Loosing hard Drive-Sometimes???

[keyclicker]

I am helping a friend try to figure out why his seagate 2.1g HD (running win 98) is not being found at startup.&nbsp;&nbsp;It happens out of the blue and under different previous circumstances. I have looked for the obvious loose cable (has a tight connection) or bad cable (replaced it thinking bad spot?).&nbsp;&nbsp;When it happens I look for a loose cable (it was tight) I pulled HD out of case left it laying loose and booted it, it automatically recognizes the HD. Put HD back in, it will run for a couple days/weeks then on boot no HD.&nbsp;&nbsp;I have noticed HD is warm to touch is this normal? Is there a temp operating range on HD's?<br><br>

 

[Karl Blessing]

for an HDD its normal for it to gernerate heat, which is why some people buy HDD Coolers from 3dcool.com or cardcooler.com, but that shouldnt be much of an issue unless you dont have standard cooling in the system, or if it's a SCSI Drive. In anycase, is the Harddisk being detected by the BIOS, have you tried setting it to Auto and having it try to Autodetect it, is the red line on the cable in at Pin #1 for both the HDD and MotherBoard?, are you using any addin IDE Cards? <p>Karl<br><a href=mailto:kb244@kb244.8m.com>kb244@kb244.8m.com</a><br><a href=

http://kb244.8m.com>

</a><br>Experienced in : C++(both VC++ and Borland),VB1(dos) thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, HTML, Visual InterDev 6(ASP(WebProgramming/Vbscript)<br>

http://www.brainbench.com/transcript.jsp?pid=629151

 

[ATCal]

I for one would not leave the controller set to Auto. This will require the controller to detect the parameters each time at startup. I would let the BIOS detect it the first time and leave those settings in. This rules out the controller detection as being the problem.<br>I also do not think that the temperature of a 2 GIG IDE should be a factor. <br>When it hangs, does it stall during POST, or do you actually get to a &quot;no hard drive found&quot; type of error?<br>Also what type of machine is it? Speed? If it is a 486, I have seen similar quirky problems with Block Mode and 32 bit Disk Access settings. <p>Al<br><a href=mailto: atc-computing@home.com> atc-computing@home.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>

 

[edfair]

On cold boot or warm boot?&nbsp;&nbsp;Some hard drives don't come up fast enough from cold boot.&nbsp;&nbsp;When it fails, try a keyboard reboot. And if this seems to be the problem , learn to live with it as it doesn't seem to get worse. <p>Ed Fair<br><a href=mailto: efair@atlnet.com> efair@atlnet.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. <br>
Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.<br>

 

[Karl Blessing]

I always have my Drives, set on Auto(since it's detected in less than a second or so, typically for older bios(mine isnt the case) older bios cant store the Drive information the next time you boot up, sO I used to on an older machine set to auto all the time, since the setting would be in live memory. <p>Karl<br><a href=mailto:kb244@kb244.8m.com>kb244@kb244.8m.com</a><br><a href=

http://kb244.8m.com>

</a><br>Experienced in : C++(both VC++ and Borland),VB1(dos) thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, HTML, Visual InterDev 6(ASP(WebProgramming/Vbscript)<br>

http://www.brainbench.com/transcript.jsp?pid=629151

 

[keyclicker]

Sorry for not enough info.<br>The pc is a p133 and i have set the bios to auto to detect.<br><br>

 

[keyclicker]

The error is no hard disk

 

[Karl Blessing]

but it &quot;sometimes&quot; detect it, with your current connections? <p>Karl<br><a href=mailto:kb244@kb244.8m.com>kb244@kb244.8m.com</a><br><a href=

http://kb244.8m.com>

</a><br>Experienced in : C++(both VC++ and Borland),VB1(dos) thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, HTML, Visual InterDev 6(ASP(WebProgramming/Vbscript)<br>

http://www.brainbench.com/transcript.jsp?pid=629151

 

[hcsd]

I ran ran into a similiar problem a while back. While working on a clients computer the hard drive would boot intermittantly. When I took the drive out and set it on the table it would boot fine every time. Put it back in and it would boot a few times then quit working again. What I found was that the power supply had an electrical short in it and the short was traveling to the hard drive via the case causing it not to boot. Replacing the power supply solved this particular problem.<br><font color=red>You might try removing the power supply from the case, set it on a surface other than metal, put the hard drive in the case, and see if it will boot.</font><br>The other possiblity could be a weak power supply.<br><font color=red>You might also try another power supply.</font>

 

[edfair]

And also try replacing the drive cable. Sometimes you get an intermittent that is dependent of how it is bent going into the drive. You would think it was welded in place by how much pressure it takes to remove it, but the prongs can miss the conductor or be laying against it. <p>Ed Fair<br><a href=mailto: efair@atlnet.com> efair@atlnet.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. <br>
Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.<br>

 

[keyclicker]

The hard drive error is non bootable disk, please insert boot disk.&nbsp;&nbsp;It hangs and won't boot to windows.&nbsp;&nbsp;This thing is intermittent and happens at random.<br><br>System p133, win 98, bios set to auto detect, cable has been replaced.<br><br>Once it fails I pull hard drive out of slot (setting sideways)and set out on case (desk top) and it detects it. I have put it back in immediately and it will run flawlessly then again BAM on boot generally cold boot after sytem has been shut down for awhile overnight etc.,(but not all the time on a cold machine has happend on a warm boot).<br><br>I really apreciate all your responses and will be checking in to see if anything new has been added.<br><br>Thanks again!

 

[edfair]

this indicates that the drive is having a hard time reading the boot sector. Can be anything from timing incompatibilities with the controller to damage on the disk. It is finding the drive if it gets this far.<br>Boots flat, hangs when mounted vertically. Try putting it vertically on the desk and see if it is a position sensitive drive. May have to mount it flat in the system, maybe mounting on one side only.&nbsp;&nbsp;I've even mounted them with duct tape to get around stuff like this. <p>Ed Fair<br><a href=mailto: efair@atlnet.com> efair@atlnet.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. <br>
Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.<br>

 

[ATCal]

Your symptoms are a warning of an impending disaster. Backup and replace the drive. <p>Al<br><a href=mailto: atc-computing@home.com> atc-computing@home.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>

 

[ray436]

you didnt say if this drive shares the chain with a CD or another HD.<br><br>some times the other drive is faster to give the &quot;ready&quot; signal, asserts itself first then the slower drive is forgotten about.<br><br>Also it could be your power supply &quot;sagging&quot; on startup, how old is it?&nbsp;&nbsp;could you try a new one?<br>

 

[edfair]

When it fails, do a hearing test, (screwdriver to ear) to see if the motor is running. Have had drives that failed to spin up give similar problems but the error message was different. Mine was about every 3 weeks, on SCSI , on Xenix. Turned out to be the +12 connector on the drive power.<br>And there was an older problem called &quot;stiction&quot;. Lubricant on the platters would glue the heads to the platters. But this is a more recent drive and I would suspect doesn't apply.<br> <p>Ed Fair<br><a href=mailto: efair@atlnet.com> efair@atlnet.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. <br>
Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.<br>