My PC won't boot up after replacing hard drive.

[Phil]

After turning on my PC the other day, I got a screen message saying my hard drive was about to fail. I bought a new hard drive and installed it then turned on the computer, went to the boot menu and told it to boot from the USB (which contained a copy of Windows 10). Everything went perfectly: Windows 10 installed itself, I installed some programs and everything was working perfectly until I tried to restart the computer – it just wouldn’t boot up. I wondered if it was still trying to boot from the USB which I had already removed. I went back to the boot menu and it was still set to boot from this USB. I’ve tried all the other settings in the boot menu but it just won’t boot up. I get to the screen showing the blue window and the little dots running round in a circle but it will go no further. Can anybody help?

[Phil]

Perhaps I should add that when I remove this new hard drive and replace it with my original allegedly failing drive, my computer boots up perfectly. I get the blue Windows logo and the rotating white dots and then about five seconds later I get the welcome screen and everything is as it should be. With the brand-new drive, I can’t get past the blue Windows logo.

[veeg]

Hello

Hopefully some of our members will chime in soon..

@Bruce

[phillpower2]

With the original HDD booted into Windows do the following for us;

Download and run CrystalDisk info standard edition from here

Run the program, grab any screenshots and attach to your next reply for us.

To capture and post a screenshot;

Click on the ALT key + PRT SCR key..its on the top row..right hand side..now click on start…all programs…accessories…paint…left click in the white area …press CTRL + V…click on file…click on save…save it to your desktop…name it something related to the screen your capturing… BE SURE TO SAVE IT AS A .JPG …otherwise it may be to big to upload… after typing in any response you have… click Attach file to add the screenshot.

Screenshot instructions are provided to assist those that may read this topic but are not yet aware of the “how to”.

[phillpower2]

The only way I can download and run Crystal Disk is, of course, using the hard drive which will boot up perfectly. The new hard drive that won’t allow me to boot up won’t be involved in the procedure.

You are correct and welcome

[Bastet]

If you can use the original HD then you can clone this drive to the new one.
If not & you have another PC on which you can download Macrium, create their boot media, boot the problem PC with this then see if it’ll clone the non working HD to the new one from this recovery environment.
If this isn’t possible then reinsert the Windows media USB & see if the new HD boots.
I assume during Windows install the PC did boot successfully several times & during software install it was rebooted successfully?
If so than it may be a problematic driver or incompatible program.
What programs had you installed prior to the problem?

[Phil]

I have no idea how Crystal Disk works or what it does but I managed to get it going, and it produced the attached readings.

[ATTACH type=“full”]7606[/ATTACH]

[phillpower2]

If you can use the original HD then you can clone this drive to the new one.

That is the plan Bastet but there is no point in cloning a bad HDD as missing data on bad sectors will also be cloned and any present issues then replicated on the new HDD.

[COLOR=rgb(44, 130, 201)]Edit to add: You have run a benchmark and not Info, can you try again for us.[/COLOR]

[Phil]

Hello Bastet and thanks for your reply.

Having fitted the new hard drive, the PC ran through the entire Windows 10 installation process without a hitch which, as you suggest, probably involved a number of restarts. It was working perfectly and I installed Google Chrome, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Photoshop and the VLC media player – all of which work on the failing drive without a problem.

Having installed those programs and made sure they were working, some time later I got a screen message saying I should restart, so I clicked it – but the PC wouldn’t restart fully. I’ve tried several times since with exactly the same result: it boots partially but will go no further.

[Bastet]

That’s what I thought phillpower2 but on other forums I’m told a clone will copy data from bad blocks & will have no problems. I knew I was correct.
The only other suggestion would be to image the old drive then boot the PC from Macrium’s recovery media & restore the image to the new HD.

[Bastet]

I wonder if there was a Windows update which corrupted something.
There were several updates on Tuesday. If so then it will be easy to uninstall the update, you can try force restarting the PC 3 times to see if will reach the recovery environment, if yes then try to reach safe mode with networking.
If not then click troubleshoot>Advanced Options>Uninstall updates>uninstall latest quality updates.
If the Windows version on clean installation was older than 20H2 then you should choose uninstall latest feature update. Usually the installation media will install the latest version anyway though.

[phillpower2]

If a drive has bad logical sectors cloning software is not 100% guaranteed to be able read the sectors and neither is the rather expensive data recovery software that some companies peddle

Can we just have the requested screenshot to see if the drive even has issues.

[Phil]

PhillPower 2, I’ve downloaded CrystalDisk info but when I try to run it I get a message, “Not found: Graph.html”

[Phil]

I’ve managed to get it working:

[ATTACH type=“full”]7607[/ATTACH]

[phillpower2]

You have done well to keep the drive going being that it is so near the threshold

Do you have any data on the drive that you need to back up, if yes and you have an external USB HDD with enough free storage space on it I suggest you back your data up to it asap.

Until any data is backed up I strongly suggest that you do not log out of Windows as the PC may not boot next time, use Stand by if you can and or turn your monitor off using its button, do not use Windows Hibernate.