Cannot Access C: Drive Errors

[rc23]

Three times in the last two weeks I have lost connection to my hard drives. My PC will lockup and eventually give me a blue screen with an error saying "Cannot Access Drive C:". I'll do a reset and BIOS won't be able to find either drives. So far power off and restarting my PC has fixed this problem. I downloaded and ran IBM's Drive Fitness Test (C: is a ibm hard drive) and I found no problems.

I figure the problem is one of these things.

1. Cables are loose ( I reconnected the ribbon cables, so it's not this )
2. My C: Drive is screwy ( IBM's drive fitness test doesn't find an error )
3. C: Drive is over heating ( C: is mounted in a 5.25 bay with a fan, so it's not overheating )
4. Mainboard is over heating ?
5. Mobo's built in controller is screwy ?

Anyone have any suggestions on what is causing the error ? Any diagnostic tools i can download to search for the error ?

-rc23

My System
==============
Asus a7m266
Althon 1.4
512 mb ddr ram
C:\ IBM 60gig HD
D:\ Seagate 30gig
Geforce 3
WinME

 

[AkumaBao]

Sound like your HDD is going bad. Try repartioning it, and see if there are any bad blocks, or if it can partition it at all.

 

[rc23]

I'll try that. It would mean reinstalling WinMe and all my software, but I guess it needs to be done.

 

[rc23]

I just noticed this new symptom. My drive noise will change from a normal spinning noise to a slightly lower noise. If I can still access the hard drive while this noise is different. When I try to shut down, the PC will lockup and give me a "cannot access drive C: error". Guess it's time to replace the drive. It's only 6 months old too.