Grizzly072000
asked on
The Case of the Disappearing SATA Drive
Hello,
Configuration:
Windows XP Pro SP2 + latest updates (OS & Drivers)
CPU: 2.40 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core
Board: ASUS M2A-VM Rev. 1.XX
Memory: 2 X 1GB (Dual Channel) DDR2-800
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies Revision 0901 06/26/2007
RADEON X300 SE 128MB HyperMemory
Conexant D850 56K V.9x DFVc Modem
PATA CD-ROM drive
3.5" Floppy drive
Drive 0 SATA - C: D: ST3320620AS
Drive 1 SATA - F: SAMSUNG SP2504C
Drive 2 SATA - E: WDC WD1600JS-08MHB0
Drive 3 SATA - G: Maxtor 6V250F0
No RAID
Situation:
For no apparent reason, drive G: (Maxtor) keeps disappearing after a while. Very quietly: All of a sudden there is no trace left of it in Explorer or Drive Manager.
The System Event log shows errors/warnings:
From PlugPlayManager, Event ID 12
"The device 'Maxtor 6V250F0' (IDE\DiskMaxtor_6V250F0___
From Application popup, Event ID 26
"Windows - Delayed Write Failed : Windows was unable to save all the data for the file G:\."
From disk, Event ID 51
"An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk2\D during a paging operation."
The drive comes back after a restart (For another random while). Content doesn't seem to be affected (Although I wouldn't be surprised to have lost a few files).
I swapped physical drives 2 & 3. Same strange behaviour from the Maxtor (Still G:). The drive itself never gave me any problem when installed on another computer.
I need expert advice on that matter.
TIA.
Configuration:
Windows XP Pro SP2 + latest updates (OS & Drivers)
CPU: 2.40 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core
Board: ASUS M2A-VM Rev. 1.XX
Memory: 2 X 1GB (Dual Channel) DDR2-800
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies Revision 0901 06/26/2007
RADEON X300 SE 128MB HyperMemory
Conexant D850 56K V.9x DFVc Modem
PATA CD-ROM drive
3.5" Floppy drive
Drive 0 SATA - C: D: ST3320620AS
Drive 1 SATA - F: SAMSUNG SP2504C
Drive 2 SATA - E: WDC WD1600JS-08MHB0
Drive 3 SATA - G: Maxtor 6V250F0
No RAID
Situation:
For no apparent reason, drive G: (Maxtor) keeps disappearing after a while. Very quietly: All of a sudden there is no trace left of it in Explorer or Drive Manager.
The System Event log shows errors/warnings:
From PlugPlayManager, Event ID 12
"The device 'Maxtor 6V250F0' (IDE\DiskMaxtor_6V250F0___
From Application popup, Event ID 26
"Windows - Delayed Write Failed : Windows was unable to save all the data for the file G:\."
From disk, Event ID 51
"An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk2\D during a paging operation."
The drive comes back after a restart (For another random while). Content doesn't seem to be affected (Although I wouldn't be surprised to have lost a few files).
I swapped physical drives 2 & 3. Same strange behaviour from the Maxtor (Still G:). The drive itself never gave me any problem when installed on another computer.
I need expert advice on that matter.
TIA.
Callandor
One possibility is that the drive may be developing problems now, even though it never gave you problems before - no drive lasts forever. Check also if you are connecting it to an SATA I controller and you have not jumpered the drive for SATA I operation - some SATA II drives have problems when connected to an SATA I controller and need the jumper in place.
seems like either a hardware issue or your sata port, i would try swapping one of the other drives with that one (just changing the port on the motherboard they plug into) and see if it changes at all. also run the diagnostic utilitys from maxtor on the drive to see if the drive is malfunctioning hardware wise.
ASKER
2 Callandor: Everything is supposed to be SATA II (According to mobo & drive specs).
The Samsung was the only one I remember coming with a jumper (which I removed).
The Maxtor is not even 2 years old. I'm going to pull it out again to double check for the presence/absence of a jumper.
The Samsung was the only one I remember coming with a jumper (which I removed).
The Maxtor is not even 2 years old. I'm going to pull it out again to double check for the presence/absence of a jumper.
Where its a Maxtor, i would run diagnostics very likely the drive is starting to fail. From my experience Maxtor is one of the worst drives out. I'm not sure if Seagate buying them out has fixed the issues yet mainly because i haven't bought a maxtor hdd in 3 years, But most the Maxtor drives i have replaced lately were a little over 1 year old.
Every one has their bad experience with drives in my case Seagate and Maxtor have almost a perfect track record. On the other hand i have had issues like no tomorrow with WD but still this all can not be all blamed on the manufacture. If you have ever worked in a ware house or anything you would know that most things are tossed into a cart, bin, or pallet. So now thinking about shipping also if you order a hdd online it comes in a box what gets thrown into the back of a UPS truck and bangs around in the back till it gets to its location. Now it does have good packaging but still. So rule of thumb run the utility's to check the disk before installing leave less room for headaches later on (like after you install your OS on the drive and realize that it has 100 bad uncorrectable blocks or dead sectors). I used to have a wall of shame from when i repaired computers with all the dead hard drives (gf well ex made me throw them out) i think the only reason there were so many western digitals is because Dell used to throw them in every computer and ya we wont even go there.
anyways running the maxtor utility to check the disk what the link for that is below (since seagate and maxtor are one it is the seagate utility i guess)
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools/
anyways running the maxtor utility to check the disk what the link for that is below (since seagate and maxtor are one it is the seagate utility i guess)
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools/
ASKER
I forgot to mention I ran a stress test on all drives & a disk benchmark on the Maxtor with Everest Ultimate Ed. I'm also constantly monitoring drives' temp with the same software.
S.M.A.R.T. has been enabled in the BIOS (Never truly understood what it was indeed good for).
I used to avoid Seagate drives (long long ago), then Maxtor's (not so long ago). I was a big WD fan at the time. I'm not anymore... BTW, Dell seems to be now putting Samsung drives in their boxes (The one I'm using is a pull).
BTW, the Seagate Seatools utility was able to detect & test all my drives.
All normal tests passed OK. Now, for the advanced ones, I have to take a backup, and I don't feel going USB on a 86% full 250GB drive...
It would take me quite some time to rig another machine with two spare SATA slots & run the advanced tests.
That is why I posted here ;-)
S.M.A.R.T. has been enabled in the BIOS (Never truly understood what it was indeed good for).
I used to avoid Seagate drives (long long ago), then Maxtor's (not so long ago). I was a big WD fan at the time. I'm not anymore... BTW, Dell seems to be now putting Samsung drives in their boxes (The one I'm using is a pull).
BTW, the Seagate Seatools utility was able to detect & test all my drives.
All normal tests passed OK. Now, for the advanced ones, I have to take a backup, and I don't feel going USB on a 86% full 250GB drive...
It would take me quite some time to rig another machine with two spare SATA slots & run the advanced tests.
That is why I posted here ;-)
The same thing happens to my Asus motherboard with a 250gb SATA hard drive. The drive is sometimes there and sometimes not. It's really annoying because it is the drive my OS is on. I can't remember the brand of the drive right now. I would suspect the SATA controller on the board is bad because the drive works fine in other computers. This may be your problem as well. In a batch of about a dozen people who built this same computer none of us are completely happy with the machine. I don't think I'll be owning another Asus board any time soon. Sorry to gripe. I would expect the board has an issue. Best of luck.
Hi
Have you tried a different Sata data cable?
Have you tried a different Sata data cable?
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Vee_Mod
Community Support Moderator
Vee_Mod
Community Support Moderator
I encountered the same problem with my internal SATA drive. I found some hints from an online resource that the power supply needs to be checked. I opened my PC case, and replaced the old power supply with another power supply. Then I leaved the PC running and I never had the drive disappear agian. Here is my analysis:
1. SATA drive might need more power consumption.
2. SATA might require higher quality of power supply.
If you have quite a few drives and existing power supply is under powered, you might experience some instability from power supply. This could force the SATA drive to shut itself down. My suggestion is to try another more powerful power supply.
1. SATA drive might need more power consumption.
2. SATA might require higher quality of power supply.
If you have quite a few drives and existing power supply is under powered, you might experience some instability from power supply. This could force the SATA drive to shut itself down. My suggestion is to try another more powerful power supply.