PLZ HELP!! Hard Drive broke mysteriously many times!!

[Guest_imported]

okay,
here you go...basically, i bought a maxtor 30gb hard drive and it broke 3 times already of the same problem. it's dead and not spinning, not detected by BIOS. dead. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHY??

HERE IS More INFO
i bought a maxtor 30 gb diamond max as an upgrade for my 3 years old computer running a 8gb quatum hard drive. It has a asus p2b motherboard with the most updated BIOS. During the 3 years, my original power supply had to be replaced. Currently, i have hooked up?
- 8gb hd
- burner
- floppy
- dvd-rom
- vid card
- network card
- sound card
- 56k modem
-
When i installed my new 30gb hard drive, it was successfully detected by my m/b with correct space. It was set up as my primary master, with my dvd-rom as my primary slave. Old 8gb hard drive was set as secondary master, burner, secondary slave. I had this set up because i want to have a good transfer between my hard drvies since they are not on teh same channels.

Anyways, I then went on to partition and installed windows. Everything was fine. Then through the week, i installed other various software. Now, i was using my newly upgraded computer for a week now and keep in my, none of my other hardware has changed. Then one mornin when i turn it on, BIOS was unable to detect my NEW 30gb hard drive. I troubleshoot it and found out iit was dead!!!! that stinks!!

so i had to return it to maxtor and they gave me a new one. That was about 3 months ago. Now with the new hard drive, this time, i even set up a cooler just to make sure it won't get too hot!!!! Still, it BROKE after a week or so.........!! FRUSTERATED! I sent in that hard drive and finally, after about a month, maxtor replaced it with a 40GB dismond plus 60. But i still haven't installed it yet.

I did some research and asked various others that i know and most of them had no clue as to why it had happened. One person suggested to that it could be my power supply was not providing a constant flow of energy and the power did not flunturate properrly...watever that meant. In another word, my power supply was workin too hard...too many device hooked up and caused my hard drive to break 2 times!!

Now the BIG QUESTION to you ALL IS....what was causing the problem!?!? ?? and what can i do to prevent it from happening again?

Any inputs would be delighted. Thanks in Advance.

- Bill

 

[gwinn7]

Did you check for viruses on your second drive?

There are some malicious ones that can destroy low level hard drive information.

It seems unlikely that its a power supply problem.

It is also a known issue with some flakey CD/DVD drives that detection of IDE devices can be difficult. If this is a possibility, I would try removing your drives and try the Maxtor 40GB by itself for awhile, then add back your drives.

Hope that helps.

Gary
gwinn7

 

[Euphaz]

The power supply problem could be one of the following:

The computer box has a weak power supply (<200 watt). For example a 150watt supply is not enough for todays burner and disk motors to spin up.

The power from the 'electic plant' could be bad in your area.

To test these issues you could use a volt meter to monitor the levels and changes (both 12VDC on the PC and 120/220VAC in outlet).

 

[WildHare]

I'll just chime in here and say I've used and installed perhaps 70 or more Maxtors in the last 5 years or so, and every one of them, so far as I know, is still running. I have three Maxi's in my case right now 24x7. They're quiet, reliable, and inexpensive.

I'm suprised at your experience, but one thing that may have a bearing on it - when Maxi bought Quantum (??) they repackaged some of the Quantum drives in Maxi boxes and shells, I THINK. Is it possible you got a sheep in wolf's clothing, so to speak?

Ex-JimAtTheFAA
78.5% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
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[Guest_imported]

I've had only good experiences with Quantum drives as a system builder.

 

[sghouse]

i vote for either a bad or inadaquate power supply.

a virus might destroy the boot sectors, etc but if i read the initial post right, he found the drives completely dead as in 'not spinnin'. never heard a virus do that.