[chrisdfw1]

Ok so first off I am a computer noobie. I am just coming off a fresh build and have some questions. I installed a 128GB ssd as my boot drive and a 1TB hdd as a storage drive. I just cannot seem to get this HDD to work properly. The issue I am having is it seems like everytime I try to install or download something onto the HDD it does not work properly. For instance... last night i decided to download itunes and put it on my HDD. Well I directed the install to the HDD and everything seemed to go smoothly until about halway through the download it just froze. I ended up having to end the process and boy did that cause some huge issues.

First thing it did was removed all of my desktop icons and taskbars. So i had to do a manual reboot. WHen I did that my computer automatically changed my boot order to the HDD as the boot drive. WEll there is no OS on my HDD. I rebooted again and went into bios and changed the boot order back to the normal configuration with my ssd as being my primary. Then I got a disk read error and had to reboot again. After about 2 more reboots I finally was able to run startup repair and ended up having to do a system restore to get windows to load back up.

Ok so everything was back up and running fine. There were some itunes files from the installation in my HDD so i tried deleting them. This froze up my computer and caused me to manually reboot again and i got another disk read error then rebooted again and it loaded windows. So i went and deleted the partition (primary partition full disk size). I tried a quick reformat and it said it could not format the drive

. So now I am doing a full format and it has been formatting for almost 18 hours. I dont know if its going to do it or not. I have already did 1 RMA On this drive because of it doing the same thing with the freezing when installing a program. I have got to be doing something wrong. WOuld someone enlighten me on how to use this secondary HDD properly. Your help would be greatly appreciated!

also what do i do if this full partition doesnt work?

 

[TwoCables]

I'm having a little difficulty reading this. Can you split it into about 3-4 paragraphs?

 

[Shadow11377]

Remove the HDD from the system, reinstall Windows with just the SSD plugged in, boot up and do the windows updates, power down and plug the HDD in, boot up and reformat it, then try again.

That's what I would do.

If you get the problem after that, it's almost guaranteed to be the drive that's the problem.

 

[chrisdfw1]

the hdd is still in the formatting process. wouldnt that mess up the hdd?

 

[Shadow11377]

Oh wow, that's odd. 19 hours formatting? For just 1TB?
Well, abandoning a format does no harm so that's not a big deal. You can cancel it before unplugging it or shutting down.

 

[chrisdfw1]

ok so this issue with the hdd still exists. it has been formatting for 3 days now and when i cancel it does nothing. what should i do? If i unplug it then replug it in what will happen? i certainly dont wanna go though all the issues i did as i mentioned in my previous post.

 

[TwoCables]

The hard drive is dying or dead. Replace it.

Also, the full format is not any more "full" than the Quick Format. The only difference is it does a scan for errors and tries to correct them prior to formatting the drive. The actual format itself takes just a few seconds because it's essentially just a matter of replacing the Master File Table with a new blank one in the format that has been specified (which is why it's called "formatting").

Anyway, yeah, replace it. Either that, or replace the SATA data cable, or plug it into a different SATA port. Or both.

 

[Shadow11377]

Assuming you don't care about anything on the drive (which shouldn't be the case as you're already formatting it) then unplugging the drive while it is formatting shouldn't cause any trouble.

You'll just have to format it again after, since the current format will be incomplete.

 

[chrisdfw1]

its a brand new drive. i just replaced the first one i got over the same issue. there has to be something i am doing wrong. when i download a program to the d drive it downloads like halfway then freezes. what on earth am i doing wrong? do i just have 2 bad drivesi n a row? is something not compatible? bios settings? i just dont know

edit: just rebooted and got a disk read error. pressed ctrl alt delete restarted and booted up to the ssd fine. what does that error mean? also tried another quick format and got this error " the format did not complete successfully''

 

[Shadow11377]

You might have a bad SATA port or something.

Try plugging it into another port?

BIOS Settings shouldn't cause a 3 day long format for 1TB.. or freezes, but certainly can slow things down. Try and disable power saving features, enable SMART, and AHCI if possible and see if that helps.

 

[Epipo]

Just a thought, have you looked up your motherboards' sata drivers to see if maybe there is a hot fix?

 

[TwoCables]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisdfw1

its a brand new drive. i just replaced the first one i got over the same issue. there has to be something i am doing wrong. when i download a program to the d drive it downloads like halfway then freezes. what on earth am i doing wrong? do i just have 2 bad drivesi n a row? is something not compatible? bios settings? i just dont know

edit: just rebooted and got a disk read error. pressed ctrl alt delete restarted and booted up to the ssd fine. what does that error mean? also tried another quick format and got this error " the format did not complete successfully''

Again: "Either that, or replace the SATA data cable, or plug it into a different SATA port. Or both."

 

[chrisdfw1]

i replaced the data cable and put in in a new port and BAM.. partition created. im not sure if it was the port or the cable. my guess is its the cable since they were cheap ones from frys and this mobo is brand new. Now my question is.. what should i or should not i put on this hard drive? My primary is a 128gb ssd

 

[TwoCables]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisdfw1

i replaced the data cable and put in in a new port and BAM.. partition created. im not sure if it was the port or the cable. my guess is its the cable since they were cheap ones from frys and this mobo is brand new. Now my question is.. what should i or should not i put on this hard drive? My primary is a 128gb ssd

Now switch back to the other port with this different cable. I mean, I think that it would be best to find out if it was the cable or the port, and doing this should be the easiest way to find out.

 

[TwoCables]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisdfw1

i replaced the data cable and put in in a new port and BAM.. partition created. im not sure if it was the port or the cable. my guess is its the cable since they were cheap ones from frys and this mobo is brand new. Now my question is.. what should i or should not i put on this hard drive? My primary is a 128gb ssd

Don't put the page file on the hard drive.

Don't install drivers to it.

Install what you can do the solid state drive., If you run out of room, or if you know ahead of time that you aren't going to have enough room for everything, then put the things that are the least important to you on the hard drive.

 

[chrisdfw1]

ok bro.. sounds good. I appreciate your help. I think i will just use this ssd until i dont have anymore room. tired of messing with this damn hdd lo. I am prolly going to be looking into a 500gb ssd anyways

 

[TwoCables]

Before you do, find out if it was the port by switching back to it with this new cable.

 

[Shadow11377]

Keep everything on the SSD aside from large files. Large files should go on the hard drive, unless you have a specific reason to put them on the SSD instead.

Movies do not need to be on an SSD, and music doesn't either. Games don't really either, unless you want their loading screens to be shorter. Since it's unlikely you can fit all of your games on the SSD, just put your most played couple on and put the others on the HDD.

 

[chrisdfw1]

ok another noobie question. whenever you are installing a download... game, program, etc. i notice the installer itself always puts itself in c;/ users. this doesnt cause a conflict with the hdd. i havent tried installing anything since i reformatted the drive cause the issue i was having was it freezing halfway through a download. i am directing it to the d drive but doesnt an installer always go into the c drive?

 

[TwoCables]

If you choose the "Express" or "Typical" or "Recommended" installation type, then yeah. If you choose the "Custom" or "Advanced" type or whatever it may be called, then you should be able to change where the program or game gets installed to.