Unable to write to Drive C: Data will be lost

[dmcowen674]

I have never run across this horrible problem I am now getting. I'm probably answering the question that it is most likely the IDE Channel chip on my Motherboard. It is only a 1 year old ASUS A7A266 with 1 GHZ T-bird and 256 DDR. It is not the hard drive as I changed drives and still get these random lock ups with the Unable to write to Drive C: message.

I have tried everything, new memory, different drive and obviously fresh OS install. I flashed the BIOS to the latest which gives it ability to go up to XP 2100 chip. Only thing I have not changed is the MB, CPU and the ATI Rage Pro video card.

Any other ideas or input? Thanks

Dave

 

[JayBone]

Check out
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q281672

 

[daveshel]

In a Q281672 scenario, the onset of the issue would be enabling or changing the parameters of disk caching. If the problem arose without making this change, it is more likely to be drive or drive controller failure.

 

[corkyg]

Smells like a IDE controller fault to me. In that vein, have you changed IDE cables? They can sometimes just go bad intermittantly at first, then sort of permanently. I just worked through a similar scenario two weeks ago with a client's machine. It would not boot to the floppy at all. I changed as much as I could - swapped floppy drives - changed ribbons . . . and finally concluded it was the drive controller. So, I replaced the motherboard, keeping all othjer components - and the problem went away.

 

[mastertech01]

It could also be simply not enough juice to the Hard drive/ drives. If you share power off the same branch with too many devices you can get drive failure. Overheating drives can also contribute to this. Try leaving one branch just for the hard drive and see if the problem clears up. If so you need to reorganize or perhaps even consider a more powerfull PSU. Even a loose pin in one molex connector can cause similar problems.

 

[dmcowen674]

Thanks guys.

I thought it was maybe heat and or power to the 7200 rpm 40 gig western digital, so I moved it to a bigger drive bay, on it's own power connector and added a HD Fan (actually 3 small fans). It wasn't heat or power. I went back to the 20 gig 5400 rpm drive and same thing still happening.

I only have one 80 pin IDE cable for ATA 100 mode, may switch to a regular cable to see if the problem stops.

The Microsoft disk caching scenario> Running 98SE and looked to see if disk caching box got changed and it didn't.

Still looking like Controller chips on the motherboard. It would be my 2nd ASUS board going down, will switch to another brand for the next one. Hate to spend money on a MB when I wanted to get an XP chip.

 

[yakko]

You should back up your data now. Even though this is most likely a controller problem the one time I had that message it was a bad drive.

 

[dmcowen674]

I have some I believe is pretty big news folks here about this situation that hard Drive Manufacturers may want to take note. This error has been talked about by many people experiencing it and most of the time the concensus is to point to a hardware failure. There is one little Microsoft blurb vaguely refering to a rare patch.

Here is what I found.

Internet explorer had somehow created two identical directories across 2 partitions. I didn't notice because the default is to have system folders hidden etc. I went into Internet Explorer options and did a move of the Temporary Internet files directory then deleted the extra folder. That seemed to clear the problem up but I noticed the drive still working very hard when writing from cache to the drive. I then poked around the same partition and found that Internet Explorer had made another folder on that drive, since it was not the same directory name I just went and deleted it. Now the machine and drive is stable again and Internet Explorer is running much faster. No wonder I was getting Unable to write to drive C, it was trying to write to three locations at the same time and even spanning two partitions!!! I have no idea how Internet Explorer did this all by itself. Something for everyone to keep an eye on out there.

So don't send in those drives, they will most likely test perfectly fine at the factory and go back out as a re-furbished drive that was actually perfectly fine to begin with.

Dave