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Michael Scarn
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2010
- Messages
- 117
I am currently having some trouble when hotswapping a drive onto the same power connector as my OS drive. I have the following hardware:
Gigabyte X58A-UD3R motherboard
(2) Samsung 1TB F3 HDD
(2) WD Black 640GB HDD
(1) Seagate 7200.12 500GB HDD
(1) WD AAKS 500GB HHD
Corsair AX750 PSU
My Windows 7 OS was installed with AHCI already enabled to one of the WD Black 640GB drives. The second 640GB was used as an image backup of the first. One 1TB F3 is used as a media disc, the second being used as a backup of it. The Seagate is used as a cache disk for the OS and certain programs. The AAKS is used for dedicated writing during video rendering.
The 1TB F3's are powered on one of the Corsair provided sata power cables. The rest are powered on another Corsair provided sata power cable.
All drives run off of the same Intel Sata controller on the motherboard.
There have been 0 issues with BSOD's, "bootmgr is missing" or hard drive freezes.
Now, about a week ago I had noticed one of my drives making an annoying oscillating buzzing noise. At this moment, I had started to "safely remove" drives and listen for the absence of the noise. Quickly discovering it was my "primary" Media drive, I kept that drive removed. I also noticed that there was still a faint rumble, and found the OS drive to be a possible culprit.
Through all of this, I ended up with all of my drives plugged in, except my "backup" Media drive. Any time I would plug in my "backup" Media drive, I would instantly BSOD. Upon restarting, I would receive a "bootmgr is missing" message after POST. I also tried another drive, different manufacturer, and same thing. Even tried a different sata cable, same. Different sata cable on seperate SATA controller, same. Different power cable, THAT worked!
It seems that if hotswapping a drive that is on the same power cable as the OS drive, it seems to shutdown the OS drive. Also, just as I was typing this and backing up my "primary" Media drive, it suddenly disappeared, going completely offline. This drive happened to be on the same power cable as my OS drive. I'm guessing this is a PSU issue and not an OS or HDD issue. I have not had any random BSOD's, they are only present when trying to hotswap on that power cable.
Now it seems, again as typing, that another drive went offline, on a completely separate power cable. I can't even get the "primary" media drive back online with even yet another separate power cable. I also noticed the "primary" Media drive seems to make the oscillating noise even when just powered on an not connected to the motherboard.
I've been having some goofy issues with my motherboard, where there have been random freezes at the POST splash screen, but this power supply really throws in a wrench, on top of a suspected dying hard drive or two.
What do you guys think should be replaced first, Mobo or PSU? The hard drive is pretty much backed up. I'm considering throwing in $450 for an Areca RAID card. I've had horrible luck with hard drives. With about 25% of them giving errors or dying on me within a year. Once I get my NAS setup, I won't be so worried about backups, its more about the downtime involved with replacing a hard drive and its information, and also what to do with a possibly useless refurbished hard drive I get sent back.
Gigabyte X58A-UD3R motherboard
(2) Samsung 1TB F3 HDD
(2) WD Black 640GB HDD
(1) Seagate 7200.12 500GB HDD
(1) WD AAKS 500GB HHD
Corsair AX750 PSU
My Windows 7 OS was installed with AHCI already enabled to one of the WD Black 640GB drives. The second 640GB was used as an image backup of the first. One 1TB F3 is used as a media disc, the second being used as a backup of it. The Seagate is used as a cache disk for the OS and certain programs. The AAKS is used for dedicated writing during video rendering.
The 1TB F3's are powered on one of the Corsair provided sata power cables. The rest are powered on another Corsair provided sata power cable.
All drives run off of the same Intel Sata controller on the motherboard.
There have been 0 issues with BSOD's, "bootmgr is missing" or hard drive freezes.
Now, about a week ago I had noticed one of my drives making an annoying oscillating buzzing noise. At this moment, I had started to "safely remove" drives and listen for the absence of the noise. Quickly discovering it was my "primary" Media drive, I kept that drive removed. I also noticed that there was still a faint rumble, and found the OS drive to be a possible culprit.
Through all of this, I ended up with all of my drives plugged in, except my "backup" Media drive. Any time I would plug in my "backup" Media drive, I would instantly BSOD. Upon restarting, I would receive a "bootmgr is missing" message after POST. I also tried another drive, different manufacturer, and same thing. Even tried a different sata cable, same. Different sata cable on seperate SATA controller, same. Different power cable, THAT worked!
It seems that if hotswapping a drive that is on the same power cable as the OS drive, it seems to shutdown the OS drive. Also, just as I was typing this and backing up my "primary" Media drive, it suddenly disappeared, going completely offline. This drive happened to be on the same power cable as my OS drive. I'm guessing this is a PSU issue and not an OS or HDD issue. I have not had any random BSOD's, they are only present when trying to hotswap on that power cable.
Now it seems, again as typing, that another drive went offline, on a completely separate power cable. I can't even get the "primary" media drive back online with even yet another separate power cable. I also noticed the "primary" Media drive seems to make the oscillating noise even when just powered on an not connected to the motherboard.
I've been having some goofy issues with my motherboard, where there have been random freezes at the POST splash screen, but this power supply really throws in a wrench, on top of a suspected dying hard drive or two.
What do you guys think should be replaced first, Mobo or PSU? The hard drive is pretty much backed up. I'm considering throwing in $450 for an Areca RAID card. I've had horrible luck with hard drives. With about 25% of them giving errors or dying on me within a year. Once I get my NAS setup, I won't be so worried about backups, its more about the downtime involved with replacing a hard drive and its information, and also what to do with a possibly useless refurbished hard drive I get sent back.