Plugged new HDD into PC, graphics driver started failing, things escalated quickly

[Drataia]

Bear with me here, a lot of things happened, and I'm going to be as detailed as I can, which is going to mean one long post. Also, I'm not very tech savvy, keep that in mind when I describe things.

Relevant parts of my build:
8 GB Corsair XMS RAM
Intel Core i5 2400 CPU
MSI P67A-G43 mobo
Corsair CMPSU-650TX psu
EVGA GeForce GTX 560 ti graphics card
500 GB WD black
Windows 7 home ultimate

Now, all this gear has been working heavenly since I built my PC last July. The one kink I had was that using the latest nvidia driver messed with one of my steam games, and a few times a day the driver would fail and then restore itself. So I rolled back to using 275.33 and all was golden. Fast forward to today, when I bought a new HD, as the first one was nearly full.

I bought another WD drive, this one 500 GB green, and plugged it in. It wasn't showing up in my computer, and I'd been told I might have to go into BIOS or computer management to bring it up. So I right click my computer, manage, and enable it in the storage / disk management category. I had the option of initializing it as a MBR or GPT partition, and I went with MBR. Close out of all that, but it still isn't visible in my computer. So I restart the computer, figuring if that doesn't work, I'll go into BIOS and try it that way.

I turn off the computer, and turn it back on. After a few seconds of the normal black screen, the screen shuts off, back on, off, and back on again. Everything else proceeds as normal, and I log in. The new HD still isn't visible, but now there are other issues. Approximately every 20 to 40 seconds, the screen turns off and then back on, and the notification "graphics driver version 275.33 has failed and restored itself" flashes. This is the issue I'd had months previously with the newest version, but until today, 275.33 had never done this. At first I ignore it, as I'm trying to figure out this HD deal. But it doesn't stop, and I download the latest nvidia driver (296.10). When I try to install it however, the screen freezes after ~seconds. after ~10 minutes of waiting, I restart the computer.

I note four things here. 1. the startup noise that occurs at the login screen now occurs a second before the login screen, when the screen is still dark. 2. After logging in, when I first get to the desktop, the screen flickers, before looking normal. This will happen every time I am forced to restart the computer. 3. The display driver is no longer freaking out and failing. 4. I cannot access the nvidia control panel. More on this in a minute.

I try to get back to the internet to figure out what is going on, and discover that within 10-30 seconds of getting on the internet(I use firefox) the computer will freeze, and I am forced to restart. This happens ech of the three times I attempt to get in the internet.

I also find out that every attempt to update nvidias driver to 296.1 will result in the display freezing, and my having to restart the computer. I try updating twice, with freezing both times. Both times the installer is starting to install the driver, this happens: the screen will black out, the two tone sound that signifies something has been unplugged from the computer(such as an ipod) will play, immediately afterwards the tone that signifies something has been plugged into the computer will play, and the screen will turn back on, though the display will be frozen, and any open windows, and the graphics failure notification, will be moved to the left of the screen.

After the first forced restart of the computer, I was curious as to whether the nvidia driver had successfully updated. However, the nvidia icon that was normally in my toolbar wasn't showing up, and clicking on the nvidia icon in the control panel wasn't bringing anything up. However, bring up task manager and going to the processes tab showed three nvidia processes running; two of them were labeled with 275.33. I checked this a couple more times after other restarts, with no change.

If I simply turn the computer on, but don't fiddle with it, nothing happens. No driver freak outs, and no freezing. But I kind of need the internet for uni, so I kept testing. Eventually, restarting the computer led to it deciding to try a system repair, and when it restarted after that GOOD LORD THE GRAPHICS WENT CRAZY. I can't figure out how to imbed links in a word, but I snapped a pic of the login screen. Here's a link: http://i.imgur.com/CAotN.jpg

So I restarted it again, and opened windows in safe mode. That's where I stand now, staring in abject misery at a 640x 480 resolution screen, wondering how on earth plugging in a hard drive led to this. I'm terrified to do anything that might mess up my computer further. At some point I reopened the PC to check all the cables, but everything is snugged up tight. If you need more details, verifications, etc. let me know.

Since I AM in windows safe mode, I'm wondering if it would be safe to try to install the updated driver now. I'm also wondering if maybe I fried part of the mobo with static electricity when I put the HD in? Or if the cable is the wrong type/plugged in the SATA port? As I said, I'm not tech savvy, so I can't figure out where I messed up. Any insight or aid would be appreciated.

Edit1: Went ahead and tried a system restore to April 3rd at the urging of the roommate. System booted up fine. The graphics driver isn't failing, and I can get on the internet. The computer recognized the new HD and tried to find drivers for it, but after ~15 minutes of no progress, I closed out of that window. The new HD still isn't accessible.

[osprey4]

Hi Drataia,

This is an added drive, right? So you DON'T want an MBR on it. If you pull out the new drive, the system boots fine, right?

[Drataia]

Yes, this is a second HD I'm trying to install(for storage reasons, I'm not intending to install an OS on it or anything like that), and I haven't yet tried to boot the system without it. Assuming the partitioning is the problem, how would I go about repartitioning the drive as GPT(which was the other partitioning option)?

[Drataia]

Here's an update- I kept the new drive on MBR and allocated the space. It appears to be working fine, I can see it in computer and delete and save files on it. The issue that hasn't cleared up is the screen blacking out or freezing and forcing me to restart. An hour and a half speaking with a Windows 7 tech was largely fruitless. She had me do a clean boot but the screen still turned on/off/on. Then she had me uninstall the graphics driver, reboot, and reinstall it, but that was a no-go. I've currently got the computer running normally with nvidia graphics driver 275.33. It's failed twice, once immediately after login and once when I accessed firefox to download the newest driver. When it recovered from the failure after I accessed firefox, firefox had crashed. This leads me to believe the issue isn't entirely the fault of the graphics driver.

Accessing firefox once more caused the display to go dark again, but this time it didn't recover.

Also, the computer is now displaying the nvidia control panel and start menu icon.
As always, any help or insight is appreciated.