HDD shuts down by itself on CF-45

DaveOxford · 08-22-2006, 11:04 AM

Hi. Can some techie out there tell me what might be going on with my Panasonic Toughbook CF-45 192RAM 266MHz 6GB (Toshiba 2144 HDD) running XP Pro (yes, I know. It runs v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-ly but it does everything I need it to do). It works OK for several days, or even weeks, then, without warning, or any consistent trigger that I can work out, the HDD turns itself off, then on, then off again, and so on. This is signalled by the descending whine of the disk spinning down. This happens more and more frequently until the whole thing hangs. I have found I can 'cure' it by unplugging the HDD and plugging it back in again. Then it works OK for a few days or weeks again.

I am mystified. This is an old unit, and the disk has one bad sector, but I cannot think what is causing this. Is it a hardware fault - perhaps the build up of static inside the machine, or a frayed ribbon cable? Or a software problem. I thought it might be to do with powersaving settings, but the same thing happens however I set them.

I suppose I could try upgrading the disk, and see if the problem persists. However, I am not sure how to do this, and I gather that there will be an upper limit to the size of disk that the BIOS will handle. Can anyone tell me what the limit is. I don't need more than 20 gigs - can I just plug another HDD in and load up XP?

Thanks for any help or suggestions you might have.

Dave

**hwm54112** · 08-22-2006, 08:12 PM

Hello and Welcome to TSF,

For starters, always run manufacturer's diagnosticson the drive.

As far as replacing the drive see this thread, posts 7 and 9 apply specificaly to you, what you face as far as drive barriers. Finding specifics about that model are tough.

Bill

DaveOxford · 08-23-2006, 11:40 AM

Hi Bill,

Glad I found this forum - thanks for your help. Looked at manufacturer diagnostics site you suggest. Not much luck as they say: 'Unfortunately Toshiba do not ... etc' However, the drive is heaving and I need more elbow room anyway. I'll take a chance and throw in a cheap second hand unit from Ebay, and hope for 8 megs, or perhaps up to 32. I'll post the results in case there are other CF-45 owners struggling with the same issues.

Dave

DaveOxford · 09-14-2006, 11:32 AM

Just to complete this thread, I'm reporting back on progress. I am very pleased with the results, but a bit mystified about how I have got there while seemingly overcoming the disk size barrier already mentioned in this thread.

This is what I did: I mounted a new 40 gig HDD in a USB backup drive casing, then used Acronis True Image 9.0 to copy the installed 6 gig drive onto it. I then mounted the new 40 gig drive in my machine (Toughbook CF-45 266MHz 160Mb ram - yes, sorry I misreported this earlier in the thread as 192) and booted up. It worked perfectly, preserving all my settings, files ... everything. Not only that, things seemed to be going a bit faster, and I guess this is because modern disks are a bit faster to give up their data than the old ones. I was impressed.

But wait. I was expecting to find that only 12 gig or perhaps 32 gigs of the drive would be recognised, as per the previous remarks in this thread. But all the indications are that the full 39 or so gigs are being detected in FAT32. True, the 4.5 gigs of stuff I had on the old disk had spread out to take up over 6 gigs, and I understand that this is because of the new larger block (sector? chunk? forgotten the word, but you know what I mean) size stores the stuff less economically. I loaded well over 12 gigs of stuff on the disk, just to make sure it could be done.

So, I'm pleased to have exchanged my crowded old 6 gig disk for a 40 gig disk, and I have to report that True Image worked faultlessly (BTW, I have no connection with Acronis) Still a bit confused, though, about that upper limit. Will my data disappear in some future retributive disk blizzard?

**laboye** · 09-20-2006, 02:49 PM

Well, your were experienceing fragmentation. This is a phonomenon that causes sectors on the drive to be wasted to to everyday use (deleting and adding files and data). If your computer supports the 40GB hard drive, you shouldn't have to worry about any of those barriers. Older computers may experience problems if the BIOS is unable to address space on hard drived past a certain point, thus barriers. If Windows can see the entire 40GB, you are safe.

08-22-2006, 11:04 AM	#1 (permalink)
DaveOxford Registered User Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 10 OS: XP	HDD shuts down by itself on CF-45 Hi. Can some techie out there tell me what might be going on with my Panasonic Toughbook CF-45 192RAM 266MHz 6GB (Toshiba 2144 HDD) running XP Pro (yes, I know. It runs v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-ly but it does everything I need it to do). It works OK for several days, or even weeks, then, without warning, or any consistent trigger that I can work out, the HDD turns itself off, then on, then off again, and so on. This is signalled by the descending whine of the disk spinning down. This happens more and more frequently until the whole thing hangs. I have found I can 'cure' it by unplugging the HDD and plugging it back in again. Then it works OK for a few days or weeks again. I am mystified. This is an old unit, and the disk has one bad sector, but I cannot think what is causing this. Is it a hardware fault - perhaps the build up of static inside the machine, or a frayed ribbon cable? Or a software problem. I thought it might be to do with powersaving settings, but the same thing happens however I set them. I suppose I could try upgrading the disk, and see if the problem persists. However, I am not sure how to do this, and I gather that there will be an upper limit to the size of disk that the BIOS will handle. Can anyone tell me what the limit is. I don't need more than 20 gigs - can I just plug another HDD in and load up XP? Thanks for any help or suggestions you might have. Dave

09-20-2006, 02:49 PM	#5 (permalink)
laboye TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Hollywood, FL Posts: 1,246 OS: Windows xp Pro/Vista Beta 2/Ubuntu 6.06 LTS My System	Well, your were experienceing fragmentation. This is a phonomenon that causes sectors on the drive to be wasted to to everyday use (deleting and adding files and data). If your computer supports the 40GB hard drive, you shouldn't have to worry about any of those barriers. Older computers may experience problems if the BIOS is unable to address space on hard drived past a certain point, thus barriers. If Windows can see the entire 40GB, you are safe. __________________ Repair Windows XP Guide --- Resolutions Crazy Computer that I'm saving up for::Antec P180 Case;PC Pwr&Cooling 1kW Quad SLI PSU;Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe;Intel Core2 XE X6800;Corsair TWIN2XP2048 2GB PC2-6400 DDR2 RAM;2xAsus GeForce 7950 GX2;BFG PhysX Accel.;IBM DVD-RAM/Plextor DVD±RW;Seagate 750GB HD 7200RPM;WDX 150GB 10000RPM;Vigor Monsoon TEC Cooler

08-22-2006, 08:12 PM	#2 (permalink)
hwm54112 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 2,233 OS: WINXP	Hello and Welcome to TSF, For starters, always run manufacturer's diagnosticson the drive. As far as replacing the drive see this thread, posts 7 and 9 apply specificaly to you, what you face as far as drive barriers. Finding specifics about that model are tough. Bill

08-23-2006, 11:40 AM	#3 (permalink)
DaveOxford Registered User Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 10 OS: XP	Hi Bill, Glad I found this forum - thanks for your help. Looked at manufacturer diagnostics site you suggest. Not much luck as they say: 'Unfortunately Toshiba do not ... etc' However, the drive is heaving and I need more elbow room anyway. I'll take a chance and throw in a cheap second hand unit from Ebay, and hope for 8 megs, or perhaps up to 32. I'll post the results in case there are other CF-45 owners struggling with the same issues. Dave

09-14-2006, 11:32 AM	#4 (permalink)
DaveOxford Registered User Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 10 OS: XP	Just to complete this thread, I'm reporting back on progress. I am very pleased with the results, but a bit mystified about how I have got there while seemingly overcoming the disk size barrier already mentioned in this thread. This is what I did: I mounted a new 40 gig HDD in a USB backup drive casing, then used Acronis True Image 9.0 to copy the installed 6 gig drive onto it. I then mounted the new 40 gig drive in my machine (Toughbook CF-45 266MHz 160Mb ram - yes, sorry I misreported this earlier in the thread as 192) and booted up. It worked perfectly, preserving all my settings, files ... everything. Not only that, things seemed to be going a bit faster, and I guess this is because modern disks are a bit faster to give up their data than the old ones. I was impressed. But wait. I was expecting to find that only 12 gig or perhaps 32 gigs of the drive would be recognised, as per the previous remarks in this thread. But all the indications are that the full 39 or so gigs are being detected in FAT32. True, the 4.5 gigs of stuff I had on the old disk had spread out to take up over 6 gigs, and I understand that this is because of the new larger block (sector? chunk? forgotten the word, but you know what I mean) size stores the stuff less economically. I loaded well over 12 gigs of stuff on the disk, just to make sure it could be done. So, I'm pleased to have exchanged my crowded old 6 gig disk for a 40 gig disk, and I have to report that True Image worked faultlessly (BTW, I have no connection with Acronis) Still a bit confused, though, about that upper limit. Will my data disappear in some future retributive disk blizzard?