I've just suffered my [b:0cea511104]3rd Hard Disk[/b:0cea511104] meltdown in as many months......

This time I lost all [b:0cea511104]MY[/b:0cea511104] data, all 120 gb's.........My mate's got my drive now and is checking it out............

I'm getting a ATA 133 Hard Disk Controller for the Maxtor 160gb Hard Disk................

This time on a reboot.....An error came up, that one of my drives needed to be checked for consistency, on checking it found all the files had invalid links..........I assume the Fat table had been corrupted some how.............On repairing, all files were reported to be 32k in size and corrupt.........when I rebooted into Partition Magic to format...........PM7.0 told me that the disk was already formatted and all the space was free????????

I have since done a low level format on the disk to get rid of any remmants of corruption.....

I'm going to go on to NTFS with the ATA133 Controller Card...........

Have NE1 got any other ideas as to what may be causing this corruption.........

I'm slowly going Mental.............

Any Advice & Help most gracefully received............

don't have a clue. sorry for all the troubles though.

Yes, sorry to hear that Grzyb, if it was IBM HDD I would say it was the disk itself, as they(IBM) advice people only to have their disk running max. 8 hrs. in a row. Otherwise it could cause a meltdown just like you suffered.
Anyways if you need anything to rebuild your collection let me know

Homie

Have you tried getting a heatsink for your hard drive? Yeah they do exist. The drive fits in this heatsink, which goes into a 5 1/4 bay with a fan at the front which sucks air in to keep the drive cool.

Are you using NTFS as your main filing system? Or it could be you have had a bad run with hard drives. They should replace it though for free.

Had the same problem when my HD's were FAT32. Eveytime I booted up scanned my HD's and lost a lot of files. Since I put my drives at NTFS have not had a single problem with loosing files. Have lost a couple HD's all together, but no files lost.

This is to bad Grzyb! I lost a harddrive (with no back-up) once and know the feeling...

You either have a bad temperature problem or, also possible, live in an area with very instable electrisity environment. Flanderz allready mentioned harddrive coolers as one thing to test. Then you also might have to filter the main power from the outlet, or run using an filtered type of UPS. Expensive but nice. There might be other causes for this too, but this is what cross my mind.

Why should it only affect my 160gb Hard Drive..........

If anything the 75gb IBM Drive runs much hotter............

I've had an 8gb Maxtor in my old rig which has run for 4 years without so much of a lost cluster!!!!!!

I'm also thinking of "beefing" up my power supply............

What do you think is a minimum........

Currently it's a 300w Supply...............

Just thought of another thing, We had a machine that kept killing hard drives. Warranty replaced 3 in about 3 months. What it wound up being was the power splitter we we using. Put the HD's on a connector by themselves and split the CDRoms and other things and never had a problem with HD's in that machine

[quote:4df13b5991][i:4df13b5991]Originally posted by Grzyb [/i:4df13b5991]


What do you think is a minimum........

Currently it's a 300w Supply............... [/quote:4df13b5991]

That IS the minimum! ;) BUT, if you run other serious kit like Geforce 3/4 sound, overclock your system etc. then go for a 430W, that should sort out any lack of power you have!

Also may be where your H/D is positioned. Is it above the IBM which runs hotter? Have you sufficient fans blowing air in and an exhaust to blow air out? Is your case airy (good for circulation of air)?

But try using NTFS instead of FAT32 next time. If you already have done as FAT, then you can use the convert option in Win2K/XP.

I think I will fork out for another Power Supply............

The Maxtor was next to the IBM..........because of the ATA100 cable being of standard lenth it was the only place I could fit it.......Maybe with the controller I might have more options to play with..............

Hi ,
just a note that 75 gig IBM drives fail a lot from what I have read on www.hardwarezone.com forums.

I have replaced several drives and all new drive now go in to removable alloy trays with front mounted fans.

Alloy trays = heat sinks.

so far I have not had a 7200 rpm drive die as yet, fingers crossed all drive in my system are now 1 year old.

I use a ATA100 controller and fat32 on my 98se drive and NTFS on all my other winxp drives.

my system is not in air conditioning and average day temp of 32C so my system and the server run hot 24/7.

I am now fitting Maxtor drives with extra front fans in all my customer system.

Apples :)

[quote:9c4a45a0fa][i:9c4a45a0fa]Originally posted by Grzyb [/i:9c4a45a0fa]
[b]I think I will fork out for another Power Supply............

The Maxtor was next to the IBM..........because of the ATA100 cable being of standard lenth it was the only place I could fit it.......Maybe with the controller I might have more options to play with.............. [/quote:9c4a45a0fa]

Enermax are a good PSU, pricey though I think a 430W is about £60. Just a suggestion.

One often gets back to the fact that every part in the box is important. (That's why it always is better to build it by yourself, carefully choosing every part.) I have a Enermax 450W psu, two fans, nice neat and working. Put it in a Lian-Li alu box where the harddrives are mounted vertically just inside the two fans blowing air into the box. You might like it or not, I like it a lot, but it's a solution that works very well.

Another thing, advise needed: For the moment I have three hard-drives in the box, all IBM. It's about time to switch the smalles of heese to a larger model. Do you advise me to stick to IBM (which never caused me a problem) and their 120-series, or should I aim for something else this time as I hear ppl talking about crashed IBM-drives?

I used to swear by IBM drives, then I had a whole lot of problems with them, and had to send them back for replacements. So far none of the replacements have been faulty. On paper they are a good drive.

I have a Maxtor ATA 133 DX7something or other 80GB 7200 rpm and its a decent hard drive. Despite the meltdown in this thread is caused by a Maxtor, I suggest you give them a try.

...with me telling you I bought another IBM. Then when it melts down I'll remeber your words here Flanderz and then there is noone else to blame but myself...:)
The three IBM-drives in my box reports temperatures as 32, 31 and 34 degrees Celsius respectively, steady state I guess after 24 hours of continues running.

another note if it hasn't been mentioned, as i only skimmed the thread, your drive needs to be "checked for consistency". basically, that's a fancy way of windows telling you it wants to run scandisk and compare what's on the drive to the fat table.

dead links are the result of files that were reported to be a certain size to the FAT, but in reality are a different size on disk. this usually happens in non-NTFS drives when you shut down improperly when files are in use. This can also be a result of a read/write head crash to the platter.

best way to prevent link problems, in power options, tell it to either always keep your harddrive on, or set the power off time to something like 4 hours, so your drive stays on even when you're not using the disk or you're away. next, always ALWAYS shut down properly. third, if it wants to run scandisk, let it run scandisk. and four, never jostle your computer, kick it, smack it, etc. be gentle with the beast, and the beast should serve you well. :)