DMA causes head crash(?)

OhGod · 11-10-2007, 07:23 AM

Heya all, bit of a curiosity here...

Got a 320GB Maxtor IDE HDD that's been working fine for a year or so as a storage drive - XP installed on a separate SATA drive.

Last night it started making horrible 'whiir clunk clunk whiiirr clunk clunk' type noises that I figure are a head crash, or other hardware fault. About 10 minutes later XP BSOD'd and upon reboot would get part way through booting up when the 'whir clunk' would start and XP would just hang.

As I have quite a bit of stuff on there that I wanted and wasn't backed up (yeah, yeah, more fool me) I thought I'd give a Linux rescue CD a go.

Half way through booting and we get the 'whir cliunk' from the HDD and Linux hangs. Reboot and figured I'd play with the boot options in a last ditch attempt. One of the boot options suggests disabling DMA if you're having HDD trouble - now from the noise the HDD makes I figure it has to be a hardware fault, so can't see how disabling DMA would help, but give it a go anyway - and it works!?

I'm now part way through copying a bunch of files onto a different HDD, and it's working fine, albeit rather slowly - no horrible clunking noises, no death whirring....all fine.

Any ideas why DMA makes it sounds as if it's falling apart, whereas PIO (I think that's it?) seems to work fine?

Is there a way to disable DMA ouside of Windows XP (seeing as I can't boot with the HDD attached) - or should I just retire this HDD anyway, and move on?

Cheers for you help/thoughts,
OhGod.

**manic** · 11-10-2007, 07:31 AM

You should be able to change the dma mode in bios, but be glad
you can recover, dump the drive and move on,,Your lucky,,lol

**Deleted090308** · 11-11-2007, 10:33 AM

Does the drive make the same noises if you hook it up in another computer?
If not, I would say you have a motherboard/BIOS problem - or, if you're lucky, a bad ribbon cable.

11-10-2007, 07:23 AM	#1 (permalink)
OhGod Registered User Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 1 OS: Windows XP SP2	DMA causes head crash(?) Heya all, bit of a curiosity here... Got a 320GB Maxtor IDE HDD that's been working fine for a year or so as a storage drive - XP installed on a separate SATA drive. Last night it started making horrible 'whiir clunk clunk whiiirr clunk clunk' type noises that I figure are a head crash, or other hardware fault. About 10 minutes later XP BSOD'd and upon reboot would get part way through booting up when the 'whir clunk' would start and XP would just hang. As I have quite a bit of stuff on there that I wanted and wasn't backed up (yeah, yeah, more fool me) I thought I'd give a Linux rescue CD a go. Half way through booting and we get the 'whir cliunk' from the HDD and Linux hangs. Reboot and figured I'd play with the boot options in a last ditch attempt. One of the boot options suggests disabling DMA if you're having HDD trouble - now from the noise the HDD makes I figure it has to be a hardware fault, so can't see how disabling DMA would help, but give it a go anyway - and it works!? I'm now part way through copying a bunch of files onto a different HDD, and it's working fine, albeit rather slowly - no horrible clunking noises, no death whirring....all fine. Any ideas why DMA makes it sounds as if it's falling apart, whereas PIO (I think that's it?) seems to work fine? Is there a way to disable DMA ouside of Windows XP (seeing as I can't boot with the HDD attached) - or should I just retire this HDD anyway, and move on? Cheers for you help/thoughts, OhGod.

11-10-2007, 07:31 AM	#2 (permalink)
manic Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Florida Posts: 4,880 OS: xp	Re: DMA causes head crash(?) You should be able to change the dma mode in bios, but be glad you can recover, dump the drive and move on,,Your lucky,,lol __________________

11-11-2007, 10:33 AM	#3 (permalink)
Deleted090308 Not... Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 22,277 OS: Xp	Re: DMA causes head crash(?) Does the drive make the same noises if you hook it up in another computer? If not, I would say you have a motherboard/BIOS problem - or, if you're lucky, a bad ribbon cable.