Occasional failure to boot = bad drive?

9

9mmx19

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 6, 2004
Messages
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Sometimes my 120GB WD isnt recognized at the POST screen when I boot up. It'll just say "Detecting Primary Master..." and then eventually give up. It does detect my optical drive and other nonboot HD though.

I have to either use the reset button or just cut/restore power and try again. This doesnt happen all the time - which is how Im typing this right now.

Is this drive going to die soon? Should I replace it before it does permanently? Thanks in advance.
 
Could be a loose power connector or something like that. I would recommend you download the diagnostic tool from Western Digital's webpage and run that to begin with. Also, back up any important data off of that drive just in case. If the diagnostic shows any errors, check the warranty on it and get it replaced :)
 
that is a symptom of a drive on its way out. as jackyl suggested do a backup as soon as possible. the drive could continue to function for quite some time like that but then again it could crash for good the next time you try to boot. better safe than sorry.
 
Repeat after me: I make regular backups...

Your drive most likely is dying, run the diags and hopefully you can get the advanced RMA. Not sure if they'll give you another 120 or not. Also, my 120g wd is having problems too..... wonder if there's lingering issues...
 
Run Data Lifeguard to check the drive. You can download it from the WD website. That will let you know if drive is having problems.
 
Maybe...

Check the jumpers. I've experienced two drives that did this (one seagate, one WD), and worked fine after switching the jumper setting. They were both set as master, and at the end of the IDE cable. Switching the master jumper to cable select fixed the problem.

For one of the drives though, it was working fine for like two months. Then the comp suddenly stops responding at POST.
 
Well I thought it might be the power supply - I changed it and it still happened.

Naturally I tried a different drive. I used Norton Ghost and ghosted it to a brand new 200GB... same thing. Could it be something on the HD that Ghost copied over? I thought it might be Im using the 200GB and just did a fresh install. Thats what Im using right now. We'll see...
 
Do you have SMART turned on in the BIOS? If you do and it's not saying anything about the drive.....run the "manufacturer's test" on the drive...not PC Pro or anything else.
 
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