Connecting a 3rd HDD prevents Windows from booting up?

R

Rayn

Geek Trainee
Hello everyone. My 1st post here, and I've got quite a problem..

Up until 3 days ago my PC was working great for the last 3 years. I'm pretty much an expert when it comes to keeping my PC in working order, but the problem I'm having ATM baffles me....

3 days ago I tried to turn my PC on only to find it completely dead. No fans, no boot, no bios, nothing. I assumed the PSU might have died (fortron 400W) so I went out and bought a brand new Corsair 450W. Connected it and the PC finally turned on. I thought all was fine, but all of a sudden my raid0 array apparently failed(I use 2xseagate 320GB disks for system and 1x500GB HDD for data - 3 disks in all). This wouldn't be much of a surprise, as raid0 is more prone to errors, but... and here's the part I can't figure out:

When I unplug the power cable (unplugging the sata disk cable only doesn't work. I have to unplug the power cable) from the 3rd HDD (the non-raid HDD used for data only), the raid array is restored, my PC boots up and works flawlessly like nothing ever happened.

This would lead me to believe there is a problem with the disk, but when I unplugged the 2 raid disks and ran hiren boot CD and tested the disk, everything was fine and the data is still there. No errors. Next thing that comes to mind is maybe the PSU is not strong enough, but my PC ran fine for the last 3 years with a PSU with 50 less wats then the one I currently have.

I tried switching cables, SATA ports, power cables, unplugging the 2 DVD roms I also have.... nothing changes. Whatever I do, when all 3 disks are connected, raid array fails, and the pc won't boot. And from what I can tell from the Intel Matrix raid manager in DOS, the actual problem is the motherboard sees only 2 disks when all 3 are connected; one from the (now broken) raid array and the other one is the 500gb data disk. And every time I remove the 3rd disk's power cable, the raid is restored.

P.S. I forgot to mention this same configuration worked for the last 3 years, so this is not a new HDD I'm adding. The problems started after my PSU died.

My PC specs:
CPU: [email protected]
MB: Asus Commando
RAM: 2x2GB DDR2@800MHz
GPU: GF8800GT 512MB
HDD: 2x seagate 320GB SATA (Raid0) and 1x 500GB SATA
PSU: Corsair 450W

Any help is very much appreciated.
 
I've just checked your board your using intel onboard raid controller, when building your raid i presume you had to specify the correct bus addresses for the two disk that where going to be used for raid 0? some motherboards once you enable raid mode the controller can then only be used just for raid not jbod so every disk you attach to that controller has to be in a raid. so generally requires other sata devices e.g. opticle drives and jbod's to be connected to a non-raid mode sata controller the controler can be in sata mode or ehci or ahci mode. but as you've said above you've never had an issue with having the raid 0 as well as a single disk i also presume a opticle drive all on the same controller even when it's set to raid mode. Have you tried resetting the cmos? could be the bios not detecting the sata/raid controller as it should, therefor resulting in your 3rd disk not being detected. if you reset cmos im not sure if this also wipes the raid's configuration because it's an onboard raid controller. if you still have no luck after resetting the cmos, you can try using acronis true image to backup your raid to a single disk and then destroying the raid 0 and building it again your raid, and then transfer the image back to newly built raid0.
 
Thank you for the reply Bobby.
I've spend the last 3 days working on this and I'm going crazy... :crash:
All 3 disks were working fine before my PSU died and I replaced it. The 2 raid disks are marked as member disks of the array and the non-raid disk is also visible in the intel matrix disk manager, but is displayed as a non raid disk. As it should be.
So all disks are visible and (eventually) read by the Matrix raid manager. I say eventually, because, when i plugin the 3rd disk, and the boot sequence gets to the matrix sata/raid manager, it takes about 30sec to a minute for it to read the disks. Before the incident (and when the 3rd disk is not plugged in) it takes less than a second.
And when it gets to the part when win should start to boot.... nothing. Just a blank Screen. And the weird thing is:
It's the 3rd disks power cable that makes the difference. Not the sata data cable. So connecting the power to the 3rd non-raid disk is enough to stop the PC from booting. Weird.... :confused::confused::confused:

I tried a ton of stuff; new kabels, different sata ports, flashing the MB with new firmware, flashing the disks... even changed the battery on the MB. Nothing. As things are now, all I really care about is finding out what died so I can replace it. IMO it's either the disk(s)(but i wish i knew which one, as they all seem to work), MB (everything else is working fine. I hope it's not this) or the PSU (everything points to this, but it's a brand new corsair PSU. what are the odds?). The CPU and RAM tested and working fine.

P.S.All 3 disks are still under warranty (unlike the Asus MB), but if i try to replace them without them being faulty, I pay a penalty. So I'm hesitant to get them replaced until I'm reasonably sure they're actually the problem.
 
Hi, can you enable S.M.A.R.T in the bios? self monitoring analasys reporting technology, basically tells you if your hard disks are faulty. have you tried benching the non raid drive using hdtune? checked for bad sectors?
another way you can get your non raid hard drive to work is to buy a pci raid card and just use it as jbod, so they will then be on seperate controllers and you won't have an issue booting to your OS. cost around £10 for a cheap ass sata raid controller. but it's looking more towards the non-raid disk to be the culprate, possibility the sata/raid controller doesn't like it, therefor causing issues with your machine booting. There isn't going to be issue with the PSU, corsair very good and reliable brand.
 
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