Computer hangs before windows 7 boots

Everything was working fine for months, No new hardware changes just periodic software updates. I booted the computer today and it hung up right before Windows 7 64 bit
started loading. Just got a blinking cursor. I have a 3ghz Asus processor with 3gb of ram.
HP computer with 2 - 750g hard drives; one for the OS and programs and one for storage.
Both sata..I've tried every thing I can think of to get past the hang, Won't go into safe mode.Will not let me get into system restore unless I use the Windows disk which I did,
No luck. Will find the restore point and go through the process but will still just take me back to the blinking cursor. It will let me run diagnostics and from there tells me everything is alright including both hard drives. The bios sees the hard drives and I get no error message. Finally I unplugged the storage HD started up and it went right into Windows. Plugged it back in and it hung up. Did this several times to the same results.
My tests tell me the storage HD is still good. maybe the testing system is fallible.
What can I try next. Everything was working fine. Any input would be appreciated.
Daimon

Will gladly post a reply if I fix it or somebody points a finger in the right direction.

Hi daimon - Welcome to w7forums

Have you tried to boot with the last known good configuration?

Try pressing the F8 key while booting and select the "Last known good configuration". This may or may not work but worth a shot.

Hi Clifford,
Yes I tried that. For whatever reason hitting the f8 key takes me nowhere, not to any
of those menu choices including the option for safe mode. What I will probably try next
since using a Windows 7 disk gets me to a repair console is to see if I can get into the
HD using a command prompt.
Daimon

Sounds like hardware failure of some kind - you said it happens before you even get to Windows. You are apparently getting power and video so those are not the likely culprits. Can you get to your system BIOS? Usually F2/F10/DEL depending on your computer. If you can get to BIOS then you can have it detect hard drive and it will detect memory so you can likely see if it is either of those. If you can't even get to your BIOS then it is likely your motherboard or CPU.

I'm not a hardware guy but this seems logical to me; if anyone has corrections or other ideas please speak up.

If you can get to the bios temporarily set your DVD drive as 1st boot option under Advanced Setting. Don't click on Install. Click Repair Computer in lower left. First try Startup Repair. If that doesn't work restart from the DVD drive and repeat the above instructions, except this time don't chooce the startup Repair instead chooce Command Prompt type sfc /scannow. If these two don't work run the Memory Diagnostics from the Windows 7 disk or download Memtest86 from another computer burn it to a CD/DVD and run that overnight on the problematic pc.

On my computer with an ASUS MB, this option is obtained by pressing f5. f8 takes me to an option to choose which drive to boot from. Try f5, maybe yours is the same.

You only hit the F8 key to go into Safe Mode. You need to hit Delete key to go into the bios. If Delete key doesn't work then try F12 or escape. One of those three keys should get you into the bios. You need to go into the bios and change it to boot from your DVD drive first not your hard drive. After setting that hit Esc key, put your Windows DVD in your DVD drive. NowHit Save & Exit in bios to exit the bios. Now when your screen says hit any key to boot from CD/DVD start hitting keys on your keyboard. Now follow my previous instructions. Also make of a note of these steps for future troubleshooting. The F8 key is only used for Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Last Known Good Configuration or Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

Hi everyone and thanks for the all the input. Its funny how all of this is so much trial and error.Well thats the kind of person I am and its nice to have these forums of friends to help out. I swapped sata cables (c drive cable went to d drive and vice versa) and got to in windows with both hard drives recgonized and backed up all my data. I still had the same issue again after a couple of boots later I got back in and did some tinkering around and have come to some guesses: the sata cables although I'm still using the same two may be faulty, or a the recent windows update could have done it, and there was some confusion with the second HD's drive letter( it was drive E when I had a D partition.on the main HD which I do not have any more, the partition that is, and stayed E for months then suddenly reverted to D. Well it works for now.
but we all know how that is with computers thanks everyone Daimon

It could also be a SATA port on the motherboard going bad.Or even the SATA port on the drives themselves. Try replacing the sata cables first. If that doesn't solve it contact the hard drive or motherboard manufacturers. Hopefully for you there still under warranty. Motherboards I'm not sure how long the warranty lasts for. Most hard drives are either 3 or 5 years, if I'm not mistaken.