adding 3rd HDD freezes machine

I have an XP Media Center machine SP3 - Pentium D - 3GHz - 2GB Ram
I have two SATA HDDs installed, one for system and the other for data.
When I add a third SATA drive that I want to use for a backup drive the machine starts fine but gets hung once the desktop is loaded. The mouse moves but when I click on something like start it looks like it is going to do something but then there is no response and nothing else will work other than the mouse.

Thinking it was the drive itself I bought and installed a new HDD but the result is the same

When I disconnect the 3rd drive the machine runs fine

Any suggestions as to why this would happen?
Thanks

 

My first thought was that your system is seeing the drive in a RAID array and not SATA. Do you have RAID enabled in the BIOS?

My second thought was to update the drivers.

My third thought was to goto Lenovo and clicking on the W7 technical support link.

My fourth thought was to go into Disk Management, see if the drive shows up there and whether it's been initialized\mounted. But I don't run W7 anymore, so, I don't know where that would be.

Keep in mind that I'm not paid to think; I'm paid to sit around and look pretty.

 

And a firth thought.

Your bios only supports 4 devices.

You have 2 on SATA.
And your using something on the IDE ribbon cable (even though may only be 1 DVD drive it counts as 2 – since can put another device there).

 

1. not set as raid
2. drivers are up to date
3. sorry to mislead, this isn't my system that I was referring to - it is another one unrelated to the one listed in my profile
4. yes it does when I checked in safe mode - running check disk on the second HDD now
5. and you are very pretty....

 

Originally I had a 3rd HDD on the slave side of the ribbon cable to the DVD and was getting the same error - I then swapped it for another sata drive

When I am in safe mode I can see all drives in disk management
If this is my problem is there a way around it?
Thanks

 

Seems like first setup: 2 HDD on Sata- then 1 DVD + 1 HDD on IDE ribbon should work.

BUT – an IDE HDD drive can be picky when setup with another device on same cable and often demands it be the master.

Try this:.
HDD last device on cable.
Jump the HDD as master. DVD jumped as slave. DON'T use CS jump.

3 Sata devices and 1 IDE won’t work. You CAN have 4 SATA devices though ($20.00 new DVD drive?).
If do that – make sure to disable IDE controller in bios.

 

first setup didn't work but the HD was slave - didn't think of reversing it.
the 4 x sata makes sense - I have a drive and can give it a go

 

This is truly baffling. I now have 4 sata devices, 3 - HDD's and 1 - DVD-ROM.

Everything works fine in my office - computer starts, runs perfectly, everytime.

I take it to the customer's office and it freezes on startup. It appears to load everything and then it freezes with the exception of the mouse.

I inserted process explorer in the startup folder to see what was starting up and it starts with windows. Strange thing is, the computer runs normally after everything starts when process explorer is in the startup folder. I can close process explorer and carry on as if nothing happened. When I remove process explorer and leave the starup folder empty it freezes. Nothing out of the ordinary appears to be starting with windows.

When I bring it back to my office it works fine regardless of what is or not in the startup folder.

The computer is plugged into an APC BX1300 Back-UPS that is 9 months old. When I remove it from the UPS and plug it directly into the wall, I get the same freeze result.

Any thoughts before I tear all of my hair out?
Thanks

 

Works fine at office, freezes at clients. I would be suspicious of 120v supply circuit at customer location. Can you plug in a different circuit NOT carry any load. Also concerned if PSU can support this system when pushed to 3 HDD's and DVD.