Sata HDD stopped working

[siddharthdb]

I have a P4 3.0ghz Intel 865gbf m/b with 1gig ram.
hdds installed
1. 160GB Sata Hdd
2. 40 and 20 GB Pata
Optical drives:
1. CD writer
2. DVD Writer.

The machine worked for couple of days till it started hanging at bios screen. On proper fault elimination i removed my 40 gb hdd. The entire set up worked fine for next 4 months (never had to re - install windows).

While few weeks back it started to slow and ultimately i had to remove this time my 20 gb.

I added another hdd this time 250GB Sata HDD (7200.9). The installation was ok and fine. I was able to transfer tons of data from 160 to 250 without any problem.
Next day I decided to transfer remaining data but it won't. everytime it started to copy from my 160 gb to 250 the system hanged and the only thing i had to do was reboot. couple of reboot and my 160 gb became use less.
Hell that wasn't enough even my 250 too started giving problems. Somehow i got my 160 GB back to working but now my system won't even detect it.

now where is the problem, my mobo, proc, ram. or the setup that i had.

[ymhatre]

Hey man strange problem......
I guess moderators , administrator will have something to say about this....

[varungupta17]

First of all i would to like to welcome to this DIGIT FORUM... UR ULTIMATE DESTINATION FOR ALL UR PROBLEMS....

As u r new i would like to tell u that in ur next posts u try to give details of ur problems... like error messages u receive that to "AS IT IS" as it helps better evaluation of ur problems. Sometimes the problem is not what it seems to be

Could u give more information as to what was wrong with ur hard disk which had problems... like the error messages u received and what action u took.....

[siddharthdb]

Originally Posted by varungupta17

First of all i would to like to welcome to this DIGIT FORUM... UR ULTIMATE DESTINATION FOR ALL UR PROBLEMS....

As u r new i would like to tell u that in ur next posts u try to give details of ur problems... like error messages u receive that to "AS IT IS" as it helps better evaluation of ur problems. Sometimes the problem is not what it seems to be

Could u give more information as to what was wrong with ur hard disk which had problems... like the error messages u received and what action u took.....

Dude if i had any error message i would have posted it. The boot up process frezees at the bios screen where i think it keeps on detecting my HDD for eternity and ultimately had to restart and sit idle watching the screen.

[cyrux]

First thing, if somebody can explain firstly how could a system hangup at bios screen when it had 3 hdds installed. The solution was solved when one of the hdds was removed . WHY ? Secondly when the system slowed down the 20 Gb hdd was removed to make the process faster. How did that help ?

Is it beacause there is some problem with SATA and PATA combinations ?

[varungupta17]

Hey what i want to ask is what is the feedback u got from ur computer dealer/Company service center about the hard disk..
Also i want to know what made u come to the conclusion that the hard disk is defective..... Dont worry i have read ur post carefully.... See my reply i have mentioned that sometimes problem is different than what it seems

[varungupta17]

@cyrux
No sata and pata combinations donot create any problems...
However problems come when there is some problem with mobo...
One of my friend had similar problem and when we went to service center, we were told that the sata connector had developed the problem...
I didnt want to mention it now but ur post forced me to reply now....

@siddharthdb
Now that i have mentioned about the problem of mobo, let me tell u that u first take ur mobo to nearest mobo and get it checked.... There are high chances of ur ide and/or sata connector developing fault...

Also before u take ur mobo to service center, consider updating ur mobo bios... Sometimes BIOS have bugs for which the manufacturer release updates regularly.....

[siddharthdb]

Thanks for all ur posts.

@varungupta: when i got my first 160 GB that was exactly 1 year back i did a bios update specially for it. Last week i did a bios update again but no difference.

Oh and as for error message I did got one after latest bios update. When i just connected only my 160 GB it got detected and after POST the message displayed "Disk read error press alt+ctrl+delete". The disk had windows installed and was running fine.

Also i do suspect of overheat guys i need some info and help outhere on overheat and how to keep it cool coz my 3.5" bay area doesn't have plce to fit the HDD fan.

[siddharthdb]

I still need to take the hdd to seagate fella.

[ashnik]

i think the SMPS is the culprit, which one do u have?

[cyrux]

Care to explain how SMPS can be the culprit ??

[varungupta17]

Originally Posted by cyrux

Care to explain how SMPS can be the culprit ??

Hey dude dont forget smps supplies power to all computer parts including harddisk. So could be improper power supply through power cable...............

[grinning_devil]

Do a basic thing...remove all your peripheral components..remove all the optical drives,ur hard drives etc and just keep one of ur HDD(whichever has OS in it) and start the system.
By removing peripherals i mean CD/DVD/Floppy/Graphics Card(run it on ur Mobo VGA)/LAn Card/Modem/USB Devices etc ....everything thats not critical for booting..


go to BIOS and check if your HDD is detected properly.
have u tried changin the SATA cables??
Once my 250GB drive gave me errors,used to get detected once a while,i changed the cable,and it solved it completely.

[ashnik]

the SMPS should be capable of delivering the required power. If it is not, most of the times one of the major devices don't start. So follow grinning_devil and then repost. BTW SMPS details plz..

[grinning_devil]

Have a look at this site and calcuate your average PC Power consumption...

http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

[siddharthdb]

Thanks again for all ur replies.

@Devil:
Man ur right i changed the cable that came with mobo and voila !! it worked my 160 detected and since it already had old windows installation it booted properly. I tested the same defective cable on 250 and it did not detect it

Hell!! how come the original cable from the mobo got damaged in an year.??

Also to answer the SMPS query, its a 300W from iball and from all the forum posts it seems that iball is not a good choice. Any opininon on which one is better and reliable SMPS? Coz most forums don't mention which one is better

Right now i'm running only on 250 GB. Planning to buy a new cable for 160.

[grinning_devil]

lol...see....it was as simple as changing the cable!!
as far as SMPS arew concerned you can go in for powersafe,zebronics,antec etc...atleast 400W!

[cyrux]

@ siddhart what about ur old drives ???...that had a PATA , so what went wrong there ?