Hard drive problem IBM 60gxp

[Skywanderer]

Hey all,
I have two IBM deskstars 60gxp, 60gigs. They are connected to a Soyo dragon lite motherboard, on the same IDE chain, for now. The problem I'm having, is my second drive, which is my data drive, will randomly not be recognized by the computer on startup. I have to restart the computer, and then its there. Is this a precurser to my drive failing?

THanks

 

[techfuzz]

1. Drive could be failing.
2. Drive does not have enough time to spinup before detection by the BIOS.
3. Drive does not have enough power to spinup upon powering the system on.

techfuzz

 

[Skywanderer]

>>>>>>>>>>>>
2. Drive does not have enough time to spinup before detection by the BIOS.
3. Drive does not have enough power to spinup upon powering the system on.
>>>>>>>>>>>>

If its 2 or 3, how do I fix that? I can see 2 maybe fixed by putting it first on its own IDE chain?

 

[techfuzz]

If it's 2 there is sometimes an option in the BIOS to allow for more time to detect your hard drive.
If it's 3, then you need to get a new power supply for your PC.

techfuzz

 

[Skywanderer]

I have a 430 enermax power supply, so I'm guessing its more likely the bios boot. I'm gonna check it out

Thanks

 

[techfuzz]

Originally posted by: Skywanderer
I have a 430 enermax power supply, so I'm guessing its more likely the bios boot. I'm gonna check it out

Thanks

Good call. Sometimes there are jumpers on the harddrive as well that can affect spinup time. Check there to make sure it isn't being delayed for some reason.

techfuzz

 

[vss1980]

Is this a precurser to the drive failing?

Depends.... I've seen some CD drives spend years going through this sort of 'there one boot, gone the next', while offering no problems operating when it is recognised.
Of course, I wouldn't recommend you keep waiting to see.

You should experiment with the BIOS IDE delay option, but it is usually never a problem for modern drives to be ready for the BIOS hard-drive checks. The fact that one drive is ok, but the other isn't is slightly puzzling.

Out of interest, have you tried to use another IDE cable?

If you can, you should switch on SMART and download IBM/Hitachi's SMART analysis software...... if the drive is actually having a spin-up problem it should be theoretically logged by SMART and pop-up a warning while the software is running and it suffers such a problem spinning-up the drive, say after windows spinning it down for power saving.

 

[cbuchach]

I have had similar problems with my two 60GXP's and a set of 75GXP's. Sometimes on bootup one of the drives would not initialize properly and just kept clicking and was not recognized by the RAID controller. Usually I could reboot and it would work, but on occasion this behavior would recur.

I still have not entirely narrowed down the culprit, but I believe it to be one of two things. First, I did try disabling quick POST in the BIOS and this did seem to help as it allowed the drive more time to initialize. The second possibility it the power connectors on the drives. I know it sounds stupid, but on occasions that I just can't get the drives recognized, if I reconnect the power connectors, sometimes this will help. There was a post on these boards a few years ago that was having similar problems with his 75GXPs. He somehow went in a made a more solid solder connection from the drives power connector to the drive's PCB. So there may be some credibility to this observation.

I should add that I too have an Enermax 430W PS and have been using this set of 60GXP's for over a year now and have had this problem intermittently. I have run IBM's drive fitness test and the drives seem to be fine. So I wouldn't worry too much about data loss, though i do keep my data backed up.

 

[Skywanderer]

Interesting in that that is the same setup I have, 2 60gxp's and a 430w enermax. Anyway, this problem happens so intermitetly that I have no way of knowing if its fixed for a while. Anyone know where I can download that IBM/Hitachi's SMART analysis software? I've done google searches, and looked through IBMS web site and can't find it.

Thanks everybody

 

[ahsia]

Originally posted by: Skywanderer
Interesting in that that is the same setup I have, 2 60gxp's and a 430w enermax. Anyway, this problem happens so intermitetly that I have no way of knowing if its fixed for a while. Anyone know where I can download that IBM/Hitachi's SMART analysis software? I've done google searches, and looked through IBMS web site and can't find it.

Thanks everybody

HGST: Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

I would first copy the data off, burn it off to CD, or find some way to back up the data. Then I would run Drive Fitness Test on both drives. I have had good luck with IBM drives, but the 60GXPs have been known to fail. Actually just had one fail on me not too long ago. Good luck!

 

[vss1980]

'the 60GXPs have been known to fail. Actually just had one fail on me not too long ago.'

Just RMA'ed one (40GB) for my friend back to IBM/Hitachi.....