Weird hard drive issue

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Thread: Weird hard drive issue

  1. #1
    Catfish
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    Weird hard drive issue

    A couple of weeks ago I purchased a second hard drive (500GB SATA Western Digital) because I wanted more storage space and to play around with dual-booting Windows XP and 7. Initially everything worked fine, and I was able to install Windows 7 without any hitch.

    After a few days my computer would start to crash when I used Windows 7 or tried to access files in the new hard drive from Windows XP. It got to the point where my computer stopped recognizing the new HD, so I RMA'd it to Western Digital and got a new drive a few days later. I install the new drive and try to install Windows 7 on it, but during the installation process I'm told that the Windows 7 installer can't format the new drive. I boot into Windows XP, try to format it that way, get an error message again. I try a different SATA cable and a different SATA port on my motherboard, no luck there. At this point I'm starting to scratch my head about what could be going on, since getting two bad hard drives in a row seems very unlikely.

    One thing that I still want to try is plugging the new hard drive into the SATA and power cables that my DVD drive currently uses since I know that those ports and cables work fine. If that doesn't work then the only thing I can imagine is that I was very unlucky with hard drives. Any other guesses about what could be going on?
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  2. #2
    Great White Shark Un4given's Avatar
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    You do have Windows XP and 7 running in different partitions, right?
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  3. #3
    Catfish
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    Yes. Two different hard drives actually, sorry if I wasn't clear about that. I have Windows XP on my old hard drive, and I had installed Windows 7 on the new hard drive.
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  4. #4
    Catfish
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    Is it possible that a bad SATA power cable could be causing this issue? I read on a couple of forums that they can be tempermental if you're using a converter to convert a standard 4-pin plug into a SATA power plug. I guess I'll find out this evening after I give it a try with my DVD drive power cable.
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  5. #5
    Mako Shark wh666-666's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ppatin View Post
    Is it possible that a bad SATA power cable could be causing this issue? I read on a couple of forums that they can be tempermental if you're using a converter to convert a standard 4-pin plug into a SATA power plug. I guess I'll find out this evening after I give it a try with my DVD drive power cable.
    It could be and that was going to be a suggestion.

    Sata power connectors either off the psu or an adaptor tend to be quite crappy, compared to moxe connections.
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  6. #6
    Catfish
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    Ok, I'll post what happens when I try a different power connector. I found it odd that a bad power cable would allow my BIOS to recognize the hard drive but now allow me to format it, however I can't come up with a more likely explanation for what's going on.
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  7. #7
    Mako Shark wh666-666's Avatar
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    Sometimes you can get intermittent power if the connection is loose.


    Another possibility is sata support in the bios. Some motherboards, require that you disable native sata support, install the OS, install the storage matrix drivers/ahci drivers, restart and enable native sata support, enjoy.

    You can check your motherboard manual or flick through the bios and see if it could be an issue.
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  8. #8
    Catfish
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    Quote Originally Posted by wh666-666 View Post
    Another possibility is sata support in the bios. Some motherboards, require that you disable native sata support, install the OS, install the storage matrix drivers/ahci drivers, restart and enable native sata support, enjoy.

    You can check your motherboard manual or flick through the bios and see if it could be an issue.
    I'd considered that, however when I first installed the new hard drive it worked perfectly for the first few days. That makes a loose connector seem much more likely.
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  9. #9
    Catfish
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    I plugged in the power cable that I normally use for my DVD drive and it does not appear to have made a difference
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  10. #10
    Catfish
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    I ended up calling WD tech support, and they told me to RMA this drive as well. I was able to detect the drive in the Windows XP disk manager, it passed all of its SMART checks, but when I tried to format it I always got an error. Weird. Oh well, hopefully the third time will be a charm...
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  11. #11
    Catfish
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    Got the third new hard drive yesterday, this one works fine. I guess the previous drive was defective.
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  12. #12
    Hammerhead Shark Spank_Me_Hard's Avatar
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    In the future, I'd recommend running the disk diagnostics provided by the disk's manufacturer. I've had a number of situations where SMART wouldn't find an issue with the disk but the manufacturer's diagnostics would.
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  13. #13
    Catfish
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    Quote Originally Posted by Spank_Me_Hard View Post
    In the future, I'd recommend running the disk diagnostics provided by the disk's manufacturer. I've had a number of situations where SMART wouldn't find an issue with the disk but the manufacturer's diagnostics would.
    I actually did download WD's diagnostic program. It didn't find any issues.
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  14. #14
    Hammerhead Shark Spank_Me_Hard's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ppatin View Post
    I actually did download WD's diagnostic program. It didn't find any issues.
    LOL!

    Nice. Inspires confidence eh?
    Quote Originally Posted by Concerned Citizen View Post
    We should nuke the United States.
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