A7N8X Deluxe 1.04 freezes on detecting IDE drives

Just after memory test, one beep as usual and no message but "Detecting IDE
disks" operation lasted forever.
Two days ago, when it occurred the first time, I switched the computer Off
and unplugged it from the mains then On and it booted.
To day a lot of such attempts were unsuccesfully made. It kept freezing. The
computer doesn't give the access to the BIOS, the password box isn't even
presented.

Depressing Alt F2 (BIOS flashing) after several trials looked to turn on
some hidden mechanism because it finally displayed to insert a disk
containing the BIOS and the computer waked up. I rebooted to go out the
flashing utility and it worked nominally.

Could this be a problem of CMOS battery ?
Could this be due to one disk beginning to die ?
Is there a possibility to check the disks for any potential failute (I've
been told about the SMART technology but dunno if it applies to my disks).

Both disks are on the primary IDE adapter (80 wire-cables) and they're
Maxtor disks 6E040L0 & ST040H4 40 GB each
A CD-R/RW burner from LG (GCE8520B) is connected to the sec IDE port. Its
removal didn't modify the situation.

I've valuable data on both disks and of course no easy way to perform a
backup of 80 GB !

TIA

sounds like a possible power supply failure.


"Zantafio" wrote in message
...
Just after memory test, one beep as usual and no message but "Detecting
IDE
disks" operation lasted forever.
Two days ago, when it occurred the first time, I switched the computer Off
and unplugged it from the mains then On and it booted.
To day a lot of such attempts were unsuccesfully made. It kept freezing.
The
computer doesn't give the access to the BIOS, the password box isn't even
presented.

Depressing Alt F2 (BIOS flashing) after several trials looked to turn on
some hidden mechanism because it finally displayed to insert a disk
containing the BIOS and the computer waked up. I rebooted to go out the
flashing utility and it worked nominally.

Could this be a problem of CMOS battery ?
Could this be due to one disk beginning to die ?
Is there a possibility to check the disks for any potential failute (I've
been told about the SMART technology but dunno if it applies to my disks).

Both disks are on the primary IDE adapter (80 wire-cables) and they're
Maxtor disks 6E040L0 & ST040H4 40 GB each
A CD-R/RW burner from LG (GCE8520B) is connected to the sec IDE port. Its
removal didn't modify the situation.

I've valuable data on both disks and of course no easy way to perform a
backup of 80 GB !

TIA