How to fix my hard drive?

C

Cheetoz

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 3, 2003
Messages
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My hard drive randomly shuts off and spins back up. This is extremely noticeable while gaming. I get no clicks of death, and a S.M.A.R.T. test showed there are no damaged sectors.

I can't find what seems to cause this, and if there is a way of fixing it. :confused:
 
Maybe it's an OS-level "power savings" measure that's turning your HDD off mid-game, perhaps?
 
nothing out of the ordinary. It just shuts off and then does the same noise as booting up the computer.

I think it might be a power issue. Don't know if the hard drive was connected to the same rail as the video card. I'm going to check.
 
Get the manufacturer's diagnostic utility and run the Quick or Short test. If that comes up clean, run the Advanced or Long test. If the drive having issues is from some manufacturer that doesn't offer a diagnostic, get the Hitachi Drive Fitness test, it'll do just fine.

If you get any issues, then scrap the drive. S.M.A.R.T. is good for most things, but is not a valid way to automagically determine if a drive is good or bad, that's what the manufacturer's diagnostic is specifically designed for.
 
Cheetoz said:
nothing out of the ordinary. It just shuts off and then does the same noise as booting up the computer.

I think it might be a power issue. Don't know if the hard drive was connected to the same rail as the video card. I'm going to check.
Click to expand...

I think it's a hard drive issue. Download the CD image of Hitachi Drive Fitness Test, burn the ISO file to a CD, and then boot from it, just like you would do with the XP install CD. Test the hard drive and see if any problems are found.

You could also use ata Lifeguard Tools 11.2 for DOS (CD) to scan the drive.
 
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