Dezroy

Hi There,

I'll start off with my specs then the problem.

Dell Dimension 8400
Windows XP Home
Pentium 4HT 3.2GHz
4 x 512MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz Dual Interleaved
SATA0 160GB Maxtor 6Y160M0
SATA1 200GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 SATA150 (had about 12GB free space) <--PROBLEM DRIVE
ATi Radeon X850 Platinum XT

Ok, my HDD had been working fine but I noticed that when I tried to delete a particular file I would get a I/O Device Error.

I tried to Defrag the drive, the analysis completed and said my drive needed a defrag but when I tried to defrag the whole system froze and I was forced to restart the computer via the power button. Tried again, same result.

Through Disc Management I decided to Error-check the disk. Rightly or wrongly (I don't know) I checked the boxes for "Automatically fix file system errors" and "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors"

There were no warnings of potential data loss so I set it on it's way. It rebooted my computer and started doing it's thing.

I left my computer overnight to run through the scan as I had no idea how long it would take but assumed it would be awhile.

When I got back to my PC I noticed it was hanging at Stage 4 of 5 at 0% completed. I decided to leave it in case it was just a slow stage. The screen then goes blank and boots Windows. I now cannot find the HDD in My Computer or in Disk Management.

I reboot the computer and got the following error message:

Error auto-sensing secondary hard disk drive0

No boot device available
Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility.

I go into BIOS to disable my secondary drive (SATA1) and computer now boots no problem. NB BIOS is reporting my drive as a Maxtor Calypso of unknown capacity.

I've tried using the drive in another computer and the POST just says it cannot see SATA1 and boots normally.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time,
Dezroy

justpassingby

Try the manufacturer tool :
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...00dd04090aRCRD

Seems Seagate acquired maxtor...

There's also this step by step troubleshooting guide : http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/sup...terfaces/sata/
Yeah, it's written that it's for seagate disks, but I assure you I got there by clicking on a link to troubleshoot maxtor sata drives

Dezroy

Thanks, I've tried using SeaTools DOS via CD (no FDD drive) but it always crashes for me at the T&Cs... Odd.

It seems weird to me that when the 'faulty' drive is connected it makes it so the boot drive (separate HDD) cannot be seen by the computer.

I'll have access to a SATA external enclosure soon so I'll see if I can get SeaTools Windows to work.

Thanks for the help so far,
Dezroy

geek73

Yes Segate bought out Maxtor.. About 3 months ago. It was a big hassle for people who needed an RMA.