hard drive failing?

I'm having an unusual problem with my hard drive but I can't tell why.
For about two months now, I sometimes hear a screeching sound (about 1/2
second long, sometimes a couple of short screeches) when the computer boots
up while it is recognizing the drives. It takes a while to find them and
then after it is up and running the drive is missing from the list of drives
in windows explorer.
I have a C drive on the primary controller and a CD rewriter on the slave
position of the primary controller. On the secondary controller I have two
video drives. It is usually one of the video drives on the secondary
controller that fails to get recognized, but sometimes the other video drive
on the secondary controller also fails to appear in windows explorer. If I
restart the computer, the drives tend to reappear, and most of the time both
video drives boot up normally.
I keep thinking that this is either a cable problem or a motherboard
controller problem since the problem is not happening every time, and it has
been going on for at least two months now. Last year at work, I had a
computer that kept reporting an imminent hard drive failure on one of the
video drives but it never died, and after I reformatted the whole computer
this year, the problem seems to have gone away.
I put this computer together in August, with a new motherboard and used
three drives from my previous computer which had never had any problem.
I also wonder if it might be the order that one formats these drives, that
it, should they be freshly formatted or is it OK to just let the video
drives get installed with their previous formatting. Obviously, I had to
reformat the C drive when I did the clean install back in August, but I
think that I just stuck the two video drives in with the formatting from
their earlier life intact.
I really don't want to reinstall windows and all of my software on the C
drive, but can anyone suggest somethings that I could try to check this
problem out short of buying a new drive or two?
Could it be a cable problem? Could it be a controller on the motherboard?
Could the two video drives benefit from a fresh formatting within my current
setup? Is there any software that could give me informationon the real
cause?
Thanks a lot for any advice on this.

On Tue, 19 Oct 2004 20:58:07 GMT, "Luis ORTEGA"
wrote:

I'm having an unusual problem with my hard drive but I can't tell why.
For about two months now, I sometimes hear a screeching sound (about 1/2
second long, sometimes a couple of short screeches) when the computer boots
up while it is recognizing the drives. It takes a while to find them and
then after it is up and running the drive is missing from the list of drives
in windows explorer.
I have a C drive on the primary controller and a CD rewriter on the slave
position of the primary controller. On the secondary controller I have two
video drives. It is usually one of the video drives on the secondary
controller that fails to get recognized, but sometimes the other video drive
on the secondary controller also fails to appear in windows explorer. If I
restart the computer, the drives tend to reappear, and most of the time both
video drives boot up normally.
I keep thinking that this is either a cable problem or a motherboard
controller problem since the problem is not happening every time, and it has
been going on for at least two months now. Last year at work, I had a
computer that kept reporting an imminent hard drive failure on one of the
video drives but it never died, and after I reformatted the whole computer
this year, the problem seems to have gone away.
I put this computer together in August, with a new motherboard and used
three drives from my previous computer which had never had any problem.
I also wonder if it might be the order that one formats these drives, that
it, should they be freshly formatted or is it OK to just let the video
drives get installed with their previous formatting. Obviously, I had to
reformat the C drive when I did the clean install back in August, but I
think that I just stuck the two video drives in with the formatting from
their earlier life intact.
I really don't want to reinstall windows and all of my software on the C
drive, but can anyone suggest somethings that I could try to check this
problem out short of buying a new drive or two?
Could it be a cable problem? Could it be a controller on the motherboard?
Could the two video drives benefit from a fresh formatting within my current
setup? Is there any software that could give me informationon the real
cause?
Thanks a lot for any advice on this.


One of your drives is failing... Remove one, then the other,
to isolate which, or run the HDD manufacturer's diagnostics
on both after backing up any valuable data. Cables and HDD
controller problems will not cause this screech sound.

It is not a matter of which order they're formatted in. It
is a waste of time to reformat too, the
data/format/partitions/etc have no effect on screeching, it
is a mechanical failure-in-progress.

Luis ORTEGA wrote:
I'm having an unusual problem with my hard drive but I can't tell why.
For about two months now, I sometimes hear a screeching sound (about 1/2
second long, sometimes a couple of short screeches) when the computer boots
up while it is recognizing the drives. It takes a while to find them and
then after it is up and running the drive is missing from the list of drives
in windows explorer.
I have a C drive on the primary controller and a CD rewriter on the slave
position of the primary controller. On the secondary controller I have two
video drives. It is usually one of the video drives on the secondary
controller that fails to get recognized, but sometimes the other video drive
on the secondary controller also fails to appear in windows explorer. If I
restart the computer, the drives tend to reappear, and most of the time both
video drives boot up normally.
I keep thinking that this is either a cable problem or a motherboard
controller problem since the problem is not happening every time, and it has
been going on for at least two months now. Last year at work, I had a
computer that kept reporting an imminent hard drive failure on one of the
video drives but it never died, and after I reformatted the whole computer
this year, the problem seems to have gone away.
I put this computer together in August, with a new motherboard and used
three drives from my previous computer which had never had any problem.
I also wonder if it might be the order that one formats these drives, that
it, should they be freshly formatted or is it OK to just let the video
drives get installed with their previous formatting. Obviously, I had to
reformat the C drive when I did the clean install back in August, but I
think that I just stuck the two video drives in with the formatting from
their earlier life intact.
I really don't want to reinstall windows and all of my software on the C
drive, but can anyone suggest somethings that I could try to check this
problem out short of buying a new drive or two?
Could it be a cable problem? Could it be a controller on the motherboard?
Could the two video drives benefit from a fresh formatting within my current
setup? Is there any software that could give me informationon the real
cause?
Thanks a lot for any advice on this.


Like Kony says, download and run the diagnostics utility that is
available directly from the hard drive manufacturer. Usually the utility
allows you to create a bootable floppy or CD to run a series of
uninterrupted tests. These tests are more stringent than the Microsoft
ones and if there is any problem it will find them.

Strange noises are a first sign of a failing drive, I suggest you backup now
and get your self another drive.


"tomcas" wrote in message
et...
Luis ORTEGA wrote:
I'm having an unusual problem with my hard drive but I can't tell why.
For about two months now, I sometimes hear a screeching sound (about 1/2
second long, sometimes a couple of short screeches) when the computer
boots
up while it is recognizing the drives. It takes a while to find them and
then after it is up and running the drive is missing from the list of
drives
in windows explorer.
I have a C drive on the primary controller and a CD rewriter on the slave
position of the primary controller. On the secondary controller I have
two
video drives. It is usually one of the video drives on the secondary
controller that fails to get recognized, but sometimes the other video
drive
on the secondary controller also fails to appear in windows explorer. If
I
restart the computer, the drives tend to reappear, and most of the time
both
video drives boot up normally.
I keep thinking that this is either a cable problem or a motherboard
controller problem since the problem is not happening every time, and it
has
been going on for at least two months now. Last year at work, I had a
computer that kept reporting an imminent hard drive failure on one of the
video drives but it never died, and after I reformatted the whole
computer
this year, the problem seems to have gone away.
I put this computer together in August, with a new motherboard and used
three drives from my previous computer which had never had any problem.
I also wonder if it might be the order that one formats these drives,
that
it, should they be freshly formatted or is it OK to just let the video
drives get installed with their previous formatting. Obviously, I had to
reformat the C drive when I did the clean install back in August, but I
think that I just stuck the two video drives in with the formatting from
their earlier life intact.
I really don't want to reinstall windows and all of my software on the C
drive, but can anyone suggest somethings that I could try to check this
problem out short of buying a new drive or two?
Could it be a cable problem? Could it be a controller on the motherboard?
Could the two video drives benefit from a fresh formatting within my
current
setup? Is there any software that could give me informationon the real
cause?
Thanks a lot for any advice on this.


Like Kony says, download and run the diagnostics utility that is available
directly from the hard drive manufacturer. Usually the utility allows you
to create a bootable floppy or CD to run a series of uninterrupted tests.
These tests are more stringent than the Microsoft ones and if there is any
problem it will find them.

thanks, everyone. i replaced the drive and all is well now. i decided to go
with a sata drive.

"Clob" wrote in message
news:eOldd.858$qr.689@trnddc05...
Strange noises are a first sign of a failing drive, I suggest you backup
now
and get your self another drive.


"tomcas" wrote in message
et...
Luis ORTEGA wrote:
I'm having an unusual problem with my hard drive but I can't tell why.
For about two months now, I sometimes hear a screeching sound (about
1/2
second long, sometimes a couple of short screeches) when the computer
boots
up while it is recognizing the drives. It takes a while to find them
and
then after it is up and running the drive is missing from the list of
drives
in windows explorer.
I have a C drive on the primary controller and a CD rewriter on the
slave
position of the primary controller. On the secondary controller I have
two
video drives. It is usually one of the video drives on the secondary
controller that fails to get recognized, but sometimes the other video
drive
on the secondary controller also fails to appear in windows explorer.
If
I
restart the computer, the drives tend to reappear, and most of the time
both
video drives boot up normally.
I keep thinking that this is either a cable problem or a motherboard
controller problem since the problem is not happening every time, and
it
has
been going on for at least two months now. Last year at work, I had a
computer that kept reporting an imminent hard drive failure on one of
the
video drives but it never died, and after I reformatted the whole
computer
this year, the problem seems to have gone away.
I put this computer together in August, with a new motherboard and used
three drives from my previous computer which had never had any problem.
I also wonder if it might be the order that one formats these drives,
that
it, should they be freshly formatted or is it OK to just let the video
drives get installed with their previous formatting. Obviously, I had
to
reformat the C drive when I did the clean install back in August, but I
think that I just stuck the two video drives in with the formatting
from
their earlier life intact.
I really don't want to reinstall windows and all of my software on the
C
drive, but can anyone suggest somethings that I could try to check this
problem out short of buying a new drive or two?
Could it be a cable problem? Could it be a controller on the
motherboard?
Could the two video drives benefit from a fresh formatting within my
current
setup? Is there any software that could give me informationon the real
cause?
Thanks a lot for any advice on this.


Like Kony says, download and run the diagnostics utility that is
available
directly from the hard drive manufacturer. Usually the utility allows
you
to create a bootable floppy or CD to run a series of uninterrupted
tests.
These tests are more stringent than the Microsoft ones and if there is
any
problem it will find them.