Hard drive failing?

[blade]

I've never had any problems with Sage before, but after installing v6 I've had constant problems. I assumed it was the new beta, but now I'm losing my D drive. It just disappears from windows. Checking the smart status it appears fine and when it is visible to windows all of the shows play ok. When I reboot the drive shows up and works for awhile then eventually disappears again.

I've gotten 4 BSODs in the last 12 hours. Does this sound like a drive failing, ide controller, or something else?

[ToxMox]

I would run the drive diagnostic software of whatever manufacturer makes the drive and see if it gets any errors.

[BobPhoenix]

I had a similar problem and mine finally died completely to where it wasn't recognized by the bios and the diagnostic software couldn't find it - but no smart warnings. Luckily it was only 4 months old so was easy to get a replacement from manufacture. Anyway I think the smart status is only about 50% effective. I've had an equal number of drives just fail - no warning at all - as compared to the other half that actually gave me a smart warning. I think you should think of the smart warnings in the same way an idiot light in your vehicle works - last minute only.

BobP.

[blade]

Thanks guys, but I think I may have found the problem.

I only noticed the one drive down because it is a recording drive. I also have an ancient 10 gig drive as the slave on the same channel. I use it to store downloaded programs like Sage, Dirmon2, etc... so that I don't have to re-download them when I reinstall.

It was also disappearing, so I removed it and am going to see if that takes care of the problem. I hope the old drive was dying and causing both drives on the ide channel to crap out. I sure hope I don't have to replace one of my main recording drives at this time of the tv season because it is full of new shows I haven't watched yet.

[dbfresh23]

I actually just had a the same issue a few weeks ago. I was losing my 200gb secondary drive every once in a while. My fix generally required a full power cycle though, not just a reboot. I finally traced it back to it being a problem with the PSU so I replaced it and haven't had the problem again... yet

[Polypro]

Are these drives SATA? The standard SATA cables were terrible in my machine...the power cable would lose it's connection and the drive would dissappear. I ended up masking taping the cables to the floor of the case...exerting downward pressure...to "fix" the problem. I just recently upgraded to dual 500 Gig WD drives, and the "Secure Connect" cables are nice. They work in conjunction with a standard 4 pin Molex power connector.

P

[salsbst]

Echoing the previous: it's possible that it is one of the cables or the motherboard. Don't blame the drive too quickly! Good luck.

[blade]

All of my drives are the old PATA.

My server has been running for over 24 hours now without a hitch since disconnecting the antique 10 gig drive. I never thought about one drive bringing another on the same channel to its knees, but I guess it somehow did.

I don't think it is a power issue. My voltage is pretty good and all the connections seem tight.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by blade

I never thought about one drive bringing another on the same channel to its knees, but I guess it somehow did.

Back when 200MB hard drives were huge and NT was a beta I had problems when I connected a Maxtor and a Western Digital on the same cable (actually the only channel at the time). Individually they worked fine but not together. Had the same problem with 2 Maxtors of different models unless a specific one was the master - the other drive didn't care. But I haven't seen anything like this in a long time.

BobP.

[blade]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

Back when 200MB hard drives were huge and NT was a beta I had problems when I connected a Maxtor and a Western Digital on the same cable (actually the only channel at the time). Individually they worked fine but not together. Had the same problem with 2 Maxtors of different models unless a specific one was the master - the other drive didn't care. But I haven't seen anything like this in a long time.

BobP.

Just goes to show there are still strange things that happen from time to time.

Mine worked perfectly together for almost 2 weeks. I'm going to try the drive in a different machine just to be sure it is dying and not some odd incompatibility issue.