[Mr_Dove]

Here’s the deal:

My computer typically runs with two hard drives. 1) windows and applications 2) all data. I was defragmenting my data drive yesterday when windows started randomly (so it seems) rebooting.

Windows was booting up but then would lock up (presumably while identifying hard drives) and reboot itself. I eventually narrowed it down to a problem with the data drive probably caused during defragmentation. Removing the data drive allows windows to boot up normally and run without problem but no data.

I installed a few file recovery programs but none of them worked (so far) because the computer would not boot up while the drive was attached. I can attach the drive after boot-up but that doesn’t seem to do me any good either.

I then attempted to install a few Western Digital utilities to see if they could at least recognize the drive. The first failed to install because of an invalid drive. (Error 1327. Invalid Drive G: ). The second would not complete installation because it found that Norton GoBack was installed. It recommended that I disable GoBack before proceeding.

I then disabled GoBack (only from Windows). I believe that goback is only disabled and not uninstalled. Disabling GoBack did change the problem a little though. Windows will no longer boot up and then re-boot when the data drive is installed. Instead I get a blue screen that identifies goback2K.sys as a problem causing file.

That is pretty much where I am now.

I should also note that this drive had given me similar problems in the past but I developed a workaround. I was never able to get Windows XP to install while the drive was attached. My workaround was to unplug the drive until after XP was installed and then plug it back in. It always seemed to work fine after that. (In retrospect perhaps it was GoBack that the computer was requiring to be installed before it would recognize the drive.)

This is where I stand at the moment but I seem to be at an impasse. I hope that I included enough detail to allow someone to provide some good suggestions here.

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Goback installs stuff to the boot sector of the hard drive, which probably why the W/D utilities didn't recognise the drive as valid.

BTW, never connect a drive AFTER powering on the system!

You said with goback disabled you are able to get past the reboot problem. Does that mean you are able to load Windows? If so, can you then access the data on the 2nd drive from Windows?

[Samm]

Goback installs stuff to the boot sector of the hard drive, which probably why the W/D utilities didn't recognise the drive as valid.

BTW, never connect a drive AFTER powering on the system!

You said with goback disabled you are able to get past the reboot problem. Does that mean you are able to load Windows? If so, can you then access the data on the 2nd drive from Windows?