frequent hard drive issues HELPP! 4

[mixedboxer]

ok so about a year ago when my computer was under a year old i had my hard drive fail on me it was a 30gb maxtor 7200 ata 133, still under warrenty so i sent it in and got another a 40bg maxtor 7200, everything was fine till about 4 months ago and then this hard drive crashed when i was trying to re-install windows i belive, so i went out and got a new a samsung 80gb 7200 everything was fine butthe computer was running slow so i went to reformat, i deleted the old partitions and tried to format from the xp cd, nothing tried a 98 boot disk nothin so i threw that old 40gb back in and sure enough it booted up, was half way through the install when it died last timeso i had to finish it, but thats how im typing this now, not sure how this is happening doesnt really make sense, hopefully someone can help, thanks in advance!
ps: could it be cooling? as i dont have extra fans only the graphic cards one psu
My pc specs
Asus P4533-X mother board
Intel P4 2.4 Ghz
Maxtor 40gb
samsung 80gb
ATI Radeon 9800 pro atlantis
had 64mb gf2 in before only installed ati card 3 days ago
no name cd-rw
sony dvd-r dual layer
768 ddr ram
Award Modular BIOS 6.0

 

[Prydonian]

Mixedboxer;

You may be on target with a cooling issue. Todays HDDs, especially high speed drives, tend to run a lot hotter than they did years ago. Could also be voltage, dust, dirt, static....

This a link from Intel regarding drive failure. The paragraph below is an excerpt about frequent drive failures.

http://support.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/cs-010355.htm

You experience frequent drive failures
Make sure all fans are working properly.
If you have several drives running, check to see how warm the case is and how warm the exhaust is coming from the fan.
Make sure you are using the proper screws in mounting the drives in the case.
Check for low-level vibrations.
Check for power fluctuations. Make sure you have a reliable surge protector.
Use a voltmeter to verify that each output from the power supply is correct. If any output is very low (especially the +5 volt output), replace the power supply.
Check other environment factors such as smoke, heavy dust, high humidity and anything that may generate a strong electromagnetic field such as heavy machinery and motors.

Check your system and let us know what you find...

Mike, The IT Guy.


Life is too short to drink warm beer....

 

[garebo]

You didnt mention the power supply. How old is it? Make, model, specs? Is it heavy or light?
You can use either a digital or analog multimeter to check the lines. YOu can go to techrepublic.com and sign up for free. They have, among other things, a great tutorial on how to check your power supply!
I use printkey and copy these things to word docs and print them out, not always supposed to but great to have.
I'd say its either cooling or power supply, 50% chance on either one, but you gotta check that ps and give us the specs on it.





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[mixedboxer]

Well i have the asus probe 2 and i ran it for a hour while i was gone, the voltage readings were fine they didnt move far from 12 at all and stayed at 12 98% of the time and the cooling sensors say im at 36c 90% of the time, so i touched the hd and it seemed pretty hot, so im thinking thats what it might be.
as for specs on the case i dont know much just that its a 300 watt psu with a crappy case no extra fans on it...maybe ill get a heat sink for the hd??

 

[JimInKS]

You can run a program to monitor the disk smart data, which includes reporting the drive temperature.

hdd health is a freebe I use on occasion.

You can get it from:

http://www.panterasoft.com/

 

[garebo]

Thats worth a star for you!
thanks


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[garebo]

mixedboxer, its really starting to look to me like something is causing you to burn up hard drives. Is the location of the hard drive squeezed in so that you have no air flow at all? If so then you should get a fan that fits on top of your hard drive and try that.

Its also starting to look like maybe your ps is okay. If you could borrow one from someone for a week and try it out then you might be able to make an informed decision on wether or not the ps is suspect.



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[mixedboxer]

well since i think it may be power supply/cooling i went out and got a case and 2 120mm fans this is the case hopefully this solves it

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=006139&cid=CS.664

thanks for all the help so far!

 

[garebo]

Another thing, if one is concerned about cooling a good test is to take the side off the case and have a large house fan on high right where you suspect the problem is. If the house fan solves the problem it was heat related. If the fan didnt then it may very well not be heat related.


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[firewolfrl]

hey, I have another twist. I have replaced hard drives for multiple computers in rural areas running wells for their water source.

My recommendation was for these HD failures was to install power back-ups (UPS). so far since my clients have done this the hd failures have almost disapeared. before this the hd's survived an average of 6 months max

external power fluctuations such as a computer on the same power leg as a refrigerator, freezer, garbage disposal, and any device that causes a drop in power or such as electric motors push assorted harmonic frequencies into the lines. most people think its the power spikes that kill the drives...But, its the power drops that do the most damage.

something else to check is if your power is a consistant 60 hertz.

you really have to look outside the box sometimes to to discover why there is multiple hd failure.

 

[garebo]

firewolfrl, well said. I usually harp about this, forgot to this time. I know for a fact what firewolrl says its true. I have 5, yes, 5 UPS's here. I use them religiously for my computers,monitors, even printers.
My systems run better and i have had 10% of the deaths that i had before. Over the last 5 yrs, using UPS's, i have lost a hard drive and an external case. Just for example, my monitors are used, not new, so its not the newness factor. The 5 yrs before that i lost 4 hard drives, 2 monitors, a mobo, a power supply, a video card, a few external cases, and a few other items.
The issue in my area is brown-outs, which, as stated by firewolfrl, are actually worse than power spikes. You can see it now and again when the ceiling lights will dim (heat of summer mostly). But that is rare, you usually dont see it at all! And my UPS's go off on the average of 2 to 3 times monthly, seemingly for no reason at all, but i know its saving my butt! I knew we had poor power in our area but i didnt realize the damage it does to computer parts until i started to inquire about it roughly 5 yrs ago.
Not everyone has poor power as i do but most of us dont have terrific power in the first place. These lines\stations\etc were not built for computers and the exact power needs they carry, thats what the problem is.
I have harped about this so much that i leave it be for a while, lol. But its all true what you hear.
Everyone should have at least one UPS and have their pc, monitor, printer hooked to it at all times. These days they are cheap and all you need is the cheapest one, long as it has a hookup for cable\phone as needed. The higher priced ones only give you more time to turn your pc off. But only about 5 min are usually needed, so again the lower priced models will do!
Rant over.


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[Prydonian]

Well said, garebo!

With the price of UPS's these days, it is the cheapest insurance you can buy. The big problem where I live are the sumemrtime lightning storms and the winter ice storms that wreak havoc with the power lines.

There's no reason not have your system on a UPS....

Mike, The IT Guy

Life is too short to drink warm beer....

 

[garebo]

Thanks, Prydonian. Yes, they are so cheap these days, which is great. The problem for me was that i didnt think they were necessary and did nothing to enhance my pc. Boy was i stupid! Least now i know better and i will never be without UPS's on my units. If i had to go out and buy all new ones today to replace the ones i have, i'd spend the money for sure. Its not performance, its protection. But what i didnt realize was that protection DOES = performance! Funny how i would find ways to assess blame when my parts blew up but when i got UPS's in then all these blame assessments turned out not to be true. Monitors do last more than 2 yrs of non-stop use, hard drives do last more than a year, etc, etc, etc, lol. I have been running a used 22 in Compaq monitor for over 2 yrs now and its likely 10 yrs old.




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[firewolfrl]

garebo,
I am laughing right now....YOU ARE SO RIGHT

I preach at my customers too about back-ups. Where I live there are mostly cranberry growers. and boy, they have wells and water pumps EVERYWHERE. It not take long for word of mouth to get around when one grower loses all his data and pays over $3,000 to get the data recovered because all of his crop data and employee paychecks are on the drive and he faied to backup and was too cheap to put in a UPS. when one waterpump turns on its no big deal...when 40 to 100 turn on the whole area voltages drop 10-20%...LOL...the electric company tried to use the electronic meters that report back to the company the usage data...they all failed and it was determined that the multiple 240 A.C. motors caused the failures. go figure

seeing lights flicker is an indicator, but, sometimes the drop is so quick the eyes don't register it happened. furnaces and air conditioners take their toll too.


I went to one house and the wiring was old and where the computer was at it was reversed....

mixedboxer... good luck and I hope this helps

 

[garebo]

seeing lights flicker is an indicator, but, sometimes the drop is so quick the eyes don't register it happened. furnaces and air conditioners take their toll too." I agree, especially about it happening so fast the eyes dont register it happened! And how about when we arent even anywhere near the pc or a light to notice? It happens a lot. It wouldnt surprise me if half of all computer hardware failures was due to power issues, power wasnt built to handle pc's in the first place and i bet its not designed to the standards that are needed as of this very day.

Mixedboxer, how are you doing on your end?


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[mixedboxer]

i got a new case, and swapped everything over. it now has 2x120mm fans a 60mm fan on the side graphics card fan cpu fan and psu fan, in the new 400w power supply and i reformated the 80gb drive at a friends house and its up and running so far the drives are around 30 degrees c so we will see how it does, so far everything is working

 

[garebo]

I think you may have read just a bit about UPS's so i wont go there again,lol.

Hope the new case and fans sort out the issues. There are also hard drive fans that screw right to the hard drive, you can get them online for $10 or less.


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