Could a controller be responsable for drives dying?

[Deep]

I've recently not had much luck with my hard drives, about a month ago I
had a 200GB Maxtor DM9+ die on me without warning, a week later a 200GB
Maxtor DM10 started making similar noises to what the busted DM9+ now
makes (the DM10 still works but its been taken out of use for now).

Now a old 120GB WD drive (which despite its age has had very little use)
I was using as a stand in is now causing the odd Event 51 ("An error was
detected on device..") and Event 57 ("The system failed to flush
data..") also the drive has once "disappeared from the system" according
to the event log, but it evidently reappeared.

Now I've never had so many failures (or signs of failure) in such a
short period of time.
The 200GB drives were bought within a month of each other and have
always run together in the same system so have gone though similar
amount of use.

Recently I've rebuilt the system and the problems started only a couple
of weeks later, so I was wondering if there was any chance the
motherboard controller may have contributed to the problem (i.e. a
hardware fault with it)?

For now I'm just left with 3xSATA drives and the only drives on the ATA
controller are 2xDVD drives. Should I be wary of putting any HDD on
this controller?

 

[Arno Wagner]

I've recently not had much luck with my hard drives, about a month ago I
had a 200GB Maxtor DM9+ die on me without warning, a week later a 200GB
Maxtor DM10 started making similar noises to what the busted DM9+ now
makes (the DM10 still works but its been taken out of use for now).

Now a old 120GB WD drive (which despite its age has had very little use)
I was using as a stand in is now causing the odd Event 51 ("An error was
detected on device..") and Event 57 ("The system failed to flush
data..") also the drive has once "disappeared from the system" according
to the event log, but it evidently reappeared.

Now I've never had so many failures (or signs of failure) in such a
short period of time.
The 200GB drives were bought within a month of each other and have
always run together in the same system so have gone though similar
amount of use.

Recently I've rebuilt the system and the problems started only a couple
of weeks later, so I was wondering if there was any chance the
motherboard controller may have contributed to the problem (i.e. a
hardware fault with it)?

Very, very unlikely.

For now I'm just left with 3xSATA drives and the only drives on the ATA
controller are 2xDVD drives. Should I be wary of putting any HDD on
this controller?

No. But you should be wary of putting any drive in this computer.
It is statistically very unlikely that the drives just failed
randomly this close together. Possible sources of problems
are: Inadequate cooling (still a primary HDD killer), out of
spec or contaminated power, mechanical shock.

Arno

 

[Rod Speed]

I've recently not had much luck with my hard drives, about a month
ago I had a 200GB Maxtor DM9+ die on me without warning, a week later
a 200GB Maxtor DM10 started making similar noises to what the busted
DM9+ now makes (the DM10 still works but its been taken out of use
for now).
Now a old 120GB WD drive (which despite its age has had very little
use) I was using as a stand in is now causing the odd Event 51 ("An
error was detected on device..") and Event 57 ("The system failed to
flush data..") also the drive has once "disappeared from the system"
according to the event log, but it evidently reappeared.

Now I've never had so many failures (or signs of failure) in such a
short period of time.
The 200GB drives were bought within a month of each other and have
always run together in the same system so have gone though similar
amount of use.

Recently I've rebuilt the system and the problems started only a
couple of weeks later, so I was wondering if there was any chance the
motherboard controller may have contributed to the problem (i.e. a
hardware fault with it)?

For now I'm just left with 3xSATA drives and the only drives on the
ATA controller are 2xDVD drives. Should I be wary of putting any HDD
on this controller?

 

[Rod Speed]

I've recently not had much luck with my hard drives, about a month
ago I had a 200GB Maxtor DM9+ die on me without warning, a week later
a 200GB Maxtor DM10 started making similar noises to what the busted
DM9+ now makes (the DM10 still works but its been taken out of use
for now).
Now a old 120GB WD drive (which despite its age has had very little
use) I was using as a stand in is now causing the odd Event 51 ("An
error was detected on device..") and Event 57 ("The system failed to
flush data..") also the drive has once "disappeared from the system"
according to the event log, but it evidently reappeared.

Now I've never had so many failures (or signs of failure) in such a
short period of time.
The 200GB drives were bought within a month of each other and have
always run together in the same system so have gone though similar
amount of use.

Recently I've rebuilt the system and the problems started only a
couple of weeks later, so I was wondering if there was any chance the
motherboard controller may have contributed to the problem (i.e. a
hardware fault with it)?

For now I'm just left with 3xSATA drives and the only drives on the
ATA controller are 2xDVD drives. Should I be wary of putting any HDD
on this controller?

Its very unlikely indeed to be the controller.

Much more likely to be something else about that system, like the
drives are getting much too hot, the PSU is killing them, etc etc etc.

Check the drive temps with Everest for starters.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

 

[Deep]

Its very unlikely indeed to be the controller.

Much more likely to be something else about that system, like the
drives are getting much too hot, the PSU is killing them, etc etc etc.

Check the drive temps with Everest for starters.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

All the drives are mounted behind the 120mm intake fan at the front of
the case.

The drives normally run/ran at about 36C with a room temp of around
24/25C, at the moment there something of a heatwave here and room
temperatures are around 30-33C leading to reported HDD temperatures of
41-44C.

Obviously the hotter the drive the shorter the drive life but from what
I can gather drive temperatures should generally be below 50C?

 

[Rod Speed]

All the drives are mounted behind the 120mm intake fan at the front of
the case.

The drives normally run/ran at about 36C with a room temp of around
24/25C, at the moment there something of a heatwave here and room
temperatures are around 30-33C leading to reported HDD temperatures of
41-44C.

Thats fine. I'd swap the power supply myself.

Obviously the hotter the drive the shorter the drive life but from
what I can gather drive temperatures should generally be below 50C?

Yes, those temps are fine.

 

[Arno Wagner]

All the drives are mounted behind the 120mm intake fan at the front of
the case.

The drives normally run/ran at about 36C with a room temp of around
24/25C, at the moment there something of a heatwave here and room
temperatures are around 30-33C leading to reported HDD temperatures of
41-44C.

That should not lead to fast death.

Obviously the hotter the drive the shorter the drive life but from what
I can gather drive temperatures should generally be below 50C?

Under full load, yes.

I would say your problem is not overtemperature.

Arno