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My Hard Drive, Randomly Stops Working


Simon

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Right, this beginning to very much worry me.

I'll turn the PC on, my 200gb thats partioned into 2 will show up just fine, as its supposed to. Will work fine, read fine, write fine, etc etc. Then randomly, at a random period after start up, it'll either crash, taking explorer with it, or explorer crashes taking the hard drive with it, not quite worked out yet.

Anyway, what the f**k is going on. Need to try another power cable and IDE, but i've got none spare, but will see if i can fiddle with some stuff.

:(

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Could be a dodgey power supply...

I installed a new graphics card then about 1 month later my system crashed and wouldnt boot into Windows. I thought it was a dodgey HDD so warrantied it but then the new HDD dies with a few weeks. I was advised it was probably a dodgey power supply so I changed the PSU and used a HDD checking program off the drive manufacturers website to fix some data errors. I havent had any HDD problems since (Touch wood). The new graphics card I installed must have been putting too much strain on the hunk of shit PSU I used to run :P

I am never ever going to skimp and use a shitty power supply again!

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I am never ever going to skimp and use a shitty power supply again!

that ought to be in the bible. (Y)

go out and buy a 600watt jobby - shouldn't cost more than £70

- yeah, back that stuff up sharpish just in case.

does it ...

always detect the drive at startup?

really shit itself completely randomly or is it during data transfer - particularly large chunks?

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that ought to be in the bible. (Y)

go out and buy a 600watt jobby - shouldn't cost more than £70

- yeah, back that stuff up sharpish just in case.

does it ...

always detect the drive at startup?

really shit itself completely randomly or is it during data transfer - particularly large chunks?

Its only once not detected it at startup, every other time its been fine.

And its normally when i'm just sittjng at the PC talking on MSN or something. Even when i'm not there its done it.

A friend said it could possibly be the RAM, 'cause if it was the PSU, then more then the hard drive would cut out.

Got no money either way to fix it. Well i do, but spending would be so so stupid. :(

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Its only once not detected it at startup, every other time its been fine.

And its normally when i'm just sittjng at the PC talking on MSN or something. Even when i'm not there its done it.

A friend said it could possibly be the RAM, 'cause if it was the PSU, then more then the hard drive would cut out.

Got no money either way to fix it. Well i do, but spending would be so so stupid. :(

oh, i get it..

If the whole machine's not turning off then it's unlikely to be the psu - unless you're getting random yet very specific power problems (unlikely, i think you'll agree)

I'd be inclined to think its either the IDE controller crapping out. in which case try it on the other channel - or if you've got seperate ATA 133/166 and standard IDE try the other controller - what you've got'll depend on your mobo.

or, like you said originally the IDE/power cable, in which case try the cables from your dvd drive or whatever for a couple of days to see what happens.

unlikely to be RAM really - given that it's got buggerall to do with your disks

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Your hard drive could do that if it was overheating.

I had one like that once. It would start fine but eventually when it got busy the drive would stop, and explorer, which seems to keep reading stuff off the hard drive, would pack up and the computer would freeze, couldn't move the mouse and no response. Happened at random intervals after the PC was started.

Is yours anything like that? It restarts after shut down for a while then packs up again.

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Right, so heres the deal now.

I tried swapping IDE cables, and it wouldn't detect anything, so swapped them back again.

Sometimes, when i start the PC and go into bios, there is a ! next to secondary master.

Also, i've placed the hard drive outside, and i can feel it spinning and stuff still after its dissapeared.

And yeah, the mouse and stuff freezes while the hard drive is running off into the sunset, but the rest of the PC is fine, although, this might be of some importance, if i try and open anything else, even a text file located on my desktop, it says it either doesn't exist, or i don't have permission to access it. :S

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