I know what it's like to lose a drive - I've lost around 4/5 in the last 18 months Sad

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