I built up the following pc about 3 weeks ago:
NEW BITS
C2D 6600 with stock cooler
Gigabyte DS4
2Gb Geil 6400 DDR2
Sapphire X1950 Pro 256Mb
Corsair HX 520W power supply
WD Caviar RE 160GB 1600YS SATA-II 16MB cache OEM
WD Caviar RE 250GB 2500YS SATA-II 16MB cache OEM
OLD BITS
Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS
Pioneer 109 DVDRW IDE
Sony 52/52/32 CDRW IDE
Coolermaster Cavalier case
Samsung 205BW lcd
All good so far!
Eveything was set up with the new Gigabyte cables that were included with the mobo, including the yellow/orange SATA cables.
Split the 160GB drive into two and installed Windows XP Pro on one half.
Installed all the drivers off the Gigabyte cd, all the Windows updates, the latest ATI and Creative drivers and then all my usual bits and pieces (Symantec Corporate antivirus, WinRAR, WinZip, MSN Messenger Live, Skype, MS Office, eMule, BitTorrent .....)
Things were ok for a day or two. Then I was getting random slowdowns (had checked for virus's and spyware) and hard disk errors.
Things got worse. Windows sometimes wouldn't boot. It would tell me system files were missing. I'd go into recovery mode, copy the files into the right place and re-boot successfully. Then the problem would come back later .....
I was getting increasingly sick of this, and re-installed Windows. This time I got a file error before it fully installed. I skipped this file and it carried on installing, but Windows was unsurprisingly unstable and my problems returned.
One final try ..... Windows wouldn't even install this time, as I the hard drive format hung at 0% ......
Tried the 250GB drive next. Was meant to be my data drive, but I was keen to get this pc up and running, so I unplugged the 160GB completely and put the 250GB in it's place. Partition, format, Windows install ...... file errors continue!!!
Several Windows installs later, I had a relatively stable build for about 3 days (just long enough to get everything as I like it, restore my Outlook profile and messages, get some wallpaper in place .... ) when I get more serious data problems and Windows refuses to boot!
I now have a 4-year-old Maxtor IDE drive temporarily hanging out the open side of my case with a very stable windows build on it, but have had to disconnect my DVDRW to install it.
I have never used SATA hard drives before but I assumed they'd be plug and play?!?!?!?!?
I had tried plugging the drives into pretty much all the SATA sockets (both the Gigabyte and Intel(??) ones) on the mobo and nothing made any difference. I had tried all the yellow/orange SATA data cables and none of these made a difference.
I can only think:
1. The SATA controllers on the mobo are borked;
2. The Gigabyte SATA data cables don't offer a secure enough connection and this has caused the corruption problems;
3. Something else?????????
Ideas please guys as this is definitely testing my mental health.
Would the WD Secure-connect data cables make a difference?
Should I be using only certain SATA sockets on the mobo?
Surely I didn't get two dodgy WD hard drives?
HELP!!!!!
Chris
NEW BITS
C2D 6600 with stock cooler
Gigabyte DS4
2Gb Geil 6400 DDR2
Sapphire X1950 Pro 256Mb
Corsair HX 520W power supply
WD Caviar RE 160GB 1600YS SATA-II 16MB cache OEM
WD Caviar RE 250GB 2500YS SATA-II 16MB cache OEM
OLD BITS
Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS
Pioneer 109 DVDRW IDE
Sony 52/52/32 CDRW IDE
Coolermaster Cavalier case
Samsung 205BW lcd
All good so far!
Eveything was set up with the new Gigabyte cables that were included with the mobo, including the yellow/orange SATA cables.
Split the 160GB drive into two and installed Windows XP Pro on one half.
Installed all the drivers off the Gigabyte cd, all the Windows updates, the latest ATI and Creative drivers and then all my usual bits and pieces (Symantec Corporate antivirus, WinRAR, WinZip, MSN Messenger Live, Skype, MS Office, eMule, BitTorrent .....)
Things were ok for a day or two. Then I was getting random slowdowns (had checked for virus's and spyware) and hard disk errors.
Things got worse. Windows sometimes wouldn't boot. It would tell me system files were missing. I'd go into recovery mode, copy the files into the right place and re-boot successfully. Then the problem would come back later .....
I was getting increasingly sick of this, and re-installed Windows. This time I got a file error before it fully installed. I skipped this file and it carried on installing, but Windows was unsurprisingly unstable and my problems returned.
One final try ..... Windows wouldn't even install this time, as I the hard drive format hung at 0% ......
Tried the 250GB drive next. Was meant to be my data drive, but I was keen to get this pc up and running, so I unplugged the 160GB completely and put the 250GB in it's place. Partition, format, Windows install ...... file errors continue!!!
Several Windows installs later, I had a relatively stable build for about 3 days (just long enough to get everything as I like it, restore my Outlook profile and messages, get some wallpaper in place .... ) when I get more serious data problems and Windows refuses to boot!
I now have a 4-year-old Maxtor IDE drive temporarily hanging out the open side of my case with a very stable windows build on it, but have had to disconnect my DVDRW to install it.
I have never used SATA hard drives before but I assumed they'd be plug and play?!?!?!?!?
I had tried plugging the drives into pretty much all the SATA sockets (both the Gigabyte and Intel(??) ones) on the mobo and nothing made any difference. I had tried all the yellow/orange SATA data cables and none of these made a difference.
I can only think:
1. The SATA controllers on the mobo are borked;
2. The Gigabyte SATA data cables don't offer a secure enough connection and this has caused the corruption problems;
3. Something else?????????
Ideas please guys as this is definitely testing my mental health.
Would the WD Secure-connect data cables make a difference?
Should I be using only certain SATA sockets on the mobo?
Surely I didn't get two dodgy WD hard drives?
HELP!!!!!
Chris