problem with harddrive

[jmichna]

Dj-Icer,
My question must have caused you confusion... my question was related to your statement that you use a dedicated power connector ("power cord") to your primary master HD. What do you do for power connectors ("power cords") with the remaining drives (2° master, 1° slave, 2° slave)? Does each one get a dedicated line? If so, what make/model power supply do you use?

[Dj-Icer]

Sorry, my mistake

No hardware on my computer get its own power cord, except for my primary HDD.

I use 2 power cords for my CD-ROMS; normal and burner. 1 power cord for the floppy disk and the other one is for my primary master. Meaning that its a kind of sharing between the HDD and the floppy drive, that I don't normally use all the time. So, the primary master get its own line smoothly and runs alright so far.

Before this, I share 2 power cords on 2 HDD. Problem rarely occur when my primary master HDD failed to be detected. Maybe, when the HDD sucks up more power when running heavy programs such as Flash or editing video and stuff.

[Kahnovitch]

Thought I'd bump this thread rather that start a new one as I'm having periodic problems with my primary HDD.
It's an 80 gig Maxtor Diamondmax plus ATA133 (7200rpm).
I had the same problem with too many devices running from the same power cord (fan and ATI 9800SE AIW and primary HDD). So I reconnected them leaving only a Hard drive coling fan connected to the same power cord as my Primary HDD.
Been running just fine for months.
The primary HDD is partitioned into a 10gig/ 70 gig split, so C: is 10gig and D: is 70gig.

The primary drive tends to switch off randomly, but more frequently when I'm playiing Medieval Total War.
The wierd thing is I've had no probs for about 5 or 6 months but I ran a standard Windows ( XP Pro) defrag two days ago on C: drive and since then the HDD has been just switching off with the same audible click it makes when I shut down normally.

I'm thinking I may need a more powerful PSU. Mine is 350W and I'm running...

1x 80gig maxtor HDD
1x 100gig Hitachi Deathstar
2X DVD (one's a burner)
ATI Radeon 9800se AIW
Soundblaster 5.1 soundcard
Athlon Barton 2600XP CPU
2x 256 pc2700 DDR RAM
Asus A7V8X-X MOBO

The thing is I have a LOT of fans on the comp
2 HDD cooling fans, 2 case fans and of course a varial speed CPU fan.

DO I need more juice for my system or could the defrag had done something to cause this problem, as my PC had been fine for months and this problem occured the same day I defragged C drive.

[jmichna]

Kahnovitch,
Try disconnecting the HD fans and one or two of your other peripherals (maybe one of the DVDs or and/your soundcard) and see if the reduction in power drawn eliminates the HD issue. If still a problem, then maybe it is the beginning of a HD problem. If reducing the power drawn helps, then it seems to point toward a better/more powerful PS.

[Kahnovitch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmichna

Kahnovitch,
Try disconnecting the HD fans and one or two of your other peripherals (maybe one of the DVDs or and/your soundcard) and see if the reduction in power drawn eliminates the HD issue. If still a problem, then maybe it is the beginning of a HD problem. If reducing the power drawn helps, then it seems to point toward a better/more powerful PS.

Thanks for the response mate and I believe I've confirmed the suspicions.

I had a sniff around inside the case and think I've discovered the prob.
The DVD drive which had the game boot disk in, was sharing a power cord with three other devices (two fans, and the ATI gfx card)
I put the disk in my other DVD drive (which was only sharing with a case fan) and it worked fine, so I definitely have some power issues going on with my PC, but for the moment, I've reached a temporary comprimise, but I will definitely get a beefier PSU.
I currently have the A: drive disabled (in BIOS) and physically disconnected, for the simple reason that the cable won't reach the drive due to the "spaghetti junction" of cables inside my PC and the PC wouldn't boot until I disabled Mr A:

Computers are SO fickle!

[FatalException]

If your hard drive was powering down because of a fan connected to the same power terminal, you have bigger issues here than just a wiring problem. Fans require little power to operate and should not cause such a draw on your power supply as to cause other components to shut down.

One of two things is going on here... you either have piece of junk power supply or you have a bad fan. I am betting it's the former (since normally fans make noises when they go bad and you'd DEFINITELY know about that one).

You may want to consider replacing your power supply with a more powerful one. If you are running your 2 drives (both 7200RPM so they're very power hungry) a CD-ROM, and a CD-burner on top of all the other stuff in your case, 300 Watts won't do. 350W might do... I would suggest a 400W supply to be safe. Even if it is a 400W supply, don't rule it out as the problem... a cheap piece of junk power supply won't work well REGARDLESS of how many watts it is. Your system shouldn't be so sensitive to just a fan!