Hard Drive Dilemma

Hardware Hub Storage
1

So basically, I built my PC last night. This morning I tested it out and it went to the windows screen and then rebooted. I know the problem. The harddrives are from an old PC. And windows does not like harware changes. I gave it a shot either way. I have 2 harddrives. 1 is 80 GB and the other is 500 GB. The 80 GB is for the OS. So can I go back to my old PC and use DBAN to wipe the OS on the 80 GB drive and install a new one? I don't really want to lose all my data. And if I do this, will the data on the other drive stay as it is?

Thanks :D

2

If you're using a modern motherboard and an older SATA hard drive, it might be the SATA controller. Modern motherboards now use AHCI by default, when a few years ago, they used IDE by default. Windows can work with either, but only one or the other, determined by which SATA mode was enabled at the time of install (likely IDE if it's older). You can either change the setting in the BIOS, ot use some registry hacks to get Windows to like the new SATA mode.

3

But will it work if I wipe the OS off of my old HDD and install a new one? Will that keep all the data thats on my other HDD?

4

What I'm saying is wiping the drive isn't the only option. It should be a simple problem. Just go into the BIOS and put the SATA controller in IDE mode, and that should stop the rebooting. If you want AHCI mode, then you have to some tweaks:

To resolve this issue yourself, enable the AHCI driver in the registry before you change the SATA mode of the boot drive. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Exit all Windows-based programs.
  2. Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
  3. If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
  4. Locate and then click one of the following registry subkeys:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV
  5. In the pane on the right side, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
  6. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
  7. On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

Also, DBAN will wipe the entire drive, not just the os. So, you will have to manually back up all the data you want before wiping the drive. You could clone the drive, but I think your problem would persist if you went the cloning route.

5

Your post is way to long to read but I guess it says turn the SATA controller into IDE mode? will that keep everything as it was on my old PC?

6

Yes, it should allow you to boot normally, without having to wipe and re-install. And my previous post is actually really short, especially if you skip the directions that don't apply if you have no plans on switching the SATA controller back to AHCI.

7

I mean that it is to wide like the blogs on the side cover it up. And thank you very much :D It just worked perfectly fine!

8

Yeah, this site is pretty poorly designed for anything less than 768 pixels wide. I even some difficulty viewing this site on my Note II, which has a 1280x720 screen. Could try zooming out. I have very little control over the width of the text.

Also, you're welcome. Glad it worked it worked out.