Scandisk Mayhem!

[The Baron]

My PC has decided to run a Scandisk every time I boot. I have four hard drives, all running through a RAID card. It is my third drive (E) which it favours, but it has now added C to the scandisk as well. Of course it never finds a problem, but when I go to defrag I am told that Scandisk is scheduled to run.

I returned the E drive to novatech, who kindly sent me a replacement which would not format past 46%. I returned it, they couldn't find a problem, but sent me a replacement anyway. That too would not format past 46%, until I tried it in another machine :oops:

So I pulled the C Drive and replaced it with a tatty old 10GB drive from the attic. It's been fine for two weeks but now the problem has returned. I've tried connecting directly to the motherboard (no RAID) with no change.

Today it has started making a clacking noise during gameplay and is freezing up. My games are on D, which is the new replacement. I've checked all my fans for obstructions and that's not it, but I can't be sure where the noise is coming from exactly.

Should I throw it through the window and laugh maniacally pointing at the bits, or raise it above my head, hurl it to the ground and jump up and down on it do you think?


:?: :!:

[The Baron]

OK I've uninstalled some stuff and the clacking has stopped and for the most part the freezing but the scandisk remains. Does this sound like anything anyone has come across before?

[Coops]

Could you tell me what the Model Raid Card is that you are using and what Firmware Version your Raid Card Has??

Have you tried testing the HDD using HDD diagnostics tools

[The Baron]

I've ripped the RAID card out of the machine entirely and connected the four hard drives to my motherboard directly, with no change. I swapped the IDE cables over and it made no difference. I've now gone back to the 40GB C Drive as the 10GB was making some awful noises.

For the record I meant Chkdsk, not ScanDisk, I'm using XP Pro. Also worth mentioning is that the drive in question (E) has only 6% free space. I know that Defrag prefers 15% but I don't want to leave 140GB empty.

Here's a list of all my components but the problem is relatively new while I've had this setup for months:

Board: Asus A7N8X-X
Chip: AMD Sempron x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 1 ~1804Mkz
PSU: Win Power ATX-600L
RAM: Kingston KVR400X64C3A/256
RAM: DDR 400 (2.5) 512MX16
RAM: DDR 400 (2.5) 512MX16

Graphics Card: Radeon 9800 Pro
Sound Card: CMI8738/C3DX PCI
RAID Card: Ultra 8212 PCI
Video Capture: Compro VideoMate TV PCI

Maxtor 6E040L0 (C)
Maxtor 7L300R0 (D)
Maxtor 6L300R0 (E)
Maxtor 6L300R0 (F)

Lite-On CR-Rom LTN-529S (G)
Lite-On CR-RW SOHR-5238S (H)
Lite-On DVD SOHD-16P9S (I)
Lite-On DVDRW SHW-1635S (J)

I'm sorry Coops, I have no idea what firmware is, but can find out if you point me where to look. Can I download a HDD Diagnostic tool anywhere that you know of, please?

Thanks.

[The Baron]

Well OK, I decided to delete 200GB of data from the D drive. I then went to drag 100GB from F to D, and it froze.

Upon restart my F drive was not found. I went to computer management and it needed to be initialized... and partitioned... and formatted! 200GB gone. I had to reformat F by connecting it to the board direct. Through my RAID card it stopped at 46%.

So I now have loads of room! But I've tried putting data onto F and it comes out corrupt. I also cannot move several from from D as they are corrupt (D is a month old tops).

Chkdsk is asking to scan drives C & D. Drive E is just dandy.

What is happening? Is it the RAID card? My IDE cables? Or the board itself?

HELP!

[GMW]

that PSU the win 600L is that 600watts? because i found that i got weird noises from my HDD before i upgraded my PSU, it was like it sped up fast and then just clicked and died then sped up again, that was a old psu i mean really old... lol but yea if its a 600watt then thats fine but with that set up i wouldnt be below 580W

[Ironblood]

OK please ignore my change in username - I forgot my password which turns out to be running through an inactive e-mail - knackered. I am The Baron

Yes, it's a 600Watt PSU.

The F Drive died again last night, after a reboot it decided that all the data was corrupt and unreadable. After many permutations of IDE slots and cables it has stopped booting altogether and now plays me a little tune before failing to work.

Today my brand new D Drive (my two month old replacement) has started making clicking noises (like a slipping gear) and freezing up the PC. Disconnect it and all is well but Windows is taking forever to boot with it on.

So I'm furiously backing up my data when my DVD burner dies. Now when I put in a disc, it makes a series of clicks and freezes the PC.

What the **** is happening??? Are all of my components involved in a suicide pact? More likely, is there a root cause affecting all of my drives? Could it be the motherboard? I really, really need to get to the bottom of this.

Please advise.

[Ironblood]

oooooookaaay then....

I've returned both drives to you (returns #2104747 and 2104586). Please keep me informed.

[Ironblood]

So I have 2 new Maxtors. I've formatted them, connected them and all is good. Until I connect my DVD writer. With all 3 connected every time I put ain a disc the whole PC freezes. This happens regardless of IDE port, IDE lead or RAID card. Disconnect the new hard drives and my DVD writer runs like a dream. Is there some incapability I should know about?

Worth mentioning that throughout allof this I haven't had a single bluescreen.

Please advise.

[Ironblood]

Thanks guys.

In desperation I yanked out all the Y-splitters and so far it seems solid.

I'm gonna check all the connections individually now, but out of curiosity is there a PSU on the market with 9 outputs?

[Ironblood]

Is this thing on???

:shock:

[Ironblood]

So this is still happening.

My latest drive is a Maxtor 320, I bought it in January. It has just died taking all my work with it. The pattern is the same as ever.

I got a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark in the system tray saying "Unable to write to E:/$Mft. The data has been lost." There then followed a series of chkdsk scans, each progressively deteriorating until one said "An unexpexted error has occurred" and stopped. The disk has now renamed itself back to Local Disk and I am unable to access it.

This is the fourth or fifth hard drive to collapse over the last year! I have replaced the RAID card. I have replaced the IDE cables. Is there some root cause, or are these Maxtor 300GB drives plagued with problems?

I am about ready to call it and start over. In which case, is there still a motherboard on the market that has 3x DDR400 RAM slots, 2x IDE ports and preferably AGP graphics with mutliple PCI ports?

[Ben]

Have you tried a complete reinstall of Win XP?

You may have a "Dirty Bit"

From Microsoft.


If the dirty bit is set when the computer restarts, chkdsk runs to verify the consistency of the volume.

This can be caused by any number of things. But maybe worth checking after chkdsk has run. If it keeps getting set, then it can be overrriden manually.

Link:

Fsutil (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/fsutil_dirty.mspx?mfr=true)

[Ironblood]

LOL weekly!!

[Ironblood]

Sorry if that came off as snide, wasn't meant to be. But yeah, I've tried that several times. It's good for a few hours and then it resurfaces.

The real killer is that while I was experimenting with plugs and leads I managed to pull the socket from my beloved Radeon 900 Pro. ***. I soldered half a Y-splitter cable on but it may well be past it...

So I've found a suitable board:

https://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/Spe ... ASR-K7NF2R (https://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/SpecPage.html?ASR-K7NF2R)

But now I'm paranoid it might be the chip and I'll be wasting money. Is it worth binning the whole setup and starting from scratch? In which case what board & chip would you recommend (I have 3x DDR400 1GB RAM, it must have 2x IDE ports and preferably AGP graphics)?

[Ironblood]

So I'm rebuilding my PC with my brand spanking new motherboard and I've found four discoloured pins in my ATX Power Connector, with matching discolouration on the port.

Does this explain it? Have I been overloading my hard drives? Also, should I fling the power supply before powering up my new drive?

[Ben]

Have a close look at the pins on both the old Mobo and the pins in the connector. Look for signs of damaged pins. As a guess its possible they weren't connected properly causing small power droops & or surges. Which could cause errors on the drives.
It may be worth buying a new PSU. If this isn't really an option, every few days unplug the connector and check your new Mobo for signs of damage.

[Ironblood]

LOL no fear I binned the PSU immediately! Been running a month now without a glitch. What a nightmare, I have a 90% replaced PC due to one component!

[Ben]

Glad you've got it working at last. :)

[Ironblood]

Thanks man, it's also good to know that if your hard drive develops errors to check the PSU connections.

[teknokid]

seems annoying you had to get a 90% new pc to find that out though.
i always keep a spare psu if i can, only a cheap £5 one, but i use it for testing single components, or leak testing my water cooling.