[SATA drive 'disappears' after 30 mins]

Greetings,

I need some help because I am at my wits end. My 74GB Raptor SATA drive crapped out on me 3 weeks ago. I ordered a new one from Newegg and it came pretty fast. WHen I put it in an installed windows every thing ran fine for a while but about 30 minutes later the machine froze. I restarted the computer and the New hard drive was missing from the BIOS. I turned off the machine. Turned off the power and turned it back on and it showed up again. It booted into windows and the even manager showed about 20 \HardDrive1\Disk\D paging error messages. So I figured the drive was bad. I sent it back to Newegg. They sent me a new one. I got it yesterday and put it in. THIS IS MY THIRD DRIVE MIND YOU. Same as the other 2, 74GB SATA Raptor. I plugged it in and it did the exact same thing. I moved it to another SATA Plug and changed the power plug and still it did the exact same thing. It disappearred. Its just that drive that does it. I need some help before I totally flip out and call Newegg and telll them they sent me a bad drive. At this point it is pretty basic hard drive with SP2 on it but it won't last long enough to do anything else on it. Its a new drive

I ran Western Digital diagnostics no it and it said it was fine. Came up with no errors. This problem has me incredibly ****** off. Any help would be appreciated. Quickly too I am not a very patient person.

Here are my computer specs.

Manufacturer:
Custom
Processor:
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.2GHz
Memory:
2816MB RAM
Hard Drive:
74GB Raptor 10,000RPM Western Digital, 320GB 7,200RPM Western Digital, 1TB 7,200RPM Western Digital
Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, NVIDIA GeForce MX 4000
Monitor:
Dell 1707FP(Digital), Dell 1704FPT (Analog), Dell 1704FPT (Digital)
Sound Card:
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platnium Edition
Speakers/Headphones:
Labtec Headset
Keyboard:
Razer Lycosa
Mouse:
Razer Copperhead
Mouse Surface:
Desk Surface
Operating System:
Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)
Motherboard: Asus A8N5X
Computer Case: Apevia X-Navigator Green Midtower.

 

Well I dont' think its the the SATA controller because I have a 1TB WD and a 320GB WD the other SATA ports as well as a SATA LiteON CD burner. They show up and work without a problem. I have tried switched the 74 to one of those sata plugs but the drive still disappears. MIND YOU THIS IS A BRAND NEW DRIVE. THE SECOND ONE AT THAT.

I have not tried Resetting the BIOS yet but I can try that now. I have replaced the SATA cable. In fact I tore my machine down and rebuilt it last night to find anything or dust was in there that I didn't need. I have installed the chipset drivers and it has done the same thing.

 

A flaky power supply could also be an issue. Try swapping it with another.

 

I don't think I have another laying around. Also if it was the power supply why would it only be that drive that disappears?

 

It could be anything. The system may not start, may hang or reboot. The cd/dvd drive may not work etc.

The only sure shot way of ruling out the power supply problem is to swap it with a working one. See if you can borrow one from your friend.

 

Let me go check in my basement. I might have one.

 

Sadly I don't have another PSU. The other one I had was only a 20 pin and when I press the power button it doesn't boot the system. There simply isn't enough power.

 

My tuppence worth here if no one minds but perhaps it's a heating issue...

Your other drives spin slower and are probably cooler, how's the ventilation in that system?

 

The ventalation is very clean. Its wide open. I am very good with wiring and the case is open. Its pushing air through 5 fans. 4x 80mm and 1x 120mm.

 

I just need to some guidance. QUick fix for the moment would it be better to use a IDE drive for now or do you think I will get the same issue? Or does it sound like that this 74GB is also broken? Cause if it is I am going to call Newegg and complain.

 

My guess is still to do with speed/heat...

Is a 74Gb drive that important to you or is it speed that matters?

Can you test the drive on another system? Can you test another 10,000 RPM HD on your system?

 

I don't have another machine that accepts sata. I am pretty sure its not heat. At this point it would be the second brand new drive that did the same thing. Yes speed is important.

 

It is *possible* that you received another defective drive (these things do happen). If you have exhausted all other possibilities... contact NewEgg. There is no guaranty that you won't get another bad one, they could have possibly received a bad batch from the company. I know these are 10k rpm drives but you may want to consider an alternative or a different source.

 

PeterC yes it does happen with only 1 drive. ANd I have contacted newegg and they will pay for just everything. So I am going to put it into another machine to be sure and then send it out to Newegg.

I am using a IDE drive right now and so far no problem yet. We will see what happpenes.

 

yes of course.

 

Having the same issue... multiple RMAs of the 74 GB raptor, I'm in Win 7 beta x64 and Vixta x64 ... before I switched the power connectors to a dedicated SATA power connector from my Zalman 850, it use to disappear when I tried to move any large files. Now it disappears on its own after 2 days of flawless use, unexplainable. Tech support has been less than helpful.

I'm ditching the raptor drives, after the 3rd came in and does this, while a brand new 1TB WD Caviar runs flawless, I just cant excuse them.

Time to raid my 2x seagate 320s ... but I really wanted to figure this issue out, was hoping to raid 2x Raptors.

 

I guess that confirms the OP's problem. I went through the same type of problem with Maxtor a few years back. I had used their drives for years, then all of a sudden I got 3 defective ones. I've been happily using Samsung drives ever since (I've got a couple of external drives with WD Caviars and they've been reliable also).