Is my hard drive failing??

[masterc]

Just recently I started to get the following message on Bootup..." Disk Boot Failure, Insert System Disk and Press Enter"
If I reset my machine it starts up fine and runs ok. It only happens ocassionally.
Is my hard drive failing or could it be the Promise controller on my motherboard? The drive is a Maxtor Diamond max 40gb ATA 100. The MB is an ASUS A7V.

Thanks...

 

[amdskip]

It may very well be. Test the hard drive using maxtors software and see what happens. I've never really heard of controllers dying but its strange that if you reboot it works.

 

[earthling]

Also you may want to make sure all the cabling between your system board and hd are properly secure, and if you have extra power connector from psu, try to switch the power connector.

 

[dpm]

Something very similar happened before one of my drives died once. It might not be, but now would be a good time to make sure you have comprehensive backups.. Its amazing the little things that turn out to be important when you haven't backed them up

 

[SemperFi]

I had an A7V and the promise controller went out. It started out just like you are telling expect failure quickly. If it is the chip that is. You should be able to switch the drive back to the via controller. But back up important data first. Just in case. I spent a weeks worth of evenings installing os and installing promise drivers then switch the drive to promise all kinds of variations. That is how I did it when I first bought it so I knew that worked. I was dual booting 2000 and 98. 98 would install on the promise chip but 2000 wouldn't. That was before I learned about f6. Anyhow I ended up installing on the via and switched drive to the promise and I didn't have any problems.

 

[masterc]

bump

 

[masterc]

OKay, I disconnected the Promise controller and hooked up the drive via the IDE cables. The system boots up. I installed Maxtor's "Storagesoft system agent" utility. It's giving me a "SMART plug in fault report"...

"Immediately back up your data and replace your hard disk. Your Hard drive's SMART disk monitoring system has detected that it's operating outside normal operating specifications."

I got this error when it was on the Promise controller also.

I ran Maxtor's disk utility, "Powermax". The drive passes all tests... Quick test, Advanced Test and factory Burn-in test.

Any ideas on what the problem may be. the drive is still under warrante. Should I RMA it??