10th HD, one system -- so sick of HD crashes

Yes, I am on about my 10th hard disk on this system, and it has failed after 3 months. Not a single hard disk in this computer has lasted longer than a year, and I am getting really sick of these hard disk "crashes." My other systems do not encounter these problems at this frequency. It has happened with both PATA and SATA hard disks on an Intel 865PERL.

These crashes always come out of the blue with no warning at all. Windows will begin freezing randomly and I get the click of death with normal operation resuming within a minute or two. From that point forward, SMART tests fail and event viewer begins recording Bad Blocks on the drive. Eventually I can no longer boot into Windows and I get several BSODs.

There is no way all of these hard disks are defective, unless the computer is making them appear to crash, or the hard disk's diagnostics are not being interpreted by the system correctly.

Is it possible for something else besides the HD to be causing this? I greatly appreciate your help because at this point I am furious.

 

Did you check for the ventilation/heat problems? Can your power supply handle all the hardware? I would look into those issues, too.

I am only an average user, but I read a lot about above issues causing crashes. Good luck.

 

Jeeez!!!! After the 3rd drive or so, I'd seriously consider replacing the motherboard! Hopefully it's under warranty. I recently worked on a laptop that's doing the same thing. Every 2-3 months, the HD crashes without warning. The laptop's owner insists there's nothing wrong with the PC, and that it's just bad hard drives; but after going thru 5 hard drives in just under a year, I tend to think the motherboard is burning thru all these drives. Luckily, he purchased a brand new hard drive that we keep sending back to the factory for RMA replacement every 2 or 3 months..... it's crazy. But I guess that if you keep your data backed up regularly, and you don't mind the down time waiting for new hard drives..... anyway- IMO, it's time to think about a new motherboard.....

hd2k

 

hi,
10 hard drives, no wonder youre :cry pal.
whilst HDD's do fail now and again, 10 is way beyond the law of probability.
most, if not all, now come with a 3-5 year warranty, so for you to lose this many !!!,
as MG and HD have said, and imho, there is obviously a fault elsewhere causing this problem.

as well as the heat dissipation, and the motherboard, have you checked the power supply for its voltage and current output ?

 

I agree with everyone here, especially power supply voltage, and temperatures.



I would use a tool like motherboard monitor to check out temperatures, too

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Motherboard_Monitor_d311.html

 

Thanks for all of the suggestions. This is why I only buy Seagate now: 5-year warranty.

I don't think heat is a problem because the case is in open-air and both covers are removed.

A SMART test on the drive failed (nothing new, this always happens with these drives).

The HD in question no longer would no longer boot Windows and the click of death appeared shortly after startup. The Vista "boot loader" said something failed (the first message), and then the screen went black. Due to the bad block message I got in the event viewer, I ran a disk check from the install CD and that stopped the click of death on boot, but I still could not get into Windows.

I switched the HD to the other SATA port and now I have no problems with the drive. The SMART test passes. Of course, whatever disk check fixed, also destroyed Vista and now I don't have internet anymore, so I am going to have to format and reinstall. But it is looking more and more like a bad board/SATA port.

If that is the case, perhaps my other drives are still usable, just maybe a bit abused from the damage done by the wacky port.

 

Thanks for the update, its as Hopperdave2000, and stewthedarrenner suggested, a motherboard fault. Not the usual hard drive problem.Without the alternative sata connection, it would not have been so easy to prove.
Iwas unable to find a free motherboard checking program.

 

I would be interested to see any proposed mechanism for a motherboard damaging a hard drive through the data cable.

The only one I can think of is out of voltage limit logic levels.

 

Hi Studiot, my trend of thought was that if there is a pata drive, with a spare connection on the cd lead, and setting to master/slave, it could be tested, but I never met this one, personally, I will add it to my coffer.
Apparently the hard drive was o.k on the second sata connection, but showed as not o.k on the first.

 

Check the psu'd voltages. PSU could be dieing and killing the hdd's.