A8N-SLI Deluxe Hard Drive problem

[Big Bunny]

My SATA hard drive has started acting up, sometimes it recovers and sometimes it just gets stuck. When accessing the drive, it occasionally seems to get stuck and the drive will sit and spin. Windows XP eventually locks up, and locks up right away if I try to launch any other apps.

I first suspected my HD, but I reloaded Windows successfully and ran for a bit. Chkdsk ran OK after I reloaded, although it wouldn't make it all the way through before that since it would get stuck accessing in the same way. This makes me wonder whether the MB SATA controller could be the culprit.

I tried jacking in the IDE HD from my 5-year old computer, which got recognized OK, but it didn't take to it very well when Windows tried to start...it just beeped with that annoying hardware failure beep. Unfortunately, I don't have another SATA HD to try and isolate whether it is the HD or the MB. Before I go buy another HD, or try to RMA either the MB or HD, I thought I'd try here for any advice.

Anyone experience this type of behavior before? Or, any thoughts on whether this is the HD or the MB?

 

[akugami]

That's a pretty high overclock on your system. Specifically the CPU voltage. Also, did you lower your HTT multiplier? I'm going to assume you tested for stability with tests like Prime95 for at least 24 hours. Even with a 24 hour stress test done with Prime95 I'd still back down the settings on the mobo to default and run with it a bit to see if it's overclocked too high.

I'd also try re-installing Windows on the SATA HD. Do a quick format to erase the drive too. That way you know there isn't any junk left over from the older installation. Try using your system at default for a while with the new Windows installation and see if it's ok or not.

If it runs fine then there's likely something wrong. Perhaps there's some files critical to the operation of Windows that is corrupt and the re-install will help. Perhaps it's too high of an overclock.

If it still chokes even at default settings then there's a definite problem with either the HD or the mobo. However, without a different mobo or different HD to test, you aren't going to be able to do much to diagnose the problem.

Did you re-install Windows on the 5 year old computer HD or did you just plug it in and try to start? If the latter, it's likely that it wouldn't start Windows on the old HD because it doesn't have the required drivers to run your hardware.

 

[Big Bunny]

Thanks for the reply.

I did reformat the drive and reload Windows, and got through that OK, so I thought I just had a file problem. Because of the trouble, after the reinstall I reset the BIOS to defaults to make sure it would run OK for a while before trying to overclock again. It ran OK for a day or two, then the disk problem reappeared :-(

 

[akugami]

I'd try having the settings at default then re-installing Windows to see if that helps. If the problem still occurs. Something is wrong. However, without an additional HD to try to isolate if it's a HD problem or mobo, or even something else like a bad PSU, it's very tough determining the exact problem.