Hard drive keeps Disappearing

[Frankie]

Hi

Here is my problem. Sometimes my computer is booting up just fine. I am able to go into windows and it runs ok. But another time if I boot up the computer, the Ide master hard drive (windows drive) is not recognised in the bios. Or I can get to windows, but after a period of time my computer will reboot and again the master hard drive is not recognised by the bios.

So far the only things I have done to get this back up and running are to push harder on the ide cable connection to the hard drive. I have also purchased a new ide cable, but the same thing happens. I have checked the pins at the back of the hard drive and they appear straight. What do you suggest I do now? Thanks!!

[quaxo]

How old is the drive?

The controller card on the drive might be going out. It can only be replaced by an identical card and hard drive companies don't just hand these out. I'd back up whatever you need while you can and look at getting a new drive.

It could also be a problem with the motherboard. If you have another drive handy, put it in, install Windows, and try it out for a while to see if it works ok. If there are no issues, it's probably the hard drive you have in there now.

[Frankie]

Hard Drive is about 2 years old. What is strange about this is I have just had to replace 2 hard drives that I had running as slaves to this drive.  One of them was making a right racket and the other one had bad sectors. Is it really possible that all 3 hard drives have gone at the same time?

I also wondered; if the boot sector of a hard drive is corrupt would this prevent the hard drive from showing up in the bios.

[patio]

Post alot more info on the machine involved and we'll go from there.

[Frankie]

Desktop Pc:

Motherboard: Msi k7 Platinum
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2000+,  MMX,  3DNow, ~1.5GHz
Memory: 1024MB RAM
Hard Drive Western Digital
Windows xp home edition
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900XT

I also wondered; if the boot sector of a hard drive is corrupt would this prevent the hard drive from showing up in the bios.

[quaxo]

I also wondered; if the boot sector of a hard drive is corrupt would this prevent the hard drive from showing up in the bios.

Not usually.

[BC_Programmer]

I had a similiar problem with Drives not being detected- it turned out to be my power supply. I checked the +12 and it was only 10, and the +5 was only 3.5, those are not in the desired range... try disconnecting an unneeded component (if available) or removing a unnecessary card.

[quaxo]

I had a similiar problem with Drives not being detected- it turned out to be my power supply. I checked the +12 and it was only 10, and the +5 was only 3.5, those are not in the desired range... try disconnecting an unneeded component (if available) or removing a unnecessary card.

Or if you know someone with a multimeter and a bit of computer knowledge (especially about power supplies) you could ask them to check your voltages.

[patio]

To make sure it's not the IDE controller set up the HDD on IDE2 for now...leave IDE1 empty for testing purposes.
Do a series of cold boots and see if it works properly.
To see if it's the hard drive DLoad the FREE utilities from the drive manuf. site...use that file to create a bootable floppy/CD and run the drive diagnostics.

If you suspect the PSU borrrow one of the same or greater wattage and swap it in there for a day or so to see if the issue goes away...

[quaxo]

To make sure it's not the IDE controller set up the HDD on IDE2 for now...leave IDE1 empty for testing purposes.

The disk controller is located on the hard drive, moving it to IDE2 won't tell you much. Whether it's a problem with the host bus adapter or the disk controller can't be told by moving it to IDE2. You'd have to test the drive as a slave in another known working system and see what happens. If the problem persists (disk disappearing), then it's the drive's disk controller. If you don't have the same problem, it's most likely the host adapter that's integrated into the motherboard of the affected system.

Moving the drive to IDE2 to see if it's the problem is like moving a light bulb to a socket on the same wiring as another socket that isn't working... whether it's the wiring or the bulb, the light still isn't gonna work right.

[patio]

Sorry i meant to test if the IDE MBoard socket was going bad which i've seen happen a few times...
But i don't think it's the issue here.
If that board has needed 3 HDD's in a short period of time somethings up.

[Frankie]

Does anyone think that heat could have played a part in destroying my other hard drives? Let me explain. I had 3 internal hard drives connected in the desktop case when my problems began. But up until a month ago I only ever had 2 hard drives connected and these were spaced further apart. Could placing 3 hard drives close together of coursed this?

[BC_Programmer]

No, but three hard drives will consume more power. Coincedentally, that is was happened to me. I had C: and D: drives, both fairly small 2GB and 8GB, so I bought another 80GB drive. Yay! more space. Problem being that every once in a while it would simply vanish, causing some good old fashioned headaches because I had the swapfile on it.

As Patio suggested try another PSU for a while to see if the problems mysteriously dissapear. Personally I first suspected the PSU in my case when I reformatted to a new 160GB (replacing the C: and D: physical drives with a single, partitioned one).

[Frankie]

No, but three hard drives will consume more power. Coincedentally, that is was happened to me. I had C: and D: drives, both fairly small 2GB and 8GB, so I bought another 80GB drive. Yay! more space. Problem being that every once in a while it would simply vanish, causing some good old fashioned headaches because I had the swapfile on it.

As Patio suggested try another PSU for a while to see if the problems mysteriously dissapear. Personally I first suspected the PSU in my case when I reformatted to a new 160GB (replacing the C: and D: physical drives with a single, partitioned one).

Obviously I need to add to this post. I disconnected 2 DVD drives when I started having problems. I also thought that hard drives consumed a very little amount of power - Is this wrong?

[BC_Programmer]

Obviously I need to add to this post. I disconnected 2 DVD drives when I started having problems. I also thought that hard drives consumed a very little amount of power - Is this wrong?

This is the first mention of any kind of drive other then a hard drive.

I had 3 internal hard drives connected in the desktop case when my problems began. But up until a month ago I only ever had 2 hard drives connected and these were spaced further apart.

Now I'm confused- was this after swapping DVD drives for Hard Drives? Is that what you mean?

How about providing Before & After stuff- what has changed? as in the primary/Secondary Master/Slave arrangement. Any new Graphics cards or other power hoggers you forgot to mention?


It is likely not a heat problem on account of it happening after a cold boot.

[Frankie]

Sorry, What I meant was, I disconnected the one dvd drive when I began to have problems. I also suspected it might be Psu so I just disconnected the DVD to test it.

Anyways, I just have the 2 harddrives and 2 dvd drives connected now and all seems to be running ok. I have had it running 2 days solid and all is ok. Thanks!