Hard drive problem??

Hi,Last night when I shutdown everything seemed fine at first, but the computer shut off and then back on then it lost the hard drive. I tried a few things but was p****d and went to bed LOL. When I got up I went into the BIOS and did the Auto-detect on the hard drive and now its working. My question is do you think the drive or motherboard is going south or did the computer have a fit of stupidity? I appreciate any comments.

System:Gigabyte GA 7VTXE+,MSI GeForce 2 MX-400,WD 60GIG 7200RPM, Athlon XP 1700,USR 56K PCI hardware modem,Memorex 48X CD-Rom, Lite-on 24x10x40 CDRW

 

Have you been able to do a thorough scandisk, making usre not to check the option to automatically fix errors?

Daizy

 

so far so good

Hi Daizy, yes I did a scandisk and it found no errors or bad sectors on C: drive I will do the scandisk on the other two partitions tonight .I will let you know how it comes out.
Thanks, Digger

 

Hi again Digger,
Yes, do the scandisks and defrags. It could very well be nothing. Just one of those "things ". Let's hope so anyhow? If it's not happened again since or before?

Daizy

 

Problem

Hi Daizy, Well I did it on all partitions and it reports nothing wrong.So maybe its somthing else, possibly motherboard.Everytime I start I have to go into BIOS and use the auto setect the HDD. The system was running fine until sunday night. So I guess I'll keep trying to pinpoint the problem. Please keep the suggestions coming.
Thanks, Digger

 

Hey Digger

When you go into your BIOS, do you set the HD for Auto Standard CMOS Features? When you get out of the BIOS do you use the Save and Exit Y?

 

problem

Hi Bill, the answer to your questions is yes, the local computer store here said to try and flash the BIOS and try and put the drive on the second controller. he thinks if flashing the BIOS doesn't fix it then its a bad drive or a motherboard problem. The system is less than a year old. I'm going to flash the BIOS in a little while. If i toast everything I'll let you know from my old computer LOL.

 

Problem

Well the BIOS flash went well but the problem is still here.So time to try something else
Digger

 

Hey Digger

When you go into BIOS, does it already say Auto or do you have to change it to auto?

How about Device Manager. Does the HDD have the correct stuff checked. Does it say its working right?

The IDE controllers seem OK?

If all this is right, maybe remove the controller and reboot (it will reinstall itself). Also try removing the HD from device manager and let windows redetect it?

I have never heard of this problem before. Will be interesting to find out what is causing it.

If you use a boot disk, can you get to the C:\> prompt?

 

Problem

Hi again Bill, when I boot from a floppy it will not go to a c prompt. everything in device manager says its ok. With the new BIOS the startup screen says auto detecting primary drive it does that for about 30 seconds and then it says not installed.Then I reset and go into setup and it shows the HDD thyen I save and exit and it boots normally. I will try what you said and then i have another HDD around here I will try it if nothing else works. It's time for work now. Going to try some things tonight I will let you know what happens.
Digger

 

Digger

Go to Bios

find quickboot

turn it off

save

boot

now what, wah la!

Mike

 

I think I finally got it

Hi Mflynn, first off I couldn't find quickboot in my Bios, I did try a few things. First I put another drive in and a boot floppy and it found the drive and I formated it while it was in. Then I hooked up the regular drive and it didn't find it I had to go in the BIOS to redetect the drive. Then I switched the controllers
and put the drive on the secondary controller. Well it found the CD drives on the primary controller and it didn't find the hard drive on the secondary controller. So I guess that means the drive is going south.
Thanks again for all your help.
Digger

 

Sounds like something else to me!

What brand is the drive?

If it is western digital then go to their site and d/l their diagnostic tools. They know better how to diag their own product.

If it is Maxstor etc they have tools also.

The fact you can find then run scandisk and run normally hints to me this is something else.

Look again for something like quickboot or fastboot. Almost all BIO's have this setting.

The reason it may have an effect is sometimes when quickboot is on the computer boots faster than the HD can initialize.

Turning off quickboot will cause the computer to double check certain things. You will notice it count and test the memory at least twice. It also does other tests. This causes BIOS mode to last longer and more time for the HD to init.

Also if you have a setting for SMART reverse it for now!

What is you BIOS? Award Phoenix etc?

Mike

 

Problem

Hi Mike,
The drive is a WD 60 GIG 7200 Rpm. The BIOS is AMI, I checked and SMART is disabled I still cannot find a setting that says quick boot or fast boot. Are there any other names they might use for that? I'm going to WD'S site now and check some things out I'l let you know what I find.
Digger

 

Most everything I use is Award, some Phoneix. Someone who has award may can help here.

I will try to get time to look on ami site.

Mike

 

Hey Digger

Give this a shot

Boot with startup disk and run fdisk mbr /fix. Reboot and see if improvement. Long shot.....

Mike

I use AMI and there is no quick or fastboot that I can find.

 

Problem

Hi again, I tried the mbr repair didn't work tried WD tools they said no problems found, I went back to Dec. 4 with drive image when the computer was working fine that didn't help either. I sent a question to WD am waiting to hear from them. Any more ideas out there I'm willing to try about anything. at least the drive warranty is good till 2004. It's just a pain to go into BIOS everytime just to get windows to run. I will check back later.
Digger

 

Well Digger I think you definitely get the weird problem of the month award.

I have nothing left. Maybe WD can tell you if you have a bad drive. They will probably say to format and start over.

Let us know.....

 

Digger

If you are comfortable with it go to the AMI site or even better your motherboard site and see if an BIOS update is available and burn a new one.

Or first you may try loading BIOS defaults or Optimal setings.

If the WD diags passed this drive and I have used them for years I believe this to be something else.

BMoore &Digger

Check you BIOS for anything like Bootup Delay or Powerup delay? I checked the AMI siste and they have Quick boot avail on some vers of their BIOS.

Mike

 

Senior moment!

Reread entire thread and see you have already flashed!

Try this as a test!

On boot enter BIOS wait 10 seconds exit don save.

Did HD init?

Mike