intermittent boot problem

[trouble1]

I need an answer as to why a drive fails to boot intermittently and what "MAXTOR DRACO100 DAC10SCZ" means when it fails as opposed to "MAXTOR 53073H6 DAC10SC0" when it does boot. It makes a squealing sound when it isn't going to boot. Sometimes it takes 2 or 3 tries to get started. Sometimes it will boot several times in a row with no problem. Very aggravating. Warped drive? Bios not good at picking up 7200rpm? Am hoping someone else has already solved the same problem. Thanks for any replies.

 

[Sival]

Sounds like the drive is going bad, especially since you are hearing abnormal sounds. I'd run the Maxtor diagnostic program at this point to see if it finds anything.

 

[trouble1]

Thank you. I have run the Maxtor utility and it says the drive is OK. Maybe the intermittent nature of the problem says to try it again. It has been happening off and on now for about a 8 months.

 

[SYAR2003]

If the drive i SMART capable and enabled through BIOS .
Then install a SMART watching utility that stays resident
in your systray .
This will pop up with alarm if your drive starts failing
operations .
Then you can watch and have control of it all the time.

Free one(non resident):

http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2248-10193821.html?tag=lst-0-1

30 day trial:

http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2086-10166998.html?tag=lst-0-2

Im sure there is lots of others also

SYAR

 

[trouble1]

I think you are on to the problem. The drive passed the advanced test diagnostic but when I ran the Installation confirmation, everything passed except the last one: SMART attribute check. There have been no SMART messages from the BIOS. The Maxtor site dismisses reports from third party utilities. The Maxtor diagnostic utility should be generating a 6 digit error code if the drive needs replacing. I will contact Maxtor for their comments. Actually, I was going to see about disabling SMART in the BIOS and look for a BIOS upgrade. As you might guess, I am not looking for the low level format or replace the drive answer but am willing to recognize reality in a pinch.
Any idea why this shows up only when I run the
"installation confirmation"?