Support NeoGAF

[BuddyC]

that's four hard drives this system's gone through - something is definitely wrong here.

i thought it was some type of conflict between the failed installations of windows on two seperate hard drives last time, so this time i only put one hard drive in the system, a new one at that.

but no, now it refuses to boot from the c: partition. the partition table is completely screwed, a reinstallation of windows revealed that the other two had been lost as well. as i said, this is the fourth hard drive that has happened (different makes each time) so it's gotta be something in the actual hardware. the trick is figuring out what, so that i can either replace it or make sure it doesn't go into the new system.

 

[Particle Physicist]

computers are NOT waterproof... i made that mistake once already.

 

[El_Victor]

Three hard drives have died by the .. hands of this PC the last 2 years. I turned it in to a PC shop nearby and they said nothing was wrong - some people just have bad luck.. don’t buy Maxtor.

 

[BlackSalad]

Sounds like it could be your power supply
what is the make/model of your power supply?

 

[Phoenix]

Replace your case - could be heat, bad voltage (get a surge protector as well... a good one, not the cheap ass powerstrip kind), or you are just storing too much porn and people are watching it constantly.

 

[BuddyC]

Sounds like it could be your power supply
what is the make/model of your power supply?

It's an Antec True 380.

I'll probably just end up building an entirely new PC, which will be both costly and time-consuming. Oh well, gotta keep myself busy, I guess.

 

[miyuru]

Check out your case and if there's any possible overheating issues.

 

[Lhadatt]

Possibilities:

- Case. Ventillate it proper-like. Plenty of fans. Make sure air can flow through it. Don't put the machine on carpet, that's a bad idea and attracts dust. Investigate a hard drive cooler.

- Power supply. It could be spiking the voltage, not providing enough, or something. Get a name-brand 350W or 400W.

- Motherboard/drive controller. Something on whatever the drive is plugging into might be wonky. Think about trying a separate drive controller if the drive is attached to the motherboard.

- Cable. Replace the cables. The new drive cable should be red. Red makes it turbo.

- Satan. Your computer is possessed. Burn it - all of it, the whole thing. Bring a Protestant (not Catholic, those guys are screwy and like little boys too much) clergyman over to cleanse the computer area, or the whole house. Oh, and don't bother with those Methodists, they're just about as wacko as the Catholics.

 

[AlphaSnake]

A short on the motherboard can be flat out frying your harddrives. Excessive heat can be warping your HD. Maybe it's bad power supply, as many have mentioned. I'm gonna' put my money down on a motherboard issue. If it was heat or power supply, you'd have other issues as well.

 

[Lhadatt]

A short on the motherboard can be flat out frying your harddrives. Excessive heat can be warping your HD. Maybe it's bad power supply, as many have mentioned. I'm gonna' put my money down on a motherboard issue. If it was heat or power supply, you'd have other issues as well.

Aye. My first thought was the motherboard, actually.

I'm changing my recommendation to replacing the motherboard. I'd edit my post, but the admins hate me, and have prevented my account from being able to edit or post an avatar.

 

[BuddyC]

What other problems would indicate a heat or power problem?

 

[Danj]

What other problems would indicate a heat or power problem?

Random crashing/freezing, particularly when doing intensive tasks like playing games, is the first thing that comes to mind. Also spontaneous rebooting not caused by XP's Automatic Restart feature.

You could try loading up one of those temperature monitor programs such as MBM or one from your motherboard manufacturer, and see if there's anything unusual going on.

 

[Zaptruder]

When my hard drives started failing, it turned out to be the drive controller on the motherboard. replace the motherboard and everything works better.

The hard drives also seemed to fail sequentially, rather than all at once, so don't dismiss that thought.

 

[Ryudo]

Have you overclocked your system ?

Also have you set your memory timings to conservative values ? When the memory latency is too low it causes HDD corruption.

 

[Finaika]

About a month a go late at night I switched on my PC then the HDD made some weird grinding noises and a "No Operating System found" message came up. I was like WTF!!? and tried to restart it but the same thing happen. In sadness I went to bed.

The next day when I tried to switch on my PC it was ok.

 

[Danj]

About a month a go late at night I switched on my PC then the HDD made some weird grinding noises and a "No Operating System found" message came up. I was like WTF!!? and tried to restart it but the same thing happen. In sadness I went to bed.

The next day when I tried to switch on my PC it was ok.

I hope you immediately backed up all your stuff, because if a hard drive starts making noises that means it's on the way out if not dead already. I would suggest downloading something like The Ultimate Boot CD, booting off it, choosing the appropriate diagnostic tool from your hard drive manufacturer and running a thorough test. If it fails it, there's a good chance that your drive will soon go tits up.

 

[Uncle Dukey]

Three hard drives have died by the .. hands of this PC the last 2 years. I turned it in to a PC shop nearby and they said nothing was wrong - some people just have bad luck.. don’t buy Maxtor.

I've had 4 Maxtor HDDs die in under 6 months...