Is my Hard drive dying??

[masterc]

I have a 40 GIG Maxtor HD.
Lately, on bootup the computer freezes and gives a "Insert Boot Disk" command.
If I Crtl-Alt-Del, I then restarts and boots up fine .
This has happened twice now.

Any ideas???

 

[AreEss64]

IDE controller, cable, or drive. Replace cables, RMA the drive if you can, and mo'board last. Check BIOS, see if there's a delay for IDE startup option - set it to the max and see if it helps, too. If it doesn't, I'd presume bad drive, and get it RMA'd.

 

[ddeder]

Uhhhh, before RMA'ing the drive, how about running scandisk and doing a surface scan (assuming you are running Windows OS)? Then run a virus check on the computer with up to date anti-virus software.

Once you have done these two things, report back here what you found.

 

[AreEss64]

I'd presume that's already been done, but I should know better. 😛 Yes, do do that first. *smacking self in forehead* RS, you moron. *mutter*

 

[ddeder]

RS-

I'm not trying to be an ass but...

If scandisk has been run with a surface scan and no errors/bad sectors have been found, what would lead you to presume a bad hard drive?

 

[Staver]

As well as those sound ideas, I'd also go to Maxtor website and get the diagnostic drive software and have it scan your drive to determine if it is the problem.

 

[masterc]

Thanks for the suggestions...
I' ll try the Scan disk and Defrag first and let you know what I find (I should have thought of that myself... Doh!!!)

 

[AreEss64]

Experience. I've had a couple Maxtors and WDC's where the PCB has gone bad instead of the heads/platters/etc. The symptoms were always the same - sometimes the drive wouldn't detect, and sometimes it would, and eventually it would cease to be seen period. Or they'd just out and out stop being seen, but still spin up and such. Remember - a drive is not strictly platters heads and motors. There's a very complex PCB on the underside that's full of little bits and pieces that -can- fail. (And unfortunately do.)