I have a 120GB SSD for my OS and a 1TB 3.5" HDD for extra space. One day, I woke up and started my computer. After I booted it up, it was extremely slow. I tried restarting and it did restart but it was so slow and very unresponsive. On my third restart, it just refused to boot up. I panicked and attempted to do a clean-install but I can't. It is just stuck on an "ASRock" motherboard boot up.
I tried disconnecting the 1Tn hard drive and the computer allowed me to perform a clean-install on the 120GB SSD. After doing a clean-install, I shut down the computer and connected the hard drive. I fired up the computer with the HDD connected and it refuses to boot up. That led me to conclude that the problem lies with the HDD.
To sum up, if I boot up with the HDD disconnected from the motherboard, it boots up. But if it is disconnected, it refuses to boot up. Why is this? Is this a virus? Is my hard drive destroyed?
I thought the cables were the problem but I tried connecting a spare 2.5" HDD and the computer booted up. I also tried removing the CMOS for 30mins to reset bios settings.
