Strange OS & HDD problem

[imported_Sasha]

Before I replaced the motherboard in an XP Pro computer, I knew there was something strange going on with one of my hard drives (H). First, there were sporadic inability to write to the drive by the XP (as part of its normal writes).

Anyway, I replaced the motherboard, installed XP Pro, and there is an intermittent wild behavior. For instance, Explorer and Device Manager see the drive, but Disk Manager does not, and nothing but a mystery folder present*. Rebooting, DiskMgr now sees the drive, its accessible, and files are seen as well.

This mystery file, though records a 0-byte value, nothing viewable withing, but cannot be removed. Also, during times DiskMgr doesn't the H drive (but DeviceMgr & Explorer does), you cannot fun Format on it. And at certain times, any attempt to move files from/to it will result in system pauses, presumably do to it becoming inaccessible or invisible.

I am not sure if this is a power-supply problem, IDE cable problem, HDD failing problem, or something to do with that mystery folder. Being that the OS is a fresh install and that DiskMgr sporadically sees the drive, I doubt that mystery folder is the cause. I'll buy a new PSW and IDE cables at Fry's today and see if that helps.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Run the manufacturer's drive diagnostic utility to scan for defects, etc. etc.

 

[imported_Sasha]

Originally posted by: Kensai
Run the manufacturer's drive diagnostic utility to scan for defects, etc. etc.

This would require an FDD. How retro.

Edit: D/l the WDC utility and ran it. Good new & bad new: I learned that its failing the SMART tests, but the sw pulled the drive's S/N info to learn its still under warranty.