new problem developing... hard drive or sata raid?

champ222

champ222

champ222

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Joined
19 Aug 2005
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Beds, UK
Hi there, i have a problem with the pc, hopefully someone can help me diagnose it.

spec

Gigabyte GA-965P-DS4
Core 2 Duo e6300 running at 3Ghz
4 gigs of ddr2
8800 GTS
2x 1TB drives mirrored
1x 320GB drive

the overclock has been perfect and stable for about 2 years now

however, recently, the pc will randomly crash, (maybe once a week at most) which a flash of blue screen then it reboots, but it wont load windows as the raid bios thing fails on the 320GB drive... if i unplug the drive, and plug it into a different port on the mobo, it works fine again...

i also had a bit of malware that i couldnt get rid of, and had to reinstall windows, it was way overdue anyway, so i didnt mind to much. The pc is now working fine except for this random crashing, which it didnt do when i had the malware problem. The 2 might be linked i suppose, but i'm leaning towards a coincidence.

Does this sound like a problem with the 320GB drive? the raid controller? neither? any tips for diagnosing the problem?

Thanks guys

Andy
 
The message on the BSOD may be of some help but I guess it is too quick to read. You can disable the auto restart like this "Windows button (AKA Start)>Right click Computer>Properties>Startup and Recovery>Uncheck Automatic Restart under the System Failure section.

This will allow you to write down the BSOD message that caused the crash and might point out what is going on...

Edit: You are using the 320GB as part of the RAID array? I am guessing SMART does not work on the RAID controller you are using (it doesn't on many consumer products). The drive may well be screeming out "I'm forked!" but windows can't hear it :D
 
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thanks for the reply mate, i'll try that, and see if i can write down the message.

the 320GB is connected to the same sata raid controller as the 2x 1TB drives, but it isnt in a raid configuration itself... is that what you mean? i dont know much about these things i must admit... i havnt tried SMART... i could give it a go and see, how would i go about that? i think i have HD tune somewhere...
 
Have a bash at this freeware utility:

http://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup.htm

Been quite a while (touch wood ;)) since I have had any hard disk problems. SMART is by no means the be all and end all. Some drives report they are fine but can be absolutly buggered

Hope you get to the bottom of it. Google whatever message codes you get from the BSOD though. I have found some interesting faults this way, some I'd never think of!
 
ok, ive changed my settings to not restart following a system failure, so if it does it again, i can google the message and see what i can find.

I tried that diskcheckup program.. but i dont really know what to make of the results...

does it look like there is anything wrong here?

hdd2.gif


hdd1.gif
 
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