Windows 10: PC won't boot unless an empty HDD is connected

So my HDD of almost two years seem to be acting...weird lately. I checked it out with CrystalDiskInfo, and it didn't look good.





I searched the internet on what that means, and it looks like it needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, I can't get a new one at the moment. But I do remember that I have an old HDD (320 GB) that I used to use. The one that I replaced for this new one (500 GB).

I plugged it in, and it works! So now I have two HDDs, but I decided to reinstall Windows 10 on the old one (320 GB) because it wasn't broken. So I wiped the new one (500 GB) and put everything in the old one (320 GB).

Now, I recently encountered a BSOD memory management error. I didn't know what it meant, but I thought the new HDD (500 GB) had something to do with it. So I disconnected it (but left it in the CPU), leaving only the old HDD (320 GB).

I thought, well the new HDD (500 GB) was basically empty, so if I disconnected it, nothing will happen, right? But when I booted it up, I got a Reboot and select proper boot device screen. I tried everything (reattaching stuff, selecting the HDD on startup), but the only thing that worked was reconnecting the new HDD (500 GB).

Can anyone help me out on this? Why does it still need the empty HDD when everything including Windows 10 is on another HDD?

:)

 

Opening settings via search zone

Thank you for your answer.

I did all the 4 commands but it doesn't help.

Even after reboot.

I have a SSD and a HDD together. If i disconnect the HDD, i don't have the problem.

If the SSD and HDD are connected, the problem happens unless the pc goes to hibernate and wake up, then the problem disappear... strange...

I checked the boot sequence with bcdedit and both the boot manager and boat loader are well on the SSD.

What did i miss ?

 

"Inaccessible Boot Device" after clean install, Windows 10 AU

My PC has a dedicated 60 Gb Sandisk SSD for the OS, plus a pair of Seagate 500 Gb HDDs. It's running W10 at 1511 level.

I have tried to update to 1607 level using clean install. However, the final boot in this process fails with "inaccessible boot device" and no automatic repair fixes it. I have to disconnect both HDDs for the SSD to boot successfully.

So I tried a different test. Using a spare 250 Gb HDD, and no other drives connected, I performed a clean install on to this drive. This was fully successful, but when I shut down, plugged in the SSD, rebooted from the HDD the error returned.

It seems I can't boot from the SSD with any HDD connected, and likewise the HDD won't boot with the SSD plugged in.

At the moment I have restored the SSD from the 1511 system image I took at the start, and this boots with the HDDs connected without any problem.

The PC motherboard is a Gigabyte EG41MFT-US2H, with Intel 6700 processor and 4 Gb of memory.

Can anyone advise what the issue is?

 

Please post a screenshot of your Disk Management with both drives connected. I suspect that Windows put the boot files on the "empty" drive.

 

So apparently it does show the EFI System Partition on the "empty" HDD. Is that the culprit?

 

Yes. You can try the steps at Moving / recreating EFI partition - Windows 10 Forums to put the EFI partition on your Windows drive. Or you can just disconnect the 500GB drive and do another clean install.

Did you happen to have the 500GB drive plugged in a lower SATA port number than the 320GB (e.g. the 500GB was in SATA-0 and the 320GB was in SATA-1) when you installed Windows?

 

Alright, thanks! I'll follow up when I've done this.

I guess. I haven't been paying attention to which SATA port they are plugged into, but I think I have the 500 GB plugged in on SATA-3 and the 320 GB on the SATA-4.

Does Windows install the EFI Partition on the first HDD it sees by SATA port number order?

 

I haven't found it documented anywhere but from experimentation it does seem like Windows Setup always puts the boot files on the first drive it sees regardless of where you're actually installing Windows.

 

Do you have active partitions on both disks? Set the partition of the disk you don't want to boot from to inactive if so and see if the system now works with the disk removed. Please backup first.

 

That disk is not in good shape at all and your Disk management shows mixed BOOT partitions probably a result of installing windows while both disks were connected.

 

1) Please re-post the image of disk management using the information in this link (widen each column status and volume)
Disk Management - How to Post a Screenshot of Windows 10 Tutorials
2) Download and install the Minitool partition wizard > post an image into the thread
MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition - Free download and software reviews - CNET Download.com
3) Run Sea tools for windows on your drive using SMART, short and long generic tests:

How to use SeaTools for Windows
http://www.seagate.com/support/downl...ls-win-master/
How to use SeaTools for Windows
http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/

Take Screenshot in Windows 10 Windows 10 Tutorials

4) Run the beta log collector using extract and post a zip into this thread:
log collector v2-beta08.zip

5) Run HD Tune:
HD Tune website
Post an image in to the thread for the results of each of these tabs:
a) Health (SMART)
b) Benchmark
c) Full error scan

 

Yes, they're both active. But based on what PolarNettles said with the EFI System Partition on Disk 1, I don't think it's a good idea to make it inactive.

What do you mean by mixed Boot partitions?

Disk 0 - SMART - PASS; Short Generic - PASS; Long Generic - FAIL
Disk 1 - SMART - PASS; Short Generic - PASS; Long Generic - FAIL

Disk 0 Benchmark - Always giving a read error

Disk 0 Health





Disk 0 Error Scan





Disk 1 Benchmark





Disk 1 Health





Disk 1 Error Scan

 

Your Windows (C: partition) is on one disk and BOOT and EFI partitions are one another. Effectively, you are booting from disk 1 and running Widows of Disk 0. That's pretty mixed up if you ask me.

 

Backup all important files on both drives to another drive.
Attempt to make a backup image using Macrium:
Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free
If you can make a backup image that will be the easiest method to save and move files.
Unfortunately Macrium could display error codes preventing the backup.
If you can use a backup image or backup all files then you can run the drives until they are dead.
Performance will likely suffer.
If you are able to it would be best to replace the drives at your earliest convenience.

 

Yeah, I guess I'll make sure only one HDD is connected when I reinstall Windows.

Okay, I can't do this at the moment, but I will do so the earliest I can.

I guess from what I learned from this thread:

• My hard drives are dying, and should be replaced
• I should only have one HDD connected when reinstalling Windows. So everything will only be installed there.

I'll take action based on your replies when I get to do so. Thanks everyone for the help! I really appreciate it!