hdd dying?

A couple days ago, I took my rig apart to mod it and install my h100. I put it all back together and it loads really slow and I can't get programs going to "not responding" a lot. I ran memtest and prime95 with no problems and better than before temps. Windows also installs the hard drive drivers every startup and the system keeps freezing up when even being on the internet. Is my hard drive dying or is it something else?

I would check your cables to make sure you didn't bump them. Swapping the cables is also a good idea. If you think it is the drive, install HDTune and check the Health tab for SMART information.

Ok, I was moving and didn't get the chance to boot the system until now. I get a SMART command failed message. I think the drive is gone. Will I be able to salvage data from it or am I out of luck?

It depends what is wrong. As I mentioned in my post, try another port and cable. Try the drive in another machine to see if you can pull data off it.

Well, I don't have another machine to test it on but tried a brand new drive and same thing. Tried other ram, tried another graphics card and I think maybe the motherboard is to blame. Any ideas?

What OS are you using?

Like others have said, try another cable and port first. Also a bad power supply can cause this, ie not enough power.

On the other hand I've had a dead southbridge - the heatsink came off and it overheated...

Yeah I've tried three cables and all of the ports. I'm thinking south bridge too or the power supply. I guess I could rma the psu through corsair. The OS is Windows 7 and I had no problems until I installed the h100.

blackersabbath said:

...Windows also installs the hard drive drivers every startup and the system keeps freezing up...

Click to expand...

That's interesting... what mode is the controller in? AHCI, IDE, RAID?

Which board do you have? Some boards have an additional SATA controller apart from the south bridge.

The board is an Asus m4a89td pro/usb3 and the controller is set to IDE I'm not getting the driver install anymore just startup repair. I wouldn't think that just adding the h100 would max out the power supply but who knows...

Just ran the startup repair again and the system seems to be working now....weird. I'm going to keep an eye on it and see if it does the same thing again. I may just end up replacing the motherboard if I keep running into problems

Ok, tried putting the computer back together. I had the hard drive laying on the desk. Once it was all back together, it refused to boot again. Could this be caused by vibration? I took the drive back out, reconnected it and set it back on the desk and the computer works fine again. I'm so puzzled by this

So, I'm thinking that because of the placement of the h100 inside my case (Antec 300) which is where the hard drive cage used to be and the fact that my hard drive needs to be mounted in a 5.25 bay is why the hard drive can't stay in the case. I'm thinking the vibration is making it unstable. I have four Ultra Kaze on the h100. Is getting a new case going to be my solution or is there something else I can try. The system runs fine now with the hard drive lying on my desk outside the case.

So, the new case fixed it. Got a Fractal Design Arc Midi and love it

So odd that vibration was the culprit. I'm glad you got it resolved.
Great choice with the Arc Midi
I just got mines 2 weeks ago and I love it. I just have to rebuild my water-loop with a separate pump and reservoir so I can regain use of the drive bays