HDD on secondary IDE

  • Thread starter Thread starter David Martin
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David Martin

Friend of mine has a problem copying data to/from his PC and other devices
including Zip drives and handhelds. HDD produces errors or freezes easy. On
investigation I found that the CD & CDRW drives are on the Primary IDE with
the HDD on the Secondary IDE (not sharing).

How much does this matter? Is it causing the errors?

Note that PC works fine when doing routine stuff. It is aging (3 yrs old)
and running W ME.

David M
 
It may be a factor as some motherboards prefer to boot off the Master drive
on the Primary channel - try swapping it around to the "correct" way and see
if it makes a difference. It might also be worth running drive diagnostics
on the HDD, most makers provide utilities to scan the drives for defects etc
even to write zeros to all the drive (erases everything off it so you can
start again like new). If you're going to write zeros to it though, you'll
have to ensure you have all the media for OS and Applications as well as the
latest drivers for the hardware to make a complete reinstall possible. All
data would also need to be backed up first as well.

Paul
 
Paul Murphy said:
It may be a factor as some motherboards prefer to boot off the Master
drive on the Primary channel - try swapping it around to the "correct" way
and see if it makes a difference. It might also be worth running drive
diagnostics on the HDD, most makers provide utilities to scan the drives
for defects etc even to write zeros to all the drive (erases everything
off it so you can start again like new). If you're going to write zeros to
it though, you'll have to ensure you have all the media for OS and
Applications as well as the latest drivers for the hardware to make a
complete reinstall possible. All data would also need to be backed up
first as well.
Click to expand...

Manufacturer's utilities can be very optimistic about HDD performance. I
had an IBM Travelstar disk that I suspected of giving trouble. I
downloaded the special Hitachi/IBM disk test utility that runs from a DOS
floppy. After a long test it said the drive was absolutely fine. Lies! I
tried HDTach. That told me that everything was fine EXCEPT that the average
access time was a whopping 270 ms. So over 1/4 second to access: hardly
surprising that the PC was hardly usable. A new disk cured the problem
completely. I won't waste time with that Hitachi/IBM test again.
 
David said:
Friend of mine has a problem copying data to/from his PC and other devices
including Zip drives and handhelds. HDD produces errors or freezes easy. On
investigation I found that the CD & CDRW drives are on the Primary IDE with
the HDD on the Secondary IDE (not sharing).

How much does this matter? Is it causing the errors?

Note that PC works fine when doing routine stuff. It is aging (3 yrs old)
and running W ME.

David M
Click to expand...

Very doubtful that it would make any difference, even on a 3 year old
PC. Could be a problem with the HDD (may be on it's wasy out), or just a
problem with windows ME. From personal experience, I found it to be a
very unreliable OS, and I have gone through them all since win 3.1...
May be a problem with the OS rather than the HDD.

As Paul said, switching them over is worth a shot, and running
diagnostics on the HDD may find any errors within it.

If that does not fix the problem, a complete reinstallation may be the
next option.
 
Friend of mine has a problem copying data to/from his PC and other devices
including Zip drives and handhelds.
Click to expand...

Has he always had this problem?
HDD produces errors or freezes easy. On
investigation I found that the CD & CDRW drives are on the Primary IDE with
the HDD on the Secondary IDE (not sharing).
Click to expand...

If it has always been this way, don't change it. That's not the
problem.

How much does this matter? Is it causing the errors?

Note that PC works fine when doing routine stuff. It is aging (3 yrs old)
and running W ME.
Click to expand...

If its been happening since he's gotten the 'other devices', they're
probably inserting drive letters when he uses them...and the change is
confusing the computer.

Change the letter on the writer to W...and the letter on the reader to
R.


Have a nice one...

Trent

Budweiser: Helping ugly people have sex since 1876!
 
Tony said:
Manufacturer's utilities can be very optimistic about HDD performance. I
had an IBM Travelstar disk that I suspected of giving trouble. I
downloaded the special Hitachi/IBM disk test utility that runs from a DOS
floppy. After a long test it said the drive was absolutely fine. Lies! I
tried HDTach. That told me that everything was fine EXCEPT that the average
access time was a whopping 270 ms. So over 1/4 second to access: hardly
surprising that the PC was hardly usable. A new disk cured the problem
completely. I won't waste time with that Hitachi/IBM test again.
Click to expand...

I had just the opposite experience with Seagate's Seatools. I couldn't
finish scanning a friend's Seagate HDD with either Scandisk or
Seatools and both recommended replacing the drive. I don't remember
exactly what I did, but after backing up important data on another
drive, I managed to restore it to full working order. It's been
running without any problem for about a year now. Lesson : don't
believe everything the manufacturer's diagnostics tell you, whether
it's optimistic or pessimistic.
 
I had just the opposite experience with Seagate's Seatools. I couldn't
finish scanning a friend's Seagate HDD with either Scandisk or
Seatools and both recommended replacing the drive. I don't remember
exactly what I did, but after backing up important data on another
drive, I managed to restore it to full working order. It's been
running without any problem for about a year now. Lesson : don't
believe everything the manufacturer's diagnostics tell you, whether
it's optimistic or pessimistic.
Click to expand...

If the drive is subject to this kind of problem which might
reoccur, is it prudent to keep using it instead of RMA'ing
for a replacement?
 
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