Problems booting with a new HD
Hi,
I have experienced a problem with a new hard disc drive and I am now trying to boot up on it so I can run some tests via the Western Digital diagnostics software (to see if there is a problem before I try and RMA).
This drive is my second in my system and I already have a fully functioning hard drive with the OS and my documents on which boots up fine when it's the only one in my system.
However when I boot up with the problem drive plugged in etc, the boot process is much slower and eventually I get an error and am not able to load into Vista.
I think I have set it so that the primary boot device is my functioning hard drive, but it still doesn't boot.
Any ideas?
Problem drive:
WesternDigital WD3200AAKS Caviar Blue SATA 300
320GB, 16MB cache, 7200rpm
Thanks
Re: Problems booting with a new HD
what drive is it? ide /sata ?
you could download the bootable diagnostics cd from western digital site and see if that works with just the suspected faulty drive connected
actually just reading it again it does sound like you have not changed the boot order in the bios and it's trying to boot from the OS less drive
Re: Problems booting with a new HD
Hmm well firstly my main drive is a WD one too, so I could have got confused between them when selecting which to boot off but I'm pretty sure I chose teh correct one - I'll plug them in and try again though.
I'll try your suggestion from the website and get back here if I still can't get anything to work.
Problem drive:
WesternDigital WD3200AAKS Caviar Blue SATA 300
320GB, 16MB cache, 7200rpm
Thanks
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Update:
Ok I plugged in the second drive and looked at my boot priorities.
1. Ch0S WDC WD2500AAKS-00B3A0 (That is my main 250GB WesternDigital drive, which works fine.)
2. Ch1S (Which is suspect is the second drive as this option does not show up when it is not plugged in.)
I add that I have not formatted this second drive as that was my original problem, it would not 'intialize' and so I cannot format it (I got a cyclic redundancy check error).
Also when booting, the problem drive makes a repetitive crunching noise which is never good...
I tried using the boot CD from the WD website but I get an error there too.
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Re: Problems booting with a new HD
Update 2:
I tried the WesternDigital Data lifeguard diagnostic as a bootable CD and it gave me this when I only had my problem drive plugged in:
No Western Digital drives found
Non-WD Drive
Error/Status code: 0201
It is definitely a WD hard drive!
Then it asks me to press any key and starts trying to do some stuff and ends up saying there is no IDE CD-ROM drive and it can't find/install some drivers.
This is the same for all the bootable (DOS) utilities I have tried from the WD website. And some of their software, which I would like to try, is not for Vista 64bit which is the OS I have.
I can't seem to get the drive to boot, to be recognised or to allow me to boot even if it is not the primary device.
Think this is a case for a return? Btw the drive arrived, brand new, on 02/12/2008.