uh oh...failing hard drive?

windows just told me to stop ejecting hardware without stopping it...it told me i ejected my second ide hard drive, on the same channel as the first.

I opened my computer, and it gave me an error.

then it let me acess a partition thats on it. (all others on it are linux)

PArition magic is opened, and it says the seocnd drive is "BAD" as opposed ot ntfs or fat32.

did this drive fail?

ahh sorry can you repeat this in english again with proper sentences cause its totally unreadable. I know your upset etc etc but dam ask slowly

it sounds like you unplugged your 2nd ide hard drive from the priamary ide channel while the computer is on...

ahh? you shall not unplug hardware while it is on

He's receiving a message that he did that because windows just knows its losing the drive, and can't differentiate between it actually being physically removed or just dieing.

Run a diagnostic on it, from your HDD manufacturer, and it will tell you the drive is dieing. Pull off any data you want to keep pronto.

aha... I really did not understand the post though...

sorry mate

well usign the ultimate boot cd, i ran a diagnostic. i did the long ful scan one, said its fine...and seems to be working fine now too. Odd.

Replace the HDD IDE cable.

Z

I got a weird thing like that going on as well. It's an SATA HDD, Seagate 160GB acting as a slave (2nd HDD). Every once in awhile when the computer has been on for awhile, the HDD light will go on solid, I get a message in the taskbar that says "delayed write error" and then the HDD doesn't show up in My Computer. I have to restart to get it back online.

sata is hot swappable so make sure your cables are in all the way and connections are tight. you can unplug sata harddrives while the computer is on, its built into the technology, but its not reccomended for harddrives

oh....I did not know that. Good stuff, I'll keep that in mind.

well my 80 is not working right...i havnt replaced the cable yet but theres a good chance that may be it...

about 30 seconds after i turned on my computer (well, got it into windows) i was hoping on the forums for my morning run.
Then the head smacks agaisnt something....like it was unplugged and ran back to the center. (they do that too)
then it hung around a bit, then spun down. Then spun up.

Then i went to acess it, and it froze the computer...for a second. (more like 15)

Then the speakers beeped, and the computer strated responding but not hte window...

then it worked. Worked just fine.

Then as i was typing this it spun down, but about halfway there spun back up.

The IDE cable has been folded a few times, and i got it used...could a wire inside it be damaged and causing this?

You may aslo try checking the power connnectors or even change to another and see if this helps. I have seen instances where the drive will lose power momentarily during operation than when powered back up it crashes the PC. Get a hold of the drive manufacturers software and do a thorough test and see if the disk is bad itself.

Z

the drive passes both the quick and the thourough tests.
it seems to be working now, i've not touched anything. i'm starting to wonder if its just a loose power connection.

Could be, I have had it happen to me before

Z

still not a hiccup today...

could humidity cause this? todays weather was good, but the last few days have been nasty...and i dont close my windows.

Xenocide said:

sata is hot swappable so make sure your cables are in all the way and connections are tight. you can unplug sata harddrives while the computer is on, its built into the technology, but its not reccomended for harddrives

Click to expand...

hey, my problem is still occuring. I changed the sata cable and all the connnections are tight. Both Hard drives are SATA running off the motherboard. The main HDD works perfect, but the secondary keeps unmounting. I can hear the HDD stays spooled up, the only things that happen are: the drive letter disappears from My Computer, the activity light remains on solid, and any program that was writing to the drive pops up a delayed write failure notice.

Since you said SATA is hot-swappable, I tried unplugging the signal and power cords from the HDD and plugging them back in. I can hear the HDD power down, then back up with the power cord, but it still won't mount and show up on the system. The computer works fine whether it works or not, I get no freezing or anything like that, it's as if it were a USB HDD and I had unplugged it from the computer.

The HDD will work for a few days at a time before it fails, then I need to restart the computer to get it back online. I keep my computer on 24/7, I only turn it off when there's a problem or I'm installing something.

Como said:

windows just told me to stop ejecting hardware without stopping it...it told me i ejected my second ide hard drive, on the same channel as the first.

I opened my computer, and it gave me an error.

then it let me acess a partition thats on it. (all others on it are linux)

PArition magic is opened, and it says the seocnd drive is "BAD" as opposed ot ntfs or fat32.

did this drive fail?

Click to expand...

I have a 20gb maxtor that reboots the computer ever so often... I tried in another computer and it did the same thing so I just learned to live with it until I sold the computer 4 years later.

Sounds like perhaps the molex power plug is coming loose(they are made cheaply). I have seen that happen on one of my own drives. I changed to a different power connecter and all was well

Z

i wouldnt ever unplug/plugin a hard drives power while it was on...

just a note.
the hard drive isnt being so sparratic lately, but its loud when i scan it for a virus....(and agv says i have three viri, and they still remain on the drive(yet doesnt scream it, just a note on the display...grr)...while nav 03 just doesnt see them)