Hard Disk issues

I tried swapping out the Hard Disk in my computer, but I hit a wall. There's Windows on the drive, but it gets stuck at the screen where it says Windows XP and then asks if I want to "start windows normally." After that, nothing happens—it just sits there loading forever.

I disconnected the old ATA drive and hooked up this one exclusively.

I have no clue why this isn't working or if there's another step I'm missing.

It’s not quite like you're just using a USB Drive to move some photos from one PC to another, right? 😬 Most likely, your computer—or rather, Windows—isn't going to boot up because the chipset and drivers are totally different from whatever was running on the old machine. Basically, you're looking at having to format the Hard Disk and install a fresh version of Windows.

I was hoping there was some way to pull this off. 😁 Total letdown. 🕺

Fine, I'll just set it up as an extra drive then. Can I run ATA and SATA together? And will it cause any issues if I leave Windows on this one?

So, does your motherboard actually support both SATA and PATA Hard Disks? If it does, then you're all set—no harm done there. But if I were you, I’d probably just reformat those Windows XP files. Just a heads-up though—if you have anything important sitting on there, make sure you move it over to another Hard Disk first. Once your data is safe, just run a quick format and you should be good to go.

I’m hesitant about wiping the data because I can't afford to lose what's currently on this drive. My plan was just to swap things out, but since you mentioned that isn't an option, I'll just leave it as an extra drive if it doesn't cause any conflicts. Do I need to adjust any settings manually, or will the system recognize it automatically?

It should have driver support. I managed to get it plugged in. 🙂

How am I supposed to connect and configure this? When I plug both in at once, nothing happens.

The main thing is knowing if you're dealing with P-ATA or S-ATA drives.
http://www.newmodeus.com/harddrives/SATAPATA.jpg

If they're P-ATA, you'll need to set one as master and the other as slave if they're sharing a cable—otherwise, if they're on two separate cables, I guess they can both just be set to master.

You can usually figure out how to set them to master or slave by looking at the drive itself; there's typically an 8-pin layout (two rows of four) where you use a jumper to make the change.

I've got one hard drive acting right and another one being a total pain. I'm trying to merge them to use the second one as extra storage, but every time I try to combine them, it just fails.

What exactly isn't working? Is the computer failing to power on, having trouble loading the OS, or can you not even get into the BIOS?

It hangs right at the start. As soon as it tries to read anything, the whole thing freezes up—won't even let me get into the BIOS.

What exactly are you looking for? I have no idea.
All I know is that you want this computer to work... but which disk? For what purpose? You haven't specified anything.
You should have reached out sooner. It seems you don't even know what you want. I waited for a clearer picture, but nothing came.

There are several ways to get this machine running...
I won't list them all now, since you ultimately only want one result.
If you want advice on the best approach, ask properly from the start.

I can tell you this much: using Windows alone, you won't be able to run two Hard Disks simultaneously.
One was already in use; is the second one new or used?
That matters. You will need a USB Drive with Tools, specifically a Partition Manager.
Since the old Hard Disk is almost certainly set to "master" and "Active," perhaps the second Hard Disk is also set to "Active"? If so, they will conflict, though a Partition Manager can fix that.
Only one partition can be "Active" for booting purposes.
...
Your old Hard Disk is likely fine; something within Windows simply failed.
Unless the Registry is corrupted beyond repair, it can be fixed.
It is possible the new Hard Disk is faster, making it a better choice for booting and general Windows performance.
But that isn't a guarantee. New doesn't always mean faster.
Questions upon questions...

Some people assume a Hard Disk just works automatically once plugged in. That isn't how it works, especially when you introduce multiple drives into the equation.

We can go through this step by step, provided the goal is clear. If you intend to use both hard drives now, you will need a Boot CD or USB Drive containing a Partition Manager.

Good luck.

Put everything back exactly how you had it—just swap in the old hard disk and try to boot the machine. Let me know what happens. If nothing was messed up, Windows should load just fine, but at the very least, you ought to be able to reach the BIOS... If even that doesn't work, let me know and we'll figure out the next steps.

My bad, I realized I wasn't being clear enough.

The PC runs fine. It’s got one Hard Disk (PATA) and everything is working as expected.

I have a second Hard Disk (SATA) pulled from another computer. It has its own Windows installation and data on it.

I want to plug this SATA drive into my current machine as an extra drive without wiping the Windows install or moving any files.

Will this cause issues? And how exactly am I supposed to set this up?

I tried connecting it, and now I'm hitting the issue I mentioned earlier. As soon as the system starts booting Windows, the whole thing freezes. It won't even let me get into the BIOS.

Hopefully, that clears things up. 🙂

Hmm, looks like you need to set that drive to slave mode and then put the other one in master mode. Not entirely sure if you have to jump in there and do it physically since they aren't the same type, or if just tweaking things in the BIOS does the trick...

Master/slave settings don't exist anymore. Most SATA drives don't even have switches or jumpers; only those early SATA3 series had jumpers to let you run them under the SATA1 protocol. Modern SATA drives should auto-configure regardless of which port they're plugged into.

With mistypanther98, the issue is either the BIOS, the motherboard, or the power supply.

To actually diagnose anything here, I need the exact model of the motherboard, its version if there is one, and the specific model of the power supply.

You'll need to read the power supply's name and specs off the sticker. If there's a table on there, check how many +12V rails it has and what the amperage (A) is for each.

The motherboard model name should be printed in large letters near the center, somewhere between the connectors—copy that down exactly. If there’s a version number like Ver 1.1, include that too. You might also find the version printed along the edge near the expansion slots on the back of the board.

You can grab the motherboard name and BIOS version using CPU-Z. It's freeware; just download it, run it, and it'll spit out all the info for you. 😬

Once you get me those details, we can actually figure out where this is breaking down.

See, on older boards that have both ATA (PATA, IDE) and SATA connectors, it's possible that booting only works from specific ports. It's also possible you need a BIOS update to recognize a newer drive, or maybe the power supply has too much junk attached to a single rail, causing an overload. One single drive shouldn't make a massive difference in power draw, but with old machines and aging power supplies, you never really know until you test it. During startup, the system runs an InRush protocol that pulls more current from the PSU than it will ever need during normal operation—it's like a built-in surge protector for the PSU's workload. So, it's entirely possible the PSU lacks the juice, or the system isn't recognizing the Hard Disk and is misinterpreting its power demands.

Besides moving the drives to different motherboard connectors, it's possible an older drive needs a jumper to tell it it's not alone in the machine... plus a million other things we can talk about once you post the data I asked for.

So, you're saying you can't even get into the BIOS when both hard disks are plugged in?

Motherboard: N1996, MS-7181 VER: 2.0
Power Supply: 230V, with 15A listed under the +12V rail

Is this the right setup?

I connected the SATA drive using a SATA cable, and left this one as is. I can't even get into the BIOS once both are plugged in.

Old hardware, crappy power supply... I can't even say what I'm thinking without sounding like a jerk. 😬

I'm guessing you can get into the BIOS if you only have the old drive plugged in.

Check the back of that old drive. It should have two rows of pins and a sticker showing the jumper settings. Look at that diagram and tell me how the jumpers are set right now.

Please just list the make and model of both the old drive and the new one.

This motherboard only supports those early SATA drives—the 1.5 Gb/s ones. There's a chance the new drive just isn't compatible, or maybe your power supply is too weak to handle the load.

Not sure if this is even fixable, but we'll give it a shot...

darkowl72 said:Old machine, power supply... I can't say more without being rude. 😬

Ancient. 😁

darkowl72 said:I assume you can hit BIOS if only the old drive is plugged in.

Probably. I haven't tried.

darkowl72 said:Please list the model and specs for both the old and new drives.

SATA: WD1600AAJS

I have to pull the other one out because I can't see anything.

Hold on, don't touch anything, just wait a second...