HD failure or PS problem?

[malcore]

System:
PIII 800
Gigabyte GA-6VX7-4X-AP Motherboard
512 Mb PC 133 SDRAM
40 Gig Western Digital HDD WD07040
GF4 Ti 4400
SB Audigy
Ricoh 16x10x32x CDR
Teac Cd Rom
Teac floppy
2 case fans 80mm
Generic case with 300W PS
WinME

This sytem has been running beautifully. Just the other day, while downloading new drivers for the GF4, the Hard drive started shutting off and back on, causing a crash. Didn't know what to think. Thought maybe virus. Scanned, but halfway through, HD shuts off and back on, shuts off and back on, crash.Not a big worry in the way of data loss, I back up regularly.
I was going to reformat this machine anyway, so I decide to do that. Halfway through formatting the logical DOS drives, hard drive shuts off and back on.
So, now I know for sure this is hardware specific.
Does this sound like the power supply finally decided to tell me that I'm running too much for it? Or is the HDD slowly dying on me?
Which do you feel I should replace?

[gwallen4]

Have you tried unplugging then replugging the hard drive power and data cables.

Also it is fairly easy to measure the powersupply voltages if you have a voltmeter. Use any free HDD power connector.

Yellow = +12 volts
Red = + 5 volts
Black = ground.

Watch the 12V and 5V leads as the HD turns on and off.

[malcore]

I don't have a voltmeter. I did notice when I went into the bios to check power and temps in hardware monitor, that the +5 voltages were fluctuating around the 4.8 to 4.95 range.
I will try replugging the cables, but I'm pretty sure something needs to be replaced, just not sure which. Thanks.

[setoguro]

Try unplugging the CD-R and using that connector for the HDD but leave the CD-R unconnected. Maybe the CD-ROM also just to see if you can get the HDD up and running with out problems.

[gwallen4]

You could pull the HD out and use it as a slave on another computer to see if it keeps tuning on and off.

Or you could go to Radio Shack and get a cheap voltameter.

Setoguro has a good idea, also, to try a different power connector.

Those 5V voltages are okay but the fluctuation seems a little high (shouldn't fluctuate that much). Does the fluctuation occur when the drive is turning on and off? I guess a hard drive turning on and off could cause that much fluctuation.

[Whyzman]

You might want to try the WD DIAGNOSTIC (http://support.wdc.com/download/) utilities, if you haven't already, and see if you pull up an error code.

[malcore]

Back up and running again. Writing this message on my newly reformatted PIII system. Thanks guys.
Whyzman, your suggestion was the first thing I thought of, but I couldn't run any test when the HDD kept shutting off and on.
So I took Setoguro's simple and :rolleyes: obvious advice and disconnected the cdr. BEAUTIFUL. No problems with the HDD, it's integrity is in no way compromised. So, I will attempt reconnecting the cdr after all seems stable with the new format. If anything, it was a connection or at worst my PS was struggling under too much of a load.
Probably a good idea to get a higher wattage anyway considering what I'm running on this sytem.

Anyway, back in business and thanks for the input.:)

[Whyzman]

Glad you're up and runnin! The Maxtor diagnostic takes about 90 seconds to run...was just thinking perhaps you could sneak in the WD diagnostic before it went beddy bye on you! :D

Well, moot point now....;)

[Druff]

I also have some probs with my quiet new 40GB WesternDigital (7200),
one evening (morning) I turned the machine off, and at next morning I had an inaccessible Bootdevice..., k, do scandisk, try fdisk check other small progs like, modified fdisk, compared with simple scandisk...
nothing works,
right at the second point of Scandisk(forgot the name) it stops always at 72% , is it damaged?? how could that happen??
with an older hdd3,2 and a fast win98 installation, I could get my data from the WD40GB, but how if it is damaged??

Why can´t I format my HDD, I tried several different Bootdisks, first I thought there is the prob but scandisk stops?? and tells me:
while reading FAT of drive C: , Scandisk found found Datalosses,
cause of this losses , ScanDisk cant correct any problems on drive...
or so....

greetz Druff

[mjc]

Do the same procedure as above, except grab the WD diagnositcs.....

http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp

[Druff]

simply dont works , we tried all kind of connections, with and without CD-rom (cd-r was connected by USB,also removed...)
next I´ll try to put it into another comp. try to format it, there, - but it won´t work =(
what could have caused this?? ,simply turned it off and on...
my PS has 250Watt and it supplies only that Hdd+GF2+Networkcard, never had probs with... :confused: and there where times it supplied 2 more cards, another network and a second sound.

greetz Druff

[Druff]

at moment I tried to create a new Dos-Partition, deleted the old one,
and I only used 70% of total diskSpace, wanted to create the other 30% after it works,
But now, it says wrong media type c:, sth. like that,
still trying, just wanted to keep U updated...

greetz Druff

[Druff]

in meantime (2minutes later)
Scandisk (of win98 -CD !!! ) started to format c: :D
let´s see
wow 11% :cool:

greetz Druff

______________________________________
Will be right back from the LIVE-documentary out of my room

[Druff]

""
right at the second point of Scandisk(forgot the name) it stops always at 72% , is it damaged?? how could that happen??
""
remember this?? =)
Duno how this could happen, but know how to solve the problem:D

goto Fdisk and delete old-Dos Partition
create a new one, and at the point where it asks if you want to use the FULL-Partion, you can tell him to use onle parts of it, in Byte/Bit(dont remember) and , !!! and this is great =)
you can use "%" !
and if you had same probs with Scandisk, it will stop at the point HDD is damaged(or whatever) and u can use the same number in %
Scandisk("%") == fdisk("%")
Scandisk stopped at 72% ===> cut your HDD at 71% , I used 70%, in this case

greetz Druff

__________________________________________________ ____________________
thx for your help , but this time i was faster, hope this helps you too,
dont think I wish you such probs ;)