Repeated HDD failure?

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firebirdude

Member
Sep 9, 2004
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I have an SSD with my OS and all my programs on it. Then a separate HDD which I just use to store large files (mainly movies). One day the HDD started getting flakey. It would show up in Windows Explorer, but didn't show the size or how full it was. When you try double-clicking on it, the hourglass of doom would start, the whole PC would basically lock up and the HDD would never open. A simple reset and everything would work perfectly, maybe for another week and then it would happen again. No worries. I bought another HDD, copied the data over and pulled the flaky drive from my PC. Everything was golden for 6-7 months and now the new drive starts the same thing! Ok. So I chalk it up to terrible product and buy a third HDD, copied the data over and everything is golden again. Well now it's been maybe two weeks and this one is doing it too. Exact same symptoms. So now I'm suspecting the SATA cable or power supply line?
 
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Dahak

Dahak

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2000
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Same issue twice, fluke, Same issue 3 times, there is a pattern.

I would say bad sata or power cable, try replacing the sata cable first and maybe try a different sata port on the motherboard as well just in case
seeing as there is usually 4-6 ports minimum
 
Elixer

Elixer

Lifer
May 7, 2002
10,371
762
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Install crystaldiskinfo, and see what it says about the drive(s).
Also, check your event viewer logs for any errors/warnings.

Could be corrupted system files or even bad RAM as well, or what Dahak said.
 
J

JimmiG

Platinum Member
Feb 24, 2005
2,024
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Could be coincidence. However a long time ago (early 00's) I experienced repeated HDD failures due to a bad PSU. Took about 3 failed HDD's before I figured it out. So that's not impossible.
 
F

firebirdude

Member
Sep 9, 2004
192
5
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Finally got around to this. I swapped the SATA cable for another one I had on hand, changed the SATA port it was plugged into and changed the main connector from the PSU that the HDD is powered off of. We'll see if I have any more problems. I'll post back up.
 
F

firebirdude

Member
Sep 9, 2004
192
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So here we are just shy of two weeks later and my HDD failed again. I've changed the SATA cable being used AND plugged it into a different SATA connector on the motherboard. I also am using a different power harness from the PSU (not just another connector on the same harness). I'm out of ideas.

Keep in mind that I'm using an SSD for my OS which is connected via SATA as well. And I've had zero issues with that. So it's not that all my SATA ports are bunk.
 
WhoBeDaPlaya

WhoBeDaPlaya

Diamond Member
Sep 15, 2000
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Run CrystalDiskInfo and see what the little lady says about your current HDD

CrystalDiskInfo6-en.jpg
 
F

firebirdude

Member
Sep 9, 2004
192
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The PSU voltages are:
12V = 12.288
5V = 5.136
3.3V = 3.344

I have SMART enabled, but don't know how to see any of the data. It doesn't seem to run at boot up and I only see enable/disable in BIOS.

 
WhoBeDaPlaya

WhoBeDaPlaya

Diamond Member
Sep 15, 2000
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That is correct. Just enable it in the BIOS and CrystalDiskInfo will pull the raw values.
Is that a screenshot of your actual HDD? If so, looks good (Reallocated Sectors Count, Reallocation Event Count, Current Pending Sector Count).

I would have said possible bad SATA cable, but the UltraDMA CRC Error Count is 0.
 
Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,176
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www.anyf.ca
Shot in the dark, but is it close to a very fast fan (perhaps one that is variable speed) that is not on any kind of shock absorber? I had a weird issue like this once when building a server in a small 1U chassis and turned out to be a 9000 rpm fan that was very close to the hard drive. It would vibrate it to the point it could not operate.
 
WhoBeDaPlaya

WhoBeDaPlaya

Diamond Member
Sep 15, 2000
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Not sure what to think at this point.

Possibilities :

1) PSU is bad and is sending out-of-spec ripple to the HDD causing it to act funky

2) Controller board on the HDD is busted. Had this happen recently to an old WD Green 2TB. It appeared to be okay, but wouldn't complete either a quick or full zero fill
(got hung up on the last sectors). SMART, etc. was fine.
 
F

firebirdude

Member
Sep 9, 2004
192
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Red Squirrel said:
Shot in the dark, but is it close to a very fast fan (perhaps one that is variable speed) that is not on any kind of shock absorber? I had a weird issue like this once when building a server in a small 1U chassis and turned out to be a 9000 rpm fan that was very close to the hard drive. It would vibrate it to the point it could not operate.
Click to expand...
The HDD is located in the lower front of the case, as most HDDs are. There is an 80mm fan in the lower front panel of the case right next to it. But it's just a regular $10 fan probably going 1000RPM? The fan is not actually touching the HDD and they're only connected through the whole chassis of the case. Fan doesn't really make much noise and I can't imagine that being the issue. But hell, I'll unplug it and see. lol
WhoBeDaPlaya said:
Not sure what to think at this point.

Possibilities :

1) PSU is bad and is sending out-of-spec ripple to the HDD causing it to act funky

2) Controller board on the HDD is busted. Had this happen recently to an old WD Green 2TB. It appeared to be okay, but wouldn't complete either a quick or full zero fill
(got hung up on the last sectors). SMART, etc. was fine.
Click to expand...
I have the worst luck with PSUs. It seems ANYTIME I have a hardware issue with my homebuilds, it's a PSU. And I've been building my own since ~99. LOL As for #2, this is the third HDD I've had this issue with. Nearly identical symptoms with all three. I will say that it seems to happen more often after the PC has been on awhile or when recovering from sleep. If I turn the PC on from cold, it's always working fine. And once the problem surfaces, I simply restart the computer and we're back in action.
 
Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,176
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www.anyf.ca
firebirdude said:
The HDD is located in the lower front of the case, as most HDDs are. There is an 80mm fan in the lower front panel of the case right next to it. But it's just a regular $10 fan probably going 1000RPM? The fan is not actually touching the HDD and they're only connected through the whole chassis of the case. Fan doesn't really make much noise and I can't imagine that being the issue. But hell, I'll unplug it and see. lol
Click to expand...

Yeah that's a fairly typical setup and should not be an issue. Just thought I'd mention as it happened to me and it was rather an oddball issue to consider. 3 drives in a row there's definitely a weird environmental issue with that PC though, kinda interesting to find out what it turns out to be.
 
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firebirdude

Member
Sep 9, 2004
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Unico said:
Since you are running a WD Blue hard drive, you could also try Western Digital’s “Data Lifeguard for Windows” utility. Run the extended test.

https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?ID=940

Any chance that you live in a high humidity environment?
Click to expand...
No humidity issues. I live in Oklahoma. No humidifier or anything similar in my house. I ran the WD test, though as I and most people are saying... 3 drives in a row doing the same thing tends to point away from the drive. Here's the ever-so-simple results it gave me.



Also, I've been watching CrystalDiskInfo on every powerup. Haven't seen any issues, but my problem still persists. Here's the latest CrystalDiskInfo FWIW.



I don't know what else to do other than buy a new PSU and try it out. I mean, I guess I could try a SATA to USB adapter? Or do they make a piece of software that monitors the status of the drives at all times and can give me info more helpful than "Yup. Was working, now it's not." ? Is it possible it's going to sleep after a period of inactivity or something? Remember this is a desktop PC and I've been through the power settings. They're set for performance and I've went through it line by line.....plus it doesn't happen all the time. lol Might work great for another two weeks. Who knows. lol
 
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F

firebirdude

Member
Sep 9, 2004
192
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So my last post was Mar 16th 2017 and it's now May 18th 2017. Shortly after making the March post, I changed some power settings on my desktop as a last ditch I don't know what else to do move. Well it hasn't had any problems since. Not 100% sure what I changed (it's been 2 months), but I think I moved to High Performance, then clicked on "change plan settings", then clicked on "change advanced power settings", then hard dark, then "turn off hard disk after *blank* minutes". I set it to 0. I also scrolled down a bit more and changed the sleep setting to 60 minutes, but hibernate after 1500 minutes.

I do remember that when I changed the above settings, I didn't notice anything strange. I think the turn off HDD setting was like 90 minutes or something. Regardless of what any of that is set to, the HDD should wake up once the rest of the PC wakes up. But wasn't for whatever reason.

So far, I haven't seen my issue since. Fingers crossed.
 
Ketchup

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
14,559
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I am glad to hear that the problem hasn't come back. What kind of "light overclock" are you running on your 4790k? Most of these don't take don't take much of an overclock unless there is some pretty hefty cooling involved. And yes, in years past seemingly stable overclocks would give me errors like this. Is your CPU running at full speed all the time now?
 
F

firebirdude

Member
Sep 9, 2004
192
5
81
Ketchup said:
I am glad to hear that the problem hasn't come back. What kind of "light overclock" are you running on your 4790k? Most of these don't take don't take much of an overclock unless there is some pretty hefty cooling involved. And yes, in years past seemingly stable overclocks would give me errors like this. Is your CPU running at full speed all the time now?
Click to expand...
Ahhh. Thanks for pointing that out. I'm actually not overclocked anymore. 4.0GHz
 
F

firebirdude

Member
Sep 9, 2004
192
5
81
God effing damn it..... I had to say something.

It's still happening. I went ~2 months without a single hiccup, then I post on here, then it happens right afterward. Twice since my post. My computer is friggin haunted.
 
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