System destroying hard drives?

[erub]

I just changed the hard drive in my parents system 2 months ago. I think it might even be the third drive (first two were used) in the last 6 months. But this one was new. Now the computer can't recognize the drive anymore. It shouldn't be because of a lighting strike (connected to an APC UPS) and it is a desktop so it hasn't been moved or dropped. Its about 4.5 years old..Asus P4P800-E deluxe motherboard, P4 3.06HT, Windows XP

 

[mpilchfamily]

The motherboard may be failing.

 

[Tarrant64]

Have you tested the drives in other systems? The motherboard could easily be the culprit. You may want to check and see what the condition is of the power supply. If it's faulty, many things can go wrong. If you're going through this many hard drives you're best bet is to take a look at the system a whole and narrow down the other possible problems.

Test the hard drive in another PC.
What happens if you disconnect non-essential hardware to the power supply and just go with the mobo, GPU, and HD? No sound card, wireless, etc.

 

[bruceb]

With a system that old, first check would be the CMOS battery. If it is going bad, system settings may not stay set.
Next try the drive in another computer. If you can see it, then the onboard Drive controller is going bad. You can try
reloading the drivers with the latest versions and see if that helps. If the drive is truly dead and can't be seen in another
pc, then I would suspect the power supply as the cause.

 

[MadAmos]

I can't believe that no one has suggested the most likely suspect, the PSU. If it is failing it can cause voltage highs and lows along with or in addition to poor filtering of A/C on the DC lineouts.

Whoops sorry Bruce did mention it

 

[Tarrant64]

Originally posted by: MadAmos
I can't believe that no one has suggested the most likely suspect, the PSU. If it is failing it can cause voltage highs and lows along with or in addition to poor filtering of A/C on the DC lineouts.

Whoops sorry Bruce did mention it

I did too. I think we all gave a fair amount of troubleshooting steps. Now we wait to see what happens after the OP tries these steps.

Slow down and read a little bit bro.