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New HD crashed my system

K

Kiri

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 10, 2008
Messages
176
Hi, I just tried installing a new WD 2.5TB HD in my windows 7 desktop computer.
However, since I didn't have a spare SATA cable, I decided to unplug my DVD drive and use that cable for the new HD.

I booted into windows ok, and windows automatically installed the new device drivers. But the drive didn't show up in explorer, so I figured I needed to initialize it, so I went into disk management.
A message popped up asking me to choose between MBR or GPT. But before I could choose an option. The system froze and screen went blank (just a white screen). Upon rebooting, the system hung again immediately. Then I unplugged the new HD and rebooted, but the system would not start. I eventually realised that somehow my bios boot settings had gotten messed up and I had to set the boot order again. After that I was able to boot but the system would still hang within about 2 minutes of getting into windows. This is after unplugging the new drive and putting things back to how they were before.
I was pretty worried that I had damaged something at this point.

But I decided to try a system restore from safe mode, and luckily, everything seems ok now. (its only been about 20 mins though, so not 100% sure).

Anyway, I am kind of scared to try and install this drive now. What could be going wrong?
Is it possible that my PSU is overloaded?
Here are my system details

- ASUS P6T
- Core i7
- 630W PSU
- ATI HD4850
- ATI HD5450
- 128GB SSD (OS drive)
- 640GB WD
- 640GB WD
- DVD drive

That's everything currently installed. And I am trying to add a 4th HDD (the WD 2.5TB).
Is this just too much load for the PSU, or do you think there is a different issue at play?

Thanks for your advice, if you need more details, please ask
Thanks
 
What make and model is your power supply? How old is it? A power supply that can really supply 630W would not be a problem, but from a less-than-reputable manufacturer, a "630W" power supply may be unable to deliver clean enough power for any system.

That said, if changing software settings fixed the problem, I'd be inclined to look somewhere else. Is the new disk on the same set of SATA ports as the existing disks?
 
hard drives don't usually draw much power, maybe 20w at spin up? but like unhappy's comment, what model/brand of PSU do you have?
 
The psu is a local Japanese brand (I'm in Japan ). But it is quite well regarded here. I do not believe the psu quality is the issue.

The sata port is part of the same set coming off the mb. The only thing I can think is that swapping the DVD drive for the hd caused it to somehow become confused... I'll try again with a new cable and port today.
 
Well this is very strange. I just tried to install the drive again with a new sata cable and only a new sata port (port 5), and once again had my system come to a halt within a minute or two of booting into windows.
I had to do another system restore to be able to use the computer again.

I also noticed that the screen would flicker slightly, especially when attempting to resize a window or do something graphical. It almost seems like a video card issue, but that doesn't make sense since I am only installing a new HD...
Really confused. Any ideas?
 
Ok I seem to have gotten this working. I did two things which may have contributed. The first was to update my intel chipset drivers. This may have helped, but I believe it was actually the second thing.
That was to plug the sata cable into the JMicron controller on the MB instead of the regular sata controller. I think the JMicron is a RAID controller, but I'm not sure.
I'm not sure why that worked, but it seems to have done the trick.
 
Have you tested the new drive? I suggest you do a full format (or two) and look at what CrystalDiskInfo says about the disks health. Some drives will come DOA or die within the first 6 months of usage. For me at work rigorous testing when I get any drive (new or from an RMA) reduces the risk of problems in the near term..
 
Thanks for the advice drescherjm, I'll give it a test with CrystalDisk tomorrow. So far it seems to be ok, except I did have one issue with the drive 'disappearing' after resuming from sleep mode. But then I installed the latest JMicron drivers, and I *think* that has resolved the issue.
 
hmm, CrystalDiskInfo says my HD health is "unknown"
It also says the interface is Parallel ATA, and the transfer mode is Ultra DMA / 133.
The temp is also reported as 44C (my other drives are 30C).

Not to sure what to make of all that. Should I bother trying to get it working on the standard SATA port again?
 
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