No Harddrive Section...

[penguin463]

First thread i've made here *waves*

Anyways, i don't know if anyone else has ever experienced this problem, though i highly doubt it.

This has happened for the third time now. I turn off my computer, whenever, because i am leaving or something. I return only to find that when i try to turn it on, it doesn't work. It freezes up right as it begins to load windows. I have 3x80gb Harddrives in RAID 0, so if i lose one drive i lose all of my information (yay for me).

What is wierd is that the last two times that this happened, i simply took apart my case, and examined the drives. Blew off the dust, and somehow, for some reason, it worked. The only problem is that i have an acrylic case, and in order to get at my hard drives i have to take the entire back side off of my computer, which means pretty much disassembling the whole thing. not my idea of a party.

My computer specs:
Asus A8N-SLI mobo
AMD Athlon 64 3700+
OCZ DDR 3200 Memmory 2x 1024
XFX 7800gt
3x Western Digital 80gb sata drives


I don't know if the problem is dust, or what. It is starting to make me mad.

Either way, I apologise if this is in the wrong forum, and a move would be greatly appreciated if it is. >.<

And also, hello everyone

[Passive]

Hi, first response.
Not sure if this is the problem, but if there is not enough free space on your hard drive/s windows can not create a page file and therefore can not fully initiate the boot up process.
Try putting the drive that your computer boots from (the drive windows is installed on) into a separate computer as a slave and try to get 20-25% free space, also while its in the other computer, defrag it:D (helped me alot in this situation).

My computer did a similar thing and this was the problem.
Hope this helps.

[FyR]

I had a problem similar to this in that after a re-assembly and dust removal everything seems to work again. One thing ive found with hard drives and intermitent faults like you describe are usually a dodgy connection either in the power loom or the connector, which is solved by you re-assembling.

Have a look at any joins in your power loom, make sure everything is ok by wiggling the power wires whilst testing with a multimeter, this will show up any intermitent faults.

Also sata power and data cable's are crap in my opinion, ive alaways hated the design as they seen to be loose in the drive all the time, not like a good old molex! Make sure you sata connectors are all pushed fully home and not wobbly ect.

I once had a graphics card that would do the exact same thing you have described, it turned out the join in the power wire that fed the card was intemitent and was only connectiong every now and then.

Good luck with your problem.

Paul

[penguin463]

Hi, first response.
Not sure if this is the problem, but if there is not enough free space on your hard drive/s windows can not create a page file and therefore can not fully initiate the boot up process.
Try putting the drive that your computer boots from (the drive windows is installed on) into a separate computer as a slave and try to get 20-25% free space, also while its in the other computer, defrag it:D (helped me alot in this situation).

My computer did a similar thing and this was the problem.
Hope this helps.

Hmm, Well, Sadly I can't do this because the drives are in RAID 0, so i owuld have to do all 3 >.<. I usually have about 20gb free, out of 240, so i think that is fine.

What i am going to do is order a 250gb drive for an external and back everything i care about up. Then i will just wait and see if the problem arrises again, and see if i can figure out which one of the three drives is the culprit.

Last night i ended up taking apart my computer, and hooking it all back up flat on a table, with space between all of the HD's. I was going to see if one of them made the sound that i knew was involved in the problem, but my computer booted up just fine. So i couldn't figure out witch of the drives is bad.

Oh well, its working now.

And thank you for the help guys =D

[.jrauck]

Something simular happened to my brother lke this. IT took us a week or so to figure it out, but we did and now his computer works. If you possibly have another PSU(Power Supply) swap it out with your current one. The problem could be that your PSU is going out and it might not be getting enought power to power your computer up. So if you don't have another PSU then go to a computer store that has PSUs and see if you can take them back within 30 days or whatever(even if it works). See if thats the problem.

If that doesn't work check out your Power button and make sure the wire is not damaged. If thats not the problem then im not sure.

[penguin463]

Something simular happened to my brother lke this. IT took us a week or so to figure it out, but we did and now his computer works. If you possibly have another PSU(Power Supply) swap it out with your current one. The problem could be that your PSU is going out and it might not be getting enought power to power your computer up. So if you don't have another PSU then go to a computer store that has PSUs and see if you can take them back within 30 days or whatever(even if it works). See if thats the problem.

If that doesn't work check out your Power button and make sure the wire is not damaged. If thats not the problem then im not sure.

Well, it works right now, so i am happy about that.

It isn't my power button or anything, because i get a POST, and everything powers up, it is just when it trys to load windows that it screws up.

Either way, I got it to work and i have a 250gb External on its way to my house from newegg. Once i get that I will back up my stuffs and if the problem occurs again, I will just figure out which drive is bad and test it and such.

[DaveW]

Could be that the drives are overheating-what are you cooling them with?

-Dave

[.jrauck]

Oh ok I kind of misunderstood, I thought it just wouldn't start up at all. Yes like dave suggested that could be a problem, or you could just simply have a virus.

[Razors Edge]

Hardrive coolers help out tonz. I blew over 8 hardrives becuase of cooling. One of them was a 500 gig :(

Just buy a 300 gig hardrive dude. its 1 hardrive, give it the necisary cooling and you'll run fine.

[penguin463]

Could be that the drives are overheating-what are you cooling them with?

-Dave

I have on 80mm fan mounted in the front of my case right in front of all three drives.


Hardrive coolers help out tonz. I blew over 8 hardrives becuase of cooling. One of them was a 500 gig :(

Just buy a 300 gig hardrive dude. its 1 hardrive, give it the necisary cooling and you'll run fine.

I have a 250g HD on the way with an external USB case, to back up lots of my stuff, and for a bit more room. After i back it up i will probably take out my RAID setup. It is just a pain in the ass

[simon275]

Yeah I reckon RAID setups are more trouble then they are worth I reckon. I upgraded to a bigger HDD. And took out the other two. Sold one and put the other one in an external incolosure. I think it suffers from heat problems.