Computer Dies After Installing 2nd HD?

A few weeks ago I upgraded my OEM 5400 RPM HD to a WD 7200 RPM HD as my primary HD with excellent results. Last night I decided to go ahead and install the original HD back into bay #2 to use as a storage and backup drive (I has previously planned to upgrade to a 7200, but changed due to budget constraints). However, after I installed it my computer wouldn't power up.

Has anyone else had this issue or any ideas what would have caused this? The installation went without issue--a simple plug-in--and nothing unusual happened during the process. Both HDs and the computer were working flawlessly prior to this last installation.

I reversed the procedure and the problem remains. I exchanged the disc and still nothing. Any ideas?

 

Does your BIOS allow you to choose the primary HD to boot from?

Did you format the 'old' HD first? Or, is it still a bootable O/S HD. This might (but shouldn't) be confusing the system if there are two bootable HD's in the system. (The thing that might be confusing is that both drives are 'active' in their MBR boot flag status).

Good luck.

 

That's what I was hoping to do. However, it won't even power on?

Again, would have made that choice on start-up, then made the necessary adjustment to the original HD.

 

Hmmm, are you running on battery power? Would plugging in the notebook give enough power to spin both HD's?

Maybe you'll need to remove the one and attach it via USB2 to format it before you can boot the computer with both installed?

 

Well i emailed HP's technical support. Chat line was down--figures. Anyway, I'll see what they have to say.

I don't see any reason why plugging in an HD would cause the laptop to fail. Especially when I reverted to the original state and it still doesn't work. And I didn't leave anything out either: i.e., no drops, bumps, liquids, power failures, sparks etc. One minutes it was working fine, then I plug in the second HD and no power?

EDIT: someone that works with computers suggest it could be a faulty 2nd bay? However, wouldn't simply removing the 2nd drive have corrected that?

 

Krane, I hope that you removed the power plug and the battery before you started plugging in the HD?

I've seen a Dell M/B fried by leaving the battery in while the RAM was changed.

 

Thanks for all you help. I isolated the problem to a faulty connector from the the new HD I just bought to the computer. Once I removed it and reset my computer, everything returned to normal operation. Unfortunately, that means I'm still without an operational second drive.

Does anyone know where I can purchase this connector without paying a mint for it?

 

Sorry, no idea for the connector (unless you contact the manufacturer of course) but just glad to see your computer is alive and well again.

Good luck.