Computer won't start with one drive plugged in
 

Alright, I'm at a loss.

I have three sata drives in my system. One is partitioned into the sections: System (C), Documents (E), and Temp (G). Another is Data, (D), and the third is Media, (F). All of a sudden, my computer crashes. Just as the XP logo comes up, It reboots itself, entering a never ending cycle of reboots. I tried starting in safemode, but it hangs just after loading the file "giveio.sys".

Here's the weird part: If I unplug the D drive (which contains Program Files), the computer starts fine. If I start the computer with the D drive plugged in, it fails to load. I've also tried plugging in the D drive while the computer is on, but I just get a BSOD.

I can't run CHKDSK or anything, because I can't figure out a way to access the D drive or run a command prompt while the D drive is plugged in. Any suggestions?

(Yes I have googled, and some basic specs are: nVidia 680i, 8800GTS, Intel E6600, XP Pro.)

download Hirens.BootCD then boot it,after that use norton disk doctor & HDD regenerator

Yes.

1. Remove D: drive, put it in external casing. Does it work enough to do a chkdsk now?

2. While D: is removed, open Event Viewer and post Application and System Logs in *.evt format here.

Bad news I am afraid:

giveio.sys Windows process - What is it?
File Information - How to remove giveio.sys error problem

Seems to affect both normal and safe boot process. What it is exactly...good question as people are giving ideas all over the place.

I am seeing a lot of talk about speed fan and removing that. How they did that when they can boot into Windows...I haven't the foggiest.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/15...loading-giveio

This suggests setting your system clock back to before the issue occurred.

Also suggests going with the Windows Recovery CD and deleting that file.

One idea that comes tom ind is possibly getting an external case for it, hooking it up to another computer, and deleting the file.

Unfortunately I don't have an external case, but I can try putting it into my buddy's system. Funny thing though: I ran Seatools, and the drive passed on short and long tests.

Here are application and system logs (I notice there are alot of sptd errors, which is the last thing that tries to load in safe mode before it hangs...)

What I don't understand is why it wont boot when the D: disk is in, yet the problem apparently resides in the C: disk where the Windows folder is located.

Thanks guys, I go it to work! I plugged it into my friend's machine, where I was able to perform a CHKDSK on it. Works like charm now.

Man, I really took working hardware for granted. I'm going to start doing regular backups now...

Although it works like a charm now, a 'dirty disk' should NOT generate that kind of crashing. I suggest you probe further, look into your event logs, and Google the eventIDs of any Errors or Warning logs for more details.

From a quick look, there's nothing untoward in your Applications log, other than Microsoft Word crashing on you. Your Systems log however have a huge bunch of errors:

1. SPTD internal structures - connected with Alcohol 120% or Daemon Tools. Consider reinstall. If this error only pops up after you disconnected your D: drive, ignore.

2. nvgts - I can't view the error details but it seems to suggest an error with a SATA optical disc drive - you have one of these? If so, consider upgrading drivers.

3. DCOM - associated with Internet Explorer. The type of error seems to indicate a problem with Norton Internet Security. If you have it, reinstall it.

4. PlugPlayManager - your hard disk's been disappearing from Windows. I suspect this is the root cause of all your problems. This is usually indicative of a physical hardware fault (hard disk, cable, and/or motherboard) and I would recommend you back up and replace the hard disk as soon as you can.

Yeah, both of my optical drives are SATA. I'll look for driver upgrades.

Weird, I don't use Norton or IE. I'll look around for instances of these.

Could this be the optical drive disappearing aswell? I know one of my optical drives has a loose connection (fault of the sata cable), but I generally don't worry about it because I don't move my case around (and if It does disconnect, no big deal).

Thanks for this extra info, Zergrinch!

It's quite tricky to pinpoint hardware errors, at least, without trial and error. If you're lucky, it's just the SATA cable. If you are very unlucky, the entire "Data" hard disk, or your motherboard may be faulty. The error logs will contain more information as to which drive is disappearing, so I'd start from there. It won't reference the exact letter of the hard disk, but I think the information is viewable from the Registry.