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HELLO DaniWeb, it's been a couple years, sorry for that. Anyways,so here's the story.I was attempting to backup a client's SATA HD by hooking it up to my PC, which uses an IDE HD for the master, and after hooking it up it took an usually long time to boot, after several minutes it gave me an error in which it prompted me to run the diagnostic program that comes with Windows 7 Ultimate. I ran the program and all seemed fine after it did its repair thing, I could see my client's files and what not but regrettably I put off backing it up for another time. The next day I booted up the PC and came to find that I could no longer see my client's HD, I rebooted several times but to no avail.

I then re-installed my client's HD back to their PC, powered up and got a "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER TO CONTINUE". So I put in a Vista Ultimate disk, assuming she ran Vista because of the Vista sticker up front, it loaded 'Windows Files', attempted to boot and lo and behold, a blue screen of death giving me a DRIVER NOT LESS OR EQUAL NVSTOR.SYS error, don't have exact error at the moment I'm at a friends house. I've tried everything, the HD is'nt showing up in the BIOS as well, I fear the HD may be bricked, hopefully there is a way to access it without going the $1500 route I heard from a friend. Please help if you have any ideas. I will post exact error when I get home in a few hours.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by techsheaven

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Brief expert triage and next steps (builds on ’s report and ’s Disk Management suggestion). Two different root causes require different approaches: (A) the drive is not detected in BIOS — this almost always indicates a hardware/connection problem; (B) the drive is detected by BIOS but Windows fails to boot because of a storage-driver/boot mismatch (the thread’s nvstor.sys symptom points to that). The checklist below keeps data safety first: avoid any “initialize” or destructive writes until an image is secured.

Hardware triage (if the drive is NOT seen in BIOS)

  • Confirm both SATA power and data connectors are fully seated; swap the SATA data cable and try another motherboard SATA port.
  • Try the drive on a different, known-good PC or via a powered USB–SATA adapter/enclosure to rule out the original machine.
  • Listen for drive spin-up or unusual clicking; audible clunks usually mean physical failure and imaging should be attempted immediately by a pro.
  • If the drive becomes visible in another system, image it before attempting repairs.

Software/driver triage (if BIOS sees the drive)

  • Follow ’s Disk Management check, but do NOT initialize the disk if recovery of existing partitions/files is the goal. Use diskpart to inspect disks safely:
diskpart
list disk
select disk N
detail disk
  • For dynamic/foreign disks use “Import Foreign Disks” rather than initializing. For partition-table damage, use a read‑only recovery tool such as TestDisk. Avoid chkdsk on a failing surface — it can accelerate deterioration.

If an NVIDIA storage driver (nvstor.sys) prevents boot

  • Boot the Windows install/repair media, open Command Prompt and (after confirming the Windows partition letter) rename the driver as a safe test:
cd /d C:\Windows\System32\drivers
ren nvstor.sys nvstor.sys.bak

That forces Windows to try a generic driver; if successful, uninstall the bad vendor driver and install the correct nForce/AHCI driver matching the OS. If imaging is needed first, a reliable Linux live stick with ddrescue is recommended:

sudo ddrescue -f -n /dev/sdX /path/to/image.img /path/to/image.log

Replace /dev/sdX and paths appropriately. If the drive clicks, won’t spin, or the image fails, stop further DIY steps and use a professional data‑recovery service.

Member Avatar for techsheaven

We will need to get a bit more information. When it is in your PC, does it show up in disk management?

Right-click Computer, select Manage
In Computer Management, select the Disk Management snap-in.

Look to see if it is listed.

Let us know what you find out, and we will continue the Data Recovery process.

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