Hard drive problem

[imported_krimson]

Hi guys,

I have been having hard drives issues. My set-up is the follow

1xASUS P4P800 Deluxe Socket 478 Intel 865PE ATX Intel Motherboard (Oced to 3.0ghz)
1xIntel Pentium 4 2.8C Northwood 800MHz FSB Socket 478 Processor Model BX80532PG2800D
4xCORSAIR XMS 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model CMX512-3200C2PT
1x80GB EIDE
1x100GB EIDE
2xWestern Digital Caviar SE WD2500JD 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
1xeVGA 256-A8-N347-AX Geforce 6800 256MB GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X Video Card (clocked to GT)
1xSound Blaster XtremeMusic
1xPSU Channel Well 450watt max




My problems have been with the 2x250GB hard drives. They sometimes boot up with the computer, sometimes dont. And when they do boot up I can't really copy files into the hd. It would get like cylindrical errors and if you format them, do scandisk, there is no bad sectors. What gives? Should I upgrade my power supply?

 

[Atheus]

Download the manufacturer's diagnostic utility and run that. You will probably want the ISO CD image if it's available.

 

[DetroitSportsFan]

I'd also suspect your powersupply. I've seen some wierd read-write errors go away completely when an under performing powersupply was replaced.

I'm not disagreeing with Atheus, because the drive utility has some very useful diagnostic tools ... and can still help in diagnosing your problem. However, an under performing PSU can skew those diagnostic tests if its not supplying the drive with the power it needs.

 

[imported_krimson]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've tried diagnostic software before from Seagate and it did not detect any error and when I run the scandisk test under Windows, nothing shows up either.

Just to add to this, my setup is

1x80 and 1x100 are IDE drives
2x250 are both SATA drives..

The 1x80 and 1x100 never have problems even when 2x250 are acting up...

The boot up problem only happens once in a while. And as I type right now, the 2x250 are online and I was able to copy files in/out... and sometimes after copying gigs of files, it would have cylindrical error problems. It's just totally random.

 

[DetroitSportsFan]

The randomness tends to point again to your PSU. Try disconnecting the 2 IDE drives temporarily and see if this smoothes things out. If it does, we've got another indicator pointing to your PSU as the source of your troubles.

Out of curiosity, how many amps are available on the 3.3v, 5.0v, and 12.0v rails? You should find that info on the side of your PSU.

 

[stevty2889]

What motherboard do you have? Have you tried going back to stock speeds? It could be that the SATA ports on your motherboard aren't clock locked, and the SATA bus is very senstive, so if it's overclocked..that could be your problem..

 

[kbi911]

Try to run chkdsk /f first on your HDD if you are using windows as os. if it finds somthing and fixes it go on. If not, try chkdsk /r this may take hours to finish.

 

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally posted by: kbi911
Try to run chkdsk /f first on your HDD if you are using windows as os. if it finds somthing and fixes it go on. If not, try chkdsk /r this may take hours to finish.

The only problem with that is it doesn't get to the root of his problem. Sure, it may fix some OS corruption, which is good .... but we still need to find whats causing it in the first place. Otherwise, we've got a work-around, not a fix.

What motherboard do you have? Have you tried going back to stock speeds? It could be that the SATA ports on your motherboard aren't clock locked, and the SATA bus is very senstive, so if it's overclocked..that could be your problem..

This would be a logical next "look." Don't dismiss the "chkdsk" advice above. That will come in handy. However, since we're trying to find root cause .... lets continue to look for the "cause" and not run to the "fix" because you'll be back in the same boat very very soon.

We still haven't ruled out the PSU either. Have you gotten into the case to check your amperage ratings on your power rails? You've got enough hardware running to tax a lot of power supplies ...

 

[Tobolo]

I concur. At first read the first thing I thought of is the power supply. I would check that PSU to make sure its good. You can find a plug-in PSU tester at most computer stores pretty cheap.

 

[imported_krimson]

I will try to clock back to 2.8ghz, the stock speed. Sounds like a good suggestion. And when the 2x250 act up again, I will run chkdsk. Am considering getting a new PSU.

Here is the extensive list of the setup:
1xASUS P4P800 Deluxe Socket 478 Intel 865PE ATX Intel Motherboard (Oced to 3.0ghz)
1xIntel Pentium 4 2.8C Northwood 800MHz FSB Socket 478 Processor Model BX80532PG2800D
4xCORSAIR XMS 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model CMX512-3200C2PT
1x80GB EIDE
1x100GB EIDE
2xWestern Digital Caviar SE WD2500JD 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
1xeVGA 256-A8-N347-AX Geforce 6800 256MB GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X Video Card (clocked to GT)
1xSound Blaster XtremeMusic
1xPSU Channel Well 450watt max