Power supply failure causes mysterious drive dissappearance.

EdH · 01-26-2009, 05:45 PM

Hi,
My old power supply died some months back and I was forced to replace it. When I booted up, Vista didn't recognise my Hitachi TB I had installed.
I booted into Linux and it told me it had found an error, but loaded anyway.
When I restarted, both drives showed up in Grub and it worked in Vista, however the next boot after a shut down, directly into Vista, found no hard drive again.
I tried booting into Linux first, then restarting and it worked in Vista again, however now Linux won't boot up in normal mode.
I tried simply removing the TB and grub didn't recognise my local drive and wouldn't boot.
I tried switching the Sata port on the motherboard, but it still wouldn't boot.
I put my TB into a friend's computer and it recognised it's existance and name, but labeled it as a CD Drive and wouldn't read it.
I can only boot if both drives are plugged in, but it will only recognise SATAII 1.

I initially thought it was an error on my Hitachi, but as the Local disk (WD) won't boot on it's own could it be the problem?

I considered that it could be the motherboard, but my Hitachi won't work on my friends computer.

I also noticed that my coprocessor has a driver error and can't update it. Could it have been handling vital drive data when my power supply blew?

Sorry for the mass of info and questions!

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!

**raptor_pa** · 01-26-2009, 06:02 PM

The supply might have spiked voltage to the drive or the mobo when it failed. Download the diagnostic tools from the HD manufacturer's site and see if it finds any errors on teh drive...

EdH · 01-26-2009, 07:00 PM

The Hitachi Drive Fitness Test requires a floppy drive, which I don't have. It did supply an iso which I tried, but it still tried to refer to a non-existant A:\.
Is there a windows program which would do a similar job?

**blah789** · 01-26-2009, 07:03 PM

How much power does your new power supply provide? And how many drives are you using? make sure the power calbe is well seated (wiggle it a bit)

I too had a lot of woes from underpowered supplies. If there's not enough power, sometimes components will appear to fail randomly (I've had keyboard, mouse, optical drive disappear in the midst of operation, or not showing up at boot time, but the one that happens the most is hard drives, sometimes one, sometimes another - it was very hard to diagnose - the hard drive would power off - you heard a click, and everything hung - or at boot time it didn't even power on (i put my hand on it and didn't feel anything) (in the old days it was the zip drive that powered on and off in the midst of operation) - fortunately all those problems went away when I installed a 650W power supply). maybe it was because i used 3 hard drives, most rather platter-heavy (my hitachi 500 has 5 platters!) and power-hungry. nowadays i just plug in the drives i need ATM and leave the rest unplugged until i need to swap data between them.

EdH · 01-26-2009, 07:11 PM

It could be that, my old supply was 350 and my new is 400. I think it was overstressing the old one that caused it to blow.
The only reason I hesitate is that the drive doesn't come on and off, when it worked, it worked smoothly, and it behaved weirdly on my friends comp. I had intended to buy a 600+ supply, but finances have hampered me there!
What really puzzles me is that my WD doesn't work when it's on it's own, in any Sata port.

**blah789** · 01-26-2009, 08:04 PM

Not sure about the WD problem. I should have said earlier: I really have no idea about how much wattage is needed on any given PC (but you can ask other people on the forum). And yeah, power supplies can be expensive.

WishingDigiJosh · 01-27-2009, 01:56 PM

I know it might seem silly, but a high quality power supply can be the difference between just losing power, browning out, or seeing a spike in voltage that fries some of your components. A lot of people are tempted to go for the least expensive supply they can find at the wattage they think they need, but really it's just as important of a component as anything else in your box. I would get cheap RAM before getting a cheap power supply.

EdH · 02-01-2009, 08:05 AM

Hey, sorry, family emergency.
Yeah, I might look into a new power supply. I'm just a bit wary of spending money there if I'm still going to end up with no more storage space, since that's what I need!
But you're right, it was a cheap supply bought only to be a stopgap, but ending up being kept.

01-26-2009, 05:45 PM	#1 (permalink)
EdH Registered User Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 65 OS: Windows Vista / Linux, Ubuntu 7.10 My System	Power supply failure causes mysterious drive dissappearance. Hi, My old power supply died some months back and I was forced to replace it. When I booted up, Vista didn't recognise my Hitachi TB I had installed. I booted into Linux and it told me it had found an error, but loaded anyway. When I restarted, both drives showed up in Grub and it worked in Vista, however the next boot after a shut down, directly into Vista, found no hard drive again. I tried booting into Linux first, then restarting and it worked in Vista again, however now Linux won't boot up in normal mode. I tried simply removing the TB and grub didn't recognise my local drive and wouldn't boot. I tried switching the Sata port on the motherboard, but it still wouldn't boot. I put my TB into a friend's computer and it recognised it's existance and name, but labeled it as a CD Drive and wouldn't read it. I can only boot if both drives are plugged in, but it will only recognise SATAII 1. I initially thought it was an error on my Hitachi, but as the Local disk (WD) won't boot on it's own could it be the problem? I considered that it could be the motherboard, but my Hitachi won't work on my friends computer. I also noticed that my coprocessor has a driver error and can't update it. Could it have been handling vital drive data when my power supply blew? Sorry for the mass of info and questions! Thanks in advance for any help you can give me! __________________ "Just don't say anything embarrassing about memory or RAM ..." "Hah! Memory is RAM!"

01-26-2009, 06:02 PM	#2 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,934 OS: XP	Re: Power supply failure causes mysterious drive dissappearance. The supply might have spiked voltage to the drive or the mobo when it failed. Download the diagnostic tools from the HD manufacturer's site and see if it finds any errors on teh drive... __________________

01-26-2009, 07:00 PM	#3 (permalink)
EdH Registered User Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 65 OS: Windows Vista / Linux, Ubuntu 7.10 My System	Re: Power supply failure causes mysterious drive dissappearance. The Hitachi Drive Fitness Test requires a floppy drive, which I don't have. It did supply an iso which I tried, but it still tried to refer to a non-existant A:\. Is there a windows program which would do a similar job? __________________ "Just don't say anything embarrassing about memory or RAM ..." "Hah! Memory is RAM!"

01-26-2009, 07:03 PM	#4 (permalink)
blah789 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 2,333 OS: Windows 2000 SP4 and Windows XP SP3	Re: Power supply failure causes mysterious drive dissappearance. How much power does your new power supply provide? And how many drives are you using? make sure the power calbe is well seated (wiggle it a bit) I too had a lot of woes from underpowered supplies. If there's not enough power, sometimes components will appear to fail randomly (I've had keyboard, mouse, optical drive disappear in the midst of operation, or not showing up at boot time, but the one that happens the most is hard drives, sometimes one, sometimes another - it was very hard to diagnose - the hard drive would power off - you heard a click, and everything hung - or at boot time it didn't even power on (i put my hand on it and didn't feel anything) (in the old days it was the zip drive that powered on and off in the midst of operation) - fortunately all those problems went away when I installed a 650W power supply). maybe it was because i used 3 hard drives, most rather platter-heavy (my hitachi 500 has 5 platters!) and power-hungry. nowadays i just plug in the drives i need ATM and leave the rest unplugged until i need to swap data between them.

01-26-2009, 07:11 PM	#5 (permalink)
EdH Registered User Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 65 OS: Windows Vista / Linux, Ubuntu 7.10 My System	Re: Power supply failure causes mysterious drive dissappearance. It could be that, my old supply was 350 and my new is 400. I think it was overstressing the old one that caused it to blow. The only reason I hesitate is that the drive doesn't come on and off, when it worked, it worked smoothly, and it behaved weirdly on my friends comp. I had intended to buy a 600+ supply, but finances have hampered me there! What really puzzles me is that my WD doesn't work when it's on it's own, in any Sata port. __________________ "Just don't say anything embarrassing about memory or RAM ..." "Hah! Memory is RAM!"

01-26-2009, 08:04 PM	#6 (permalink)
blah789 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 2,333 OS: Windows 2000 SP4 and Windows XP SP3	Re: Power supply failure causes mysterious drive dissappearance. Not sure about the WD problem. I should have said earlier: I really have no idea about how much wattage is needed on any given PC (but you can ask other people on the forum). And yeah, power supplies can be expensive.

01-27-2009, 01:56 PM	#7 (permalink)
WishingDigiJosh Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 3 OS: OS X 10.5.6	Re: Power supply failure causes mysterious drive dissappearance. I know it might seem silly, but a high quality power supply can be the difference between just losing power, browning out, or seeing a spike in voltage that fries some of your components. A lot of people are tempted to go for the least expensive supply they can find at the wattage they think they need, but really it's just as important of a component as anything else in your box. I would get cheap RAM before getting a cheap power supply.

02-01-2009, 08:05 AM	#8 (permalink)
EdH Registered User Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 65 OS: Windows Vista / Linux, Ubuntu 7.10 My System	Re: Power supply failure causes mysterious drive dissappearance. Hey, sorry, family emergency. Yeah, I might look into a new power supply. I'm just a bit wary of spending money there if I'm still going to end up with no more storage space, since that's what I need! But you're right, it was a cheap supply bought only to be a stopgap, but ending up being kept. __________________ "Just don't say anything embarrassing about memory or RAM ..." "Hah! Memory is RAM!"