magdrive pump create hard drive problems?

[srwven]

I installed a new pump (ViaAqua 1300) into my system with a whole new tower setup. Has run for about 4 days with no problems. I boot it up last night and windows (xp) loads EXTREMELY slow. When I click on icons, I wait approximately 90 seconds for a response. My hard drive (20G maxtor 7200rpm) is partitioned, one 4G for OS and other 16G for games (I don't like to lose my downloads and games if I ever crash the OS). Now, when I try to go into the D drive (16G for games) I get the error: D: incorrect parameter. Nothing will recognize my D drive, it is like it is gone! I updated virus definitions (norton) and scanned the c drive-nothing (will not recognize d drive). I have restored the system to previous times, long ago, doesn't help and gives the error that D drive is either disconnected or something and will not be affected by the restore. I did a disk scan on C (d not recognized)-no problems. Uninstalled and reinstalled the driver for it-nada. The pump is about 6 inches above the hard drive, separated by a sheet metal shelf and the floppy drive in between. I even switched IDE cables. Now when I try to go into the hard drive windows tells me that the drive is not formatted would I like to format it now? What the heck is going on? Could the magnetic field generated by the pump be causing hard drive problems? I thought I saw a thread on that before but did a search with nothing except for the monitor.

 

[safemode]

you can always be screwing with the chips underneath the hdd.. you aren't screwing with the platter though. Not that it matters because unless you have a cleanroom where you can switch platters to a new good drive you've lost the data either way.

 

[srwven]

Safemode: So do you think that the magnetic field from the pump could have caused this? I hate to reformat the drives, reload the os and all my other stuff, only to have this happen again. I can't imagine I am the first one that this would happen to with all the h20 overclockers out there, if that's the case. Is there a way to shield? I know in the thread about monitor interference they talked about using ferrous sheet metal.

 

[Albigger]

yeah, anythign ferrous around your pump should help. some have even gone the quick and cheap route (not aesthetic though) and slid a coffee can (make sure its ferrous) over the pump and have claimed good results...

 

[safemode]

it depends on the locality and type of protection your drive gives you. Some drives expose the chips some encase them in grounded aluminum. if yours is exposed and very close to the pump, then sure, the magnetic field could be tripping the chips up...perhaps permamently. It's unlikely though because you usually have some sort of shielding, be it the grounded drive cage or the pump case, itself. Without any info on the type of drive/age and placement of cables/drive and controller in relation to the pump as well as ram ... and OS ...it's not possible to tell what is causing it exactly.

 

[srwven]

Hmmm, if I did a memcheck, would that rule out the RAM? I never thought about it interfering with the RAM. Would bad RAM cause me to lose one of my partitions though?

 

[Ct. Strangelove]

post your questions in the storage section of the forums you might get more respones. srry but i have little experience at your problem. good luck. o, try booting up with a floppy see if you can access d: in dos. then see if "fdisk" can see it.

 

[srwven]

Thanks. I just posted in ms os too, so I think I will wait a day before I repost the same question anywhere else.

 

[safemode]

memtest x86 should give you a good idea if it's anything but the hdd. You boot from a floppy and it tests from a boot from that. If you get errors from that then you know the culprit. If it doesn't then you know the culprit... But if it doesn't then you still cant be sure what exactly is going on.