Hard drive problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Johnie
  • Start date Start date
J

Johnie

Is this weird or is it only me?

My computer has two hard drives, a Maxtor on the Primary IDE connection
as the master, with the o/s on it, and an IBM Deskstar as the slave.

This configuration worked well for about a year, when suddenly I could no
longer access the D drive, the IBM.

I waggled the leads around a bit and got the D drive back, but now its
gone for good.

There does not seem to be anything wrong with either IDE port or cable
or with either hard drive; it's only when I use both hard drives on the same
cable (either cable) when I get the problem; I need to use the Maxtor as
the master and the IBM as the slave. It WILL work the other way round.

I found another drive, a Quantum, which is happy to work on the same cable
with the Maxtor or with the IBM, on either IDE cable, and as master or as
slave...

Why has the IBM suddenly refused to work as the slave to the Maxtor
master?

Note 1 - it is the BIOS which is not detecting the drive - nothing to do
with windows.

Note 2 - the system does NOT use cable select.

Note 3 - the same problem occurs on both IDE ports.

Note 4 - the system worked okay for a year so it is not something
like the jumpers.

Note 5 - I didn't make any changes to system which could have
brought on the fault.

Note 6 - I am NOT running any disk management software.

TIA
Johnie
 
Johnie said:
Is this weird or is it only me?

My computer has two hard drives, a Maxtor on the Primary IDE connection
as the master, with the o/s on it, and an IBM Deskstar as the slave.

This configuration worked well for about a year, when suddenly I could no
longer access the D drive, the IBM.

I waggled the leads around a bit and got the D drive back, but now its
gone for good.

There does not seem to be anything wrong with either IDE port or cable
or with either hard drive; it's only when I use both hard drives on the same
cable (either cable) when I get the problem; I need to use the Maxtor as
the master and the IBM as the slave. It WILL work the other way round.

I found another drive, a Quantum, which is happy to work on the same cable
with the Maxtor or with the IBM, on either IDE cable, and as master or as
slave...

Why has the IBM suddenly refused to work as the slave to the Maxtor
master?

Note 1 - it is the BIOS which is not detecting the drive - nothing to do
with windows.

Note 2 - the system does NOT use cable select.

Note 3 - the same problem occurs on both IDE ports.

Note 4 - the system worked okay for a year so it is not something
like the jumpers.

Note 5 - I didn't make any changes to system which could have
brought on the fault.

Note 6 - I am NOT running any disk management software.

TIA
Johnie
Click to expand...

Chances are the controller board on one of the two drives is nearing death.
But here's the fun part - short of handing it off to a lab for a thorough
workover, you'll never figure out which one is going out without a lot of
patience and good ol' trial and error.

From my own experience, I thought I had a CD-R go out on me - it was on the
same IDE cable as the original CD drive. The symptom was persistent BSODs
when I tried to burn a disk and sometimes even just reading a disk. It
didn't matter which one was the slave and which one was the master. It
didn't matter which cable I used or which IDE channel I used. (Sound
familiar?) I replaced the CD-R with a new CD-RW and the symptom seemed to
disappear ... for a while ... only to return again. Just for grins, I pulled
out the original CD drive and reinstalled the supposedly failed CD-R. The
symptom has never reappeared.

While you may suspect the IBM drive, don't be too surprised if it turns out
to be the Maxtor.
 
About 2 months ago, I had a 40 gig Maxtor that would ONLY install as a
slave. I took it back to the dealer and had it replaced. The new drive did
what I wanted it to do. Maybe your Maxtor needs help.
 
If anyone is still reading this thread, I eventually found out what the problem
was. Both HDs are okay but the CMOS battery was on the way out!
A couple of days later the clock gave the game away by giving the wrong
time.

This goes to show - if anything suddenly fails on a PC that is more than a
couple of years old, always remember the battery...
 
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