Harddrive stopping Vista from loading

[BeagleBoy360]

Ok, well let me tell you my promblem, i was in vista the other day, and things started to stick a lil bit, and then i got a system pop up thing, sayin files cannot be accessed from my harddrive, and i should test if its the harddrive going bad, or vista.

I thought it would just be easy to restart, so i went to start, restart, and it turned off fine no problems, and then it wouldn't boot back up, it got as far as the windows Corp. thing and the loading bar, and the bar just kept going acrose, i left it for 20 mins, and nothing.

Now it wont even get taht far, i have two harddrives in, one with Vista(thats not wokring) and one thats for storage. I checked the storage, and that works fine. But now the Vista harddrive doesn't show up at all anymore, cant do a repair, cant format, cant do anything, it doesn't even want to show up in BIOS any more.

what is even more strange, is when i have another harddrive with vista or XP, and i load it with my rig, it works, but if i put the vista harddrive(thats not wokring) with a harddrive thats has a working OS, it wont let the working OS load, it will only let it get as far as the same loading bar, BUT if i unhook the harddrive while at that screen(i know its not a good idea to do wit while its running) it will let windows load up, like 5 secs after i unhook the messed up harddrive, it will let the other harddrive load windows.

The messed up harddrive spins up and everything and i can hear the head moving, no wierd noises or anythin like that, so i was going to replace the circit board, and swap it with one i know it working to see if anythin happens...If anyone has had the same problem, or know what to do, THANKS ALOTTTT

i have a back up of my info, but its around 4 months old, so i have new files i need, but im not totaly screwed if its done for good.

emails anthony_taylor252@hotmail.com if ya got any info

[Toxcity]

I think you find it has kicked the bucket.. or about to.

If it doesn't show in the bios then it is most likely to be dead.

And when loading windows you say you unplugged it which drive was windows loading from. If the bios cannot see the drive it will load for a different drive.

You may also find when loading from a different drive if something like a CD/DVD or a harddisk is being read but not succeedingthen Windows will wait for it to.

I get it sometimes with CD/DVDs have one in the drive windows will wait to read it before it boots.

[exiledduke]

to quote Star Trek (a little immaturity shoud be acceptable) "It's dead Jim."

There are some great utilities that can help you get the data.

Acronis is a great suite that I feel everyone should own, but if you don't want to pay for it/wait for it to arrive, the System Rescue Disc should do it. SRD is no longer maintained, but qtparted still can do a first rate recovery.

If you google and find a utility disc with qtparted that shoudl solve your issues, and it may be able to diagnose your problem.

It is a linux live cd application, adn it gives an incredibly detailed readout of drive info.

I ma at exiledduke AT gmail DOT com if you need anything else.