R
ras2
(Sorry about the subject; I couldn't think of a more descriptive one).
I have a K7S5A (rev. 3.1) motherboard with a 4gb. Quantum Bigfoot
(master) and a 30gb. IBM DTLA-307030 (slave) on the primary IDE-channel.
The IBM has started to behave rather oddly:
The first sign of problems were long pauses after disk reads in Windows;
in games, some sound would load and the game would stall for a while.
Quitting the game could take over five minutes and once it finally
finished, opening the Start menu could take ages. Reinstalling Windows
seemed to help for a while and then the same problem started happening
again. Under Linux, I started getting BadCRC S.M.A.R.T. errors from the
drive.
I finally figured out that turning DMA off would stop the errors from
happening and it worked well enough (if slowly) for a while in both
Windows and Linux.
Then the superblock on one of the ext2 partitions got ruined. It was
fixed easily enough and I didn't lose any files (the filenames of
some pictures just got clobbered) and the drive worked okay for some
days until it suddenly half-way disappeared after the computer had
been idle for a few hours (no reading or writing had taken place on
the drive in that time); the temperature monitor didn't get any readings
from it and I had problems getting a file from one of the FAT32
partitions.
On reboot, it turned out that the superblocks on two ext2 partitions
had evaporated and that none of the FAT32 partitions had any FSINFO
signatures (no files on the ext2 partitions got wrecked this time either,
but the names of files and directories in the root of one partition all
got clobbered).
I ran the IBM Disk Fitness Tool and got mixed results: With the Quick Test
I first got an "Excessive Shock" diagnosis and on the next two runs the
drive passed. With the Advanced Test, I got two "Bad Cable" results and
on the third run the drive passed. S.M.A.R.T. reported the drive as OK
(but then, aside from those errors I mentioned, it always says the drive
is OK).
So that wasn't very conclusive.
When I booted the system yesterday, the system reported the drive as
"YB]-\T\A=387838 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8, ATA DISK drive"
(and none of the partitions could be mounted) but when I rebooted a few
minutes ago, it was reported correctly and the ext2 partitions can be
mounted without problems now (the FAT32 can't, but I haven't fixed the
FSINFO problem either).
At no point have I had any reports about bad blocks from fsck.
All these problems seemed to start shortly after I'd connected an old
Amiga HD on the secondary IDE connector for a short while (~5 minutes).
I don't know why that would cause them, but the timing seemed rather
suspicious.
What I'd like to know is if this sounds like a normal way for a drive
to die or if it perhaps could be the motherboard or the cable or something?
I know of the history of the GXP75 drives, but it seems like they usually
die rather more dramatically than this.
-R.
I have a K7S5A (rev. 3.1) motherboard with a 4gb. Quantum Bigfoot
(master) and a 30gb. IBM DTLA-307030 (slave) on the primary IDE-channel.
The IBM has started to behave rather oddly:
The first sign of problems were long pauses after disk reads in Windows;
in games, some sound would load and the game would stall for a while.
Quitting the game could take over five minutes and once it finally
finished, opening the Start menu could take ages. Reinstalling Windows
seemed to help for a while and then the same problem started happening
again. Under Linux, I started getting BadCRC S.M.A.R.T. errors from the
drive.
I finally figured out that turning DMA off would stop the errors from
happening and it worked well enough (if slowly) for a while in both
Windows and Linux.
Then the superblock on one of the ext2 partitions got ruined. It was
fixed easily enough and I didn't lose any files (the filenames of
some pictures just got clobbered) and the drive worked okay for some
days until it suddenly half-way disappeared after the computer had
been idle for a few hours (no reading or writing had taken place on
the drive in that time); the temperature monitor didn't get any readings
from it and I had problems getting a file from one of the FAT32
partitions.
On reboot, it turned out that the superblocks on two ext2 partitions
had evaporated and that none of the FAT32 partitions had any FSINFO
signatures (no files on the ext2 partitions got wrecked this time either,
but the names of files and directories in the root of one partition all
got clobbered).
I ran the IBM Disk Fitness Tool and got mixed results: With the Quick Test
I first got an "Excessive Shock" diagnosis and on the next two runs the
drive passed. With the Advanced Test, I got two "Bad Cable" results and
on the third run the drive passed. S.M.A.R.T. reported the drive as OK
(but then, aside from those errors I mentioned, it always says the drive
is OK).
So that wasn't very conclusive.
When I booted the system yesterday, the system reported the drive as
"YB]-\T\A=387838 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8, ATA DISK drive"
(and none of the partitions could be mounted) but when I rebooted a few
minutes ago, it was reported correctly and the ext2 partitions can be
mounted without problems now (the FAT32 can't, but I haven't fixed the
FSINFO problem either).
At no point have I had any reports about bad blocks from fsck.
All these problems seemed to start shortly after I'd connected an old
Amiga HD on the secondary IDE connector for a short while (~5 minutes).
I don't know why that would cause them, but the timing seemed rather
suspicious.
What I'd like to know is if this sounds like a normal way for a drive
to die or if it perhaps could be the motherboard or the cable or something?
I know of the history of the GXP75 drives, but it seems like they usually
die rather more dramatically than this.
-R.