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WD SATA II Hard Drive Wonky...

So my disconnecting problem has once again reared its ugly head. This time I thought it was because the drive was almost full (20 GB remaining out of 500) but now I'm not so sure.

I took the adaptor card out and replugged everything back in and the problem went away (just like last time)... for a day or so. It seems that trying to access data on the drive when it's acting up (disconnecting and reconnecting automatically) exacerbates the problem. Same with trying to save data to the disk when it's acting up.

The other SATA drive on the controller card works just fine. When I got the drive back up and running I deleted a bunch of stuff to make more space but the problem is back so I'm thinking it's not a capacity issue.

At this point I'm thinking it's gotta either be the SATA cable or the one particular drive port of the two on the controller card. The card has the latest drivers installed.

I'm going to switch the ports and see if the same problem occurs for the other drive. If not, I'm going to switch cables and see if that's the problem.

The drive has passed a WD Diagnostics test so I think it's fine. I've never lost any data on it. I like the idea of copying over the data (if I can keep the connection long enough), reformatting the drive, and then copying the data back, but at this point I don't think the problem is the drive.

Thoughts?
 
I unloaded a bunch of data off the disk (freeing up space), and the problem went away for a while. Now it's back.

Unfortunately, there's a new problem. Now whenever I start up, it runs chkdsk on the hard drive. It never finds any errors but it's a royal pain in the ass and because the computer is scheduling it for every start up, I can't defrag the volume.

Anyone know what the problem could be?
 
Only guessing here, but try turning off SMART in the bios and see if the need to chkdsk goes away (yes, I'm grasping at straws).

I'd do a repair on the OS next.

Or, just force the thing off by editing the registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager and remove all lines and text in BootExecute (google BootExecute to find out more)

Good Luck.
 
First I'm going to disconnect the drive and see if that makes the chkdsk on startup go away (it should).

Then I'm going to disconnect and reconnect everything again. It worked the last time, until I rejigged the drives last week and the problem reared its ugly head. I googled the problem and came up with some indicators that it's a hardware issue (either the cables or the drive itself, despite scanning showing no problems with the drive).

Next step will be reinstalling WinXP (I'm due anyways).

And if that doesn't fix it, I'll be sending the drive back to Western Digital.
 
ahhhh.. the good ole Mac solution

My car is making a funny noise.. solution: buy a mac
My RRSPs are dropping like flies.. solution: buy a mac
It hurts doctor when I do this.. solution: buy a mac

Give it rest guys!
 
Weirdness. The intermittent disconnecting kept happening so I decided to copy over my data and return the drive to Western Digital because I felt it was the problem.

Well, within 24 hours of receiving a brand new drive and installing it, the intermittent disconnecting has started again. So I know for sure it's not the drive.

AFAIK, that leaves three possibilities:

1) Win XP. It's an old installation from probably close to 2 years ago so it's due for a fresh install. I'm also suspicious because I get quite a few error messages and the drive frequently (but not always) disconnects early in the morning when automatic maintenance tasks are scheduled.

2) SATA adapter card. I didn't think this could be the problem because my other SATA drive works on it without any problems, even when I swap ports and use different cables. Why would one drive work no matter what the configuration but the other won't, no matter what the configuration?

3) Power supply. I'm wondering if this could be the problem. I have a Purepower 430 and it's only a couple years old but maybe my computer is sucking up too much power and there's not enough left for the drive in question. Weird that it only affects that drive though...

4) Motherboard. Maybe the motherboard (which doesn't support SATA) has a problem with this drive and adaptor card? It shouldn't because I made sure the card was compatible and all my previous SATA drives worked without problem.

I'm going to do a fresh install of Win XP because I'm due anyways, but if that doesn't fix it I don't know what I'll do.
 
I'm going to install Win XP fresh and then if the problem persists I'll replace the SATA card.

I have a single video card, not dual-core, but 4 drives.

I would totally buy a new rig at this point but the problem is I'm pretty darn sure my Win XP Home Edition (OEM) won't work on a new system and I don't want Vista. If I could buy a Win XP somewhere, I'd do it.
 
I want to install Windows on an IDE drive that will be connected directly to my mobo. Currently it's on my other IDE drive.

If I need to go back to my current Win XP install for some reason, that won't be a problem will it? Other than directing Windows which drive to load from.
 
data1960 said:
So you intend to have the OS installed on two drives?

Assuming I understand you correctly, it will work. You can simply select in the BIOS which HD to boot from. This is doable cause XP didn't register load number along with hardware key unique to your system - Vista I believe does.
Click to expand...

Exactly. It'll take me a while to get my new install up and running with all my programs and stuff so if I need to go back I want to be able to.

Yet another reason why I don't want Vista, lol! :cool:
 
Are you sure your sata cables are OK?
Just a thought.

Vista with SP1 is OK.....
 
At this point Vista is a lame duck (with the new version coming out in a couple years) so I have no interest in investing in it.

I checked and replaced my SATA cables (first thing I did) but they're not the problem.
 
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