second hard drive fail

Discussion in 'Storage Devices' started by sscotty, Feb 7, 2008.

  1. sscotty

    sscotty Geek Trainee

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    hi there i have got 2 harddrives on my computer i turned it off yesterday and when i turned it on again today only one harddrive was being reconized.
    my mother board is an msi k7n2 delta-ILSR(MS-6570-030)
    the harddrives are 160g maxtor and 250g maxtor
    i am running on windows xp
    i have updated the bios and all the drivers i think and i have checked all the connections i just dont understand it could someone shed some light on this matter thankyou.
     
  2. donkey42

    donkey42 plank

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    presumably the 160 HDD is master and the 250 is the slave on the primary IDE channel (if they are in fact IDE HDDs)

    please can you confirm the HDD interface is IDE

    and if they are both IDE have you tried a different molex connector (power) also try a different known working data cable (PATA or SATA)

    if they are IDE i would suggest trying setting both devices as CS (cable select) which basically stops each HDD from deciding wheather it is master or slave, the master / slave decition is made by the HDDs location on the IDE cable (master is furthest from the motherboard and slave is closest to the motherboard, if you are using a 3 connector IDE cable)

    Edit: BTW: welcome to HWFs

    Edit: also updating the BIOS (flashing) is not a good idea unless you are 200% sure a BIOS flash will fix your problem or make newer hardware you need to be compatable
     
  3. sscotty

    sscotty Geek Trainee

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    they are both sata hd i have tried swapping the conections over but still nothing
     
  4. donkey42

    donkey42 plank

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    connect only the non working HD, does it get detected & can you hear the HD spinning up

    BTW: you'll have to listen very carefully & possibly remove the case lid because the PSU firing up could easily cover the HD powering up noise
     
  5. sscotty

    sscotty Geek Trainee

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    yes it spins and there is power but it is not being reconized when i boot up
     
  6. donkey42

    donkey42 plank

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    ok, so it spins well logically the next thing to do is try the HDD that is not being recognised on the known working SATA port (to test both the port & the cable, then, if it works you need to eliminate either the cable or the port from the item causing the problem) the other HDD was on & also use the known working SATA and try different molex connectors too (as they become a loose fit on the HDDs)

    if that fails, the failed HDD could still be under warranty because Seagate acquired Maxtor about 4 or 5 years ago, and Seagate just rebadged their own drives with the Maxtor label

    it's easy to tell if your HDD is a newer seagate maxtor or an original maxtor, basically, if any micro chips have "ST" on them it's a seagate drive and they have a 5 year warrenty

    BTW: "ST" stands for Seagate Technology

    also assuming the HDD is dead is there any data you need on the drive

    Edit: old Maxtor drives were crap & Seagate are one of the HDD brands most recommended by most forums, but, that doesn't mean they don't die, i've sent 1 back to Seagate and the replacement has actually failed

    BTW: it's a 320Gb drive

    Edit: personally, i've never used SATA
     
  7. sscotty

    sscotty Geek Trainee

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    hi there the drive is not dead i tried it on my mates computer and it worked fine. and i have tried to swap eveything around and still nothing could it be my mother board it is about 3-4 years old now and had a lot of use the hd is only about a month old and it was working fine.
     
  8. donkey42

    donkey42 plank

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    yes thats entirely possible, but that doesn't usually mean that you replace the motherboard, first try the HDD on every SATA port with a known working cable, and if it still doesn't work try it on a SATA controller card like the pic below
    [​IMG]

    here's 1 from Novatech that also has RAID, but it only has 2 SATA ports & fairly cheap

    then it's time to replace the motherboard, after trying a SATA card

    Edit: because obviously the motherboard recognises 1 SATA drive, so why not 2

    Edit: or try to find a sata port multiplier to use on you known working SATA port
     
  9. sscotty

    sscotty Geek Trainee

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    some one said to me that it might be because it doesn't support harddrives over 160g the board ive got is an msi k7n2 6570 and both hd are maxtor diamondmax 10
     
  10. donkey42

    donkey42 plank

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    that obviously is not the case, because (presumably it's the 160Gb HDD) and the 250 Gb drive also works and it did work
    should have spotted this earlier
    but it shouldn't be an issue as it did work

    Edit: without knowing the revision number of your motherboard it's impossible to tell what HDD size the mobo is restricted to

    Edit: version 1 of your mobo worked fine with 160Gb HD

    Edit:
    this shouldn't matter, because it did work, but, XP didn't support SATA HDs, but, you must have slipstreamed your XP CD or you got an XP CD that had already been slipstreamed from somewhere[ot]:doh: should've spotted that earlier[/ot]

    Edit: slipstreaming an XP CD just applies all service packs & updates to make the installation CD up to date

    Edit:
    Source

    Edit: i think it means a floppy that contains the SATA drivers for all SATA ports
     
  11. sscotty

    sscotty Geek Trainee

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    hi there now that you mention it i did not install the raid drivers when i installed windows xp. is there any way of installing the drivers from the floppy without installing a fresh windows.
     
  12. donkey42

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    there may be a way, but, i don't know of it

    as far as i know, you either have to load the SATA drivers from the floppy every time you install XP or slipstream the drivers into your XP installation CD

    BTW: a slipstreaming guide is here

    just click "skip"

    and sorry for for all the crap, but, i'm still/always learning

    Edit: or you can slipstream the drivers into your XP by downloading & using nLite
     
  13. sscotty

    sscotty Geek Trainee

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    no thats cool. at least i know what has gone wrong because it was only about a week ago i formatted the hdd but didn't install the raid :doh:
    thats one good thing about the computer going wrong i have learnt a lot over the past month.

    i wish i had came on here first i have went and baught a new motherboard.
     
  14. donkey42

    donkey42 plank

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    thankies, looking at this thread as a 3rd person, it looks like i'm grasping at straws
    tell me about it, i'm always learning & correcting what i think i know
    glad i was helpful, eventually
     
  15. sscotty

    sscotty Geek Trainee

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    i will go and formatte the hdd and install the raid and post a coment on here to let you know if it works fingers crossed eh.
     
  16. donkey42

    donkey42 plank

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    it's actually better to slipstream your XP CD, then, you don't have to always remember where that floppy is and if you are going to use the floppy you should make a backup of the floppy on your HDD with some software like winimage because floppies don't last forever
     

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