HDD BSOD woes

ukmonkey

Ok, here goes...

My computer kept BSODing so I ran the Windows Repair util on the install disk, and all seemed fine, though I had to reinstall my gfx drivers for some reason.

PC then started hanging randomly whilst playing Left4Dead, it would freeze for X seconds and then display BSOD.

It then wouldn't boot up from the drive. No errors or anything, it just gets to the screen with the Windows logo and the blue thing that wizzes across the screen and it never progresses past that (it's worth noting that the bar initially moves really fast, as it should do, for a few seconds, and it then slows down to a sort of jerky-slow speed)

So, I figured that as I have things on my [SATA] HDD that I need to backup, I thought I'd install windows onto a spare IDE, then plug the SATA drive in, and reboot, but boot from the IDE with it's freshly installed version of Windows, then transfer my files from the SATA to the IDE, format the SATA, and reinstall windows, then transfer files back over from IDE tro SATA.

So, I've now got Windows running on my IDE, but the PC just won't boot if the SATA drive is connected. No errors or anything, just just gets past the POST, but no further, not even as for as the aforementioned windows screen with the wizzy bar.

I unplug the SATA drive and it boots up fine.

I've checked in BIOS and the HDD boot priority is set correctly (i.e the IDE drive then the SATA), both drive have been auto-detected by the BIOS, so the SATA drive is clearly working.

Any ideas as to how I can recover my data (pls spare the lectures about backing up, I know, I know...!!)

-TangleFoot-

Have you tried temporarily disconnecting your optical disc drive(s)?

ukmonkey

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

Have you tried temporarily disconnecting your optical disc drive(s)?

Erm, no...

The Optical dribve is on IDE.

Do you think this would make a difference??

ukmonkey

Oh well, off to try booting without my optical drive, brb (hopefully!)...

ukmonkey

Right, that made no difference.

I can't even boot into safe mode (it stops at loading mup.sys) though my experiences of Safe Mode over the years hasn't been great tbh.

Any other ideas, short of going to Maplin and buying a SATA USB HDD enclosure to enable me to copy my data across.

-TangleFoot-

ukmonkey wrote: »

Any other ideas[?]

Are there any options in the BIOS pertaining to IDE/SATA operating modes?

ukmonkey

Could you be more specific please??

-TangleFoot-

Can you disable either of the IDE channels or set the SATA controller to IDE emulation mode?

ukmonkey

Right, here we go - this is what my BIOS says about SATA

SATA AHCI MODE - DISABLED
SATA PORT0-1 NATIVE MODE - DISABLED
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ONBOARD SATA/IDE DEVICE - ENABLED
ONBOARD SATA/IDE Ctrl MODE - IDE
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Any ideas?

-TangleFoot-

I'm not sure... what happens if you remove the SATA drive from the boot list?

ukmonkey

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

I'm not sure... what happens if you remove the SATA drive from the boot list?

I'm not sure what you mean here??

If the SATA drive is plugged in, the BIOS sees it, but won't boot neither using the SATA as primary or the IDE as primary.

With SATA drive unplugged, Windows boots from the IDE drive without any problems.