Corrupt Hard Drives

I've been having some serious problems with my PC, and hard drive corruption. However, I do not believe that the problem lies in an actual fault with the drives. I am unsure of what is causing the problem, but I do know that it is quite annoying, and severely limits the use of my PC.

Here is the full story behind my problem(I summarize it at the bottom if you don't want to read my whole life story):

Back in February, I upgraded my PC. I bought a new motherboard(Asus A8N series), a new processor(AMD Athlon X2 4600+), a new video card(ATI Radeon X1900XT), and a new powersupply(500W). I kept my three hard drives(80GB Samsung, 80GB Maxtor, 250GB Maxtor; all ATA-133 @7200RPM), my case, and my RAM. After setting up my computer with the new upgrades and using it for a while, I noticed something was wrong. Whenever I downloaded anything, it said that the file was corrupt.

Here are the specific error messages:

Executable Programs:
"Extracting file failed. It is most likely caused by low memory (low disk space for swapping file) or corrupted Cabinet file."

ZIP/Rar file(Windows):
"Error reading the file."
(WinRAR):
"Bad CRC/Checksum"

Video(Windows Media Player):
"The docfile has been corrupted."

Quicktime Video:
Quicktime crashes due to "memory leak".

Image file:
Sometimes fails to load(red X appears).
Other times:
About halfway through the image, there is a multicolored artefact(distorted pixels). Everything below that is tinted purple sometimes off center.

Websites:
Sometimes, pages fail to load. Instead of the proper page, it displays a blank white page with various gibberish/ASCII symbols/garbled text.

And so on...

The first time I asked for help regarding this issue, I was told that it was most likely caused by bad RAM, a bad motherboard, or a bad power supply.

I ran a RAM diagnostic utility, and it said that my RAM was fine.

Recently, I replaced my power supply. This did not resolve the issue.

The technician who replace the PSU also ran the Maxtor Drive Diagnostic Utility, and it indicated that my Samsung drive was failing. The error code is eb6070000.

I have installed Windows Vista Beta 2 on this computer. Miraculously, I was able to run Vista perfectly. I was able to download files and recieved no errors. However, the lack of driver support and other problems with Vista(since it's in Beta) make it unsuitable for everyday useage, so I am using Windows XP Professional, which is where all of the errors/corruption occur.

I was using Vista for a while, and all was good(except for the problems with Vista), until one day(yesterday)... All of the drives on my second IDE ribbon disappeared out of existance! Well, sort of... I was listening to some music in iTunes, and it said that it couldn't find my songs and my library was corrupt. A few seconds later, a message popped up asking me what I wanted to do(like when you insert a CD, it asks you if you want to play the files on the CD, explore, or burn files, etc.) for each of the partitions on my 80GB and 250GB Maxtor drives, as if they were CDs and it just recognized them. When I went to My Computer, I noticed that none of the partitions on those two hard drives were there. The only thing that appeared were the two partitions on my 80GB Samsung, and my DVD drive. I turned off my computer, opened the case, and disconnected/reconnected the IDE ribbon for those two hard drives, as well as the power supply connectors to make sure that the ribbon didn't just come loose, but after rebooting, the drives were still nowhere to be found. The BIOS settings screen didn't seem to recognize that there were any hard drives there, either;
Secondary IDE Master: None
Secondary IDE Slave: None

I assumed that the problem was being caused by my Samsung drive. I removed the drive from my computer, rearranged the IDE ribbons so that the two Maxtor drives were on the Primary IDE ribbon, and the DVD drive was on the Secondary IDE ribbon(I also adjusted the jumpers accordingly), and attempted to install Windows XP Professional onto my 80GB Maxtor drive. Installation failed, because it was unable to copy many files during setup. I then installed XP Pro onto my 250GB Maxtor drive, and it installed without incident. After installing all of my drivers, I went to download Windows Live Messenger, and got the error message above(low disk space/corrupted Cabinet file). I then went to download a video to see if it would work. The video played fine. I downloaded a second video, and got an error message("The docfile has been corrupted."). I downloaded the second video again, and it worked fine.

I am now completely at a loss as to what to do. I've replaced my power supply, diagnosed my RAM, removed the hard drive that failed diagnostics, and reinstalled Windows. The problems only seem to occur in Windows XP, and only occur some of the time(I can generally get files to work my downloading them multiple times, but it is tedious having to clear my internet cache and redownload stuff 3 or 4 times to get it to work). In Vista, there was no corruption, but I can't really switch over to Vista completely because it is still in Beta and doesn't support everything I need.

Does anyone have any suggestions/ideas as to what may be causing these error messages/drive corruption, or how I may go about finding the source of the problem and hopefully fixing it?

Recap of what I just said:
1. Upgraded motherboard, processor, PSU, and video card. Kept case, RAM, HDDs.
2. Hard Drives were corrupt when downloading files off the internet.
3. Asked for help, was told it was most likely bad RAM, bad mobo, or a bad PSU.
4. Ran RAM diagnostic; RAM tested OK.
5. Replaced PSU. Corruption still occured.
6. Ran Maxtor Diagnostic Utility; 80GB Samsung drive failed test. Error eb6070000.
7. Installed Windows Vista Beta 2; no corruption, but can't migrate to Vista as it is not fully featured yet.
8. 80GB and 250GB Maxtor drive(both on Secondary IDE ribbon) disappeared from computer.
9. Attempted to disconnect/reconnect Secondary IDE ribbon/PSU cables to see if those drives just became disconnected; did not help.
10. Removed 80GB Samsung drive from computer.
11. Moved 80GB and 250GB Maxtor drives to Primary IDE ribbon, moved DVD drive to secondary IDE ribbon.
12. Attempted to reinstall Windows XP Pro onto 80GB Maxtor; installation failed due to failure to copy multiple essential files.
13. Sucessfully installed Windows XP Pro onto 250GB Maxtor.
14. Downloaded a few files; corruption still occurs.

My PC Specs:
Asus A8N Series motherboard
AMD Athlon X2 4600+
ATI Radeon X1900XT Video Card
80GB Samsung drive(removed from computer)
80GB Maxtor Drive
250GB Maxtor Drive
1GB Kingston RAM
Windows XP Professional SP1
Windows Vista Beta 2(Not yet installed; was installed on Samsung drive which has been removed)

 

This sounds like a classic problem of overclocking, but on the other hand i have seen bad video cards do the things that you mention about the video. Have you any spare parts to try to chase it down?

 

Why dont you go into the bios and set it to default settings and see if that clears it up. ed

 

I haven't done any overclocking.

I have a spare motherboard and processor, but unfortunately I don't have a seperate case to put them in, so I'd either have to take everything out of my current computer, or use a cardboard box.

Also, they don't support PCI-e and I don't have an AGP/PCI video card, so I'd need to invest in one of those.

Or I could try putting one of the hard drives in a different computer and try downloading stuff onto them to see if it works, but I doubt that would help much, because I'm almost certain the hard drives themselves are fine(they wouldn't all die, would they?).

I'll try resetting the BIOS.

 

More than likely the hard drives are good, most coruption comes from bad memory or overclocked cpu, or possibly bad cpu. ed

 

If everything is fine when using Vista, your problem must be within Windows!

All else fails, I'd reformat & reinstall XP
Any problems in Device manager?
What did you use to test Memrory? How long did you run the test?

How come your not using SP2? if your missing that, makes me think, what other update's are you missing?
Is your XP a legal version?

Problems downloading, what kind of internet connection? running the correct driver's for your Lan or Modem?

Power supply, 500w what?

 

Have you tried replacing the primary IDE cable? It seems like the connection to the 80GB drive is bad and if you're using that drive as your Master, then that will explain the corrupted downloads.

If not, maybe you should play with the compression setting of the modem, if you're using one; i.e. turn hardware modem compression off & software compression on (in your connection properties).

 

I've reformated and reinstalled XP before, and it didn't fix the problem.
No problems in Device manager.
I used Memtest to test my RAM. I ran the test for the recommended period of time(iirc 30+ minutes?).

I'm not using SP2 because I just reinstalled XP, and haven't updated yet. I'll try updating to SP2 and seeing if it helps.
My XP version is legal.

My internet connection is T1, 10MBPS. It is connected via the nVidia nForce Networking Controller. I installed the drivers that came with my motherboard CD. None of the other computers on my network are experiencing this problem.

My power supply is a 600W OCZ GameXStream power supply. It should be more than enough to power my computer, and considering I replaced my old one with it rather recently, I don't think the problem is with my power supply.

I have replaced the IDE ribbons recently as well. I replaced the old beige ones that I've had since I can remember with the black Asus ones that came with my motherboard. This did not solve the problem either.

I will try updating to SP2. However, iirc I have tried this in the past and it did not solve the problem, either.

I will also try using one of my hard drives in a different computer to at least confirm that the problem is with my computer, as opposed to the drive itself. I'm pretty sure that the drive is fine, but some confirmation would be nice.

 

After testing out the hard drives in a different computer, I have concluded that they are all working fine.

By process of elimination, I am now guessing that the problem is with my motherboard. Does anyone know if there is a warranty on Asus motherboards, and if so, how long?

Of course, there is still the possibility that the problem is in Windows. I'm not really sure what I can do about it if it is, though.

 

it sound like the ide controller is bad for your secondary ide channel , can you still run and boot off the first?

 

I previously had the drives on the secondary IDE ribbon, but recently moved them to the primary. The errors still occur.

I am now back to using Vista. I suppose low compatability and not being able to use some of my programs is better than having everything corrupt, at least until I can figure out what is causing the problem.

I wonder what is different between Vista and XP? One of the things that comes to mind is the fact that I did not need to install any of my nForce chipset/networking drivers in Vista, because it came with support for everything out of the box. Perhaps it was the drivers that were causing the issues?

 

I also noticed that when I downloaded a long video, only certain parts of the video were corrupt.

For example, I could play the beginning fine, but about 1/3 of the way through, it said it was corrupt. Then, I skipped ahead 30 seconds from that point, and it was fine. But then, a bit later in the video, it was corrupt again.

So it seems that it only "goes corrupt" for a few seconds while downloading. Maybe my internet connection is dropping packets or something? I'm not really sure.

Maybe I'll look into more recent network drivers for XP?

 

i would definitely look into that