Computer won't start with one drive plugged in

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.