Sounds similar to an issue I had before... Is it a second hard drive, or is it by itself? I had that kind of issue when I added 2 extra drives (started at 1 HDD, added 1 SSD and another HDD), and the power supply wasn't strong enough.

Lone hard drive. I don't think the PSU could handle another.

Weak power supply, broken cable, motherboard issue...

If matters happen with different HDDs, then those could be the issue.

From my experience, it could be the PSU, a loose cable, the motherboard, or the hard drive failing.

I would start with the cables. Check to see if they are loose or damaged. What brand is the hard drive?

based on your description/symptoms: the slow boot-up time you experience and the occasional BSOD, it seems that your HD seriously needs to have some "spring cleaning" done on it. Namely removing "clutter" i.e. installed programs that are no longer used should be uninstalled, files no longer needed should either be backed up or deleted to free up some space for the OS. And after doing the spring cleaning, you should also Defrag your HD to sort and re-arrange all important program files that could have been scattered on the HD. Also might I suggest you use a good malware remover program and update your antivirus/web security software. When finished you might "revitalize" or extend the life of your HD. Hope This Helps and reaches You in time


P.S. Most OS these days require a certain amount of free disk space for use as cache or temporary memory for the applications it uses. so be sure to leave some free space for the OS.

Question: Type of HD: SATA or IDE