[datafox]

Hi,

I'm having a strange problem with my new Harddisk (Maxtor 6Y120P0, 120 GB, Primary Master).

The HDD is not recognized when I start up my computer after I didnt use it for a while. When I do a cold boot in the morning or after work, the BIOS does not recognize the HDD (it does not spin up).

Then I shutdown and restart a couple of times and at some point, the HDD spins up, is recognized properly by the BIOS, starts up without any problem and runs for hours and days. :no:

Even restarts wont stop it, the drive has no problem anymore.

My Question:

1) HOW can i FIX this ??
2) Is the Motherboard or the HDD the problem ??


Some more information:
The whole system and components are about 3 months old. I tried another IDE-cable, changed powerplugs, unplugged the primary slave, tried CS/Master jumper settings, even tried running the HDD as secondary Master.
Guess what, nothing changed.

Hope some1 can help me....

----------------
Asus A7N8X Deluxe Rev. 2, Award BIOS (05/14/03)
AMD Athlon XP, 2000 MHz (7.5 x 267) 2400+
1024 MB DDR SDRAM
Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9500 PRO (128 MB)

Maxtor 6Y120P0 (120 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133, Prim.Master)
Western Digital WDC WD800BB-00DKA0 (80 GB, 5400 RPM, Prim.Slave)

_NEC DVD_RW ND-1300A (DVD-RW, Sec.Master)
LITE-ON LTR-24102B (CD-RW, Sec.Slave)

Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional (SP3)

 

[Guest]

Welcome to TSF datafox.............

What have you got for a power supply in there?

 

[datafox]

HI

Thanx for the warm welcome. :winkgrin:

Power Supply is 300W by CodeGen.

A friend of mine has almost the same system, just another CPU, runs perfectly.

 

[johnwill]

I would bet on the hard disk. This used to be a more common issue a few years ago, and it was because the hard disk didn't spin up. The heads would actually stick to the platters in the landing zone, very ugly. Several times when there was no way to get the disk working, I'd take it out, cable it up, and hit the power. I'd then rotate the disk sharply around it's rotational axis, and it would usually break the heads free and allow access to the drive. Needless to say, we got any useful data off the drive in a hurry!

 

[datafox]

well, that sounds kind a strange to me.
The HDD is working for over 2 weeks now having this problem and still keeps spinning up after Switching ON x times.

Does this still look like a HDD getting their heads stuck in the landing zone??

I'm clueless....

 

[Guest]

This is probably going to sound a bit strange but try turning the hard drive upside down and run it like that for a while and see what happens.

 

[datafox]

lol, I'll try that, will tell if it works ....

bye

 

[Volt-Schwibe]

hm

upside down?

didnt know that it would make it perform any different, i have used them in all positions, but i wasnt actually looking for said effects.

~BoB~

 

[datafox]

The drive finally quit completely and didn't spin up at all ever again. I got a full backup and the HDD replaced today without problems. (would not have gone to my dealer in case this drive was not all dead).

Summarize: No power problem, No heads getting stuck in landing zone, just simply a dying drive. Didnt spin up anymore. :dead:

Thank you for your suggestions, keep on helping. :winkgrin:

PS: Tried Power supply before and put it into another computer.

 

[Aedak]

Man I'm really hating my A7N8X...so many problems and conflicts with other hardware makes it almost not worth messing with...
Well anyways... I had the same problem with mine until I messed with the Drive's jumper settings. Seems the default settings using master result in a failure to recognize the drive at all. Try resetting the jumpers or take it out completely.