[EdenB]

Some quick details about the computer itself, it has two seperate physical hard drives, the one with Windows XP Home installed which is C: and I think is supposed to be 60GB (though it shows up as 31.4GB in My Computer) and a second which is 160GB and is drive D:. Both are attached by IDE. I also have an external drive which is working fine. I haven't installed anything before or during the problem, apart from that which I mentioned at the end.

All of the following happened within the same week or so, so it's unlikely that it's just coincidence. The computer has been running for at least half a year with no problems or being opened up.

First the D: drive said it wasn't formatted but could still be seened in My Computer as an unformatted drive, next time I turned it on it was back but most of the time kept failing when I tried to copy files from it, then it said unformatted again, came on but allowed files to be copied and then kept switching between unformatted and able to copy from until the drive seemingly disappeared.

On checking at that point, the BIOS didn't recognise that there was a D: drive attached. It automatically searches for drives on each startup.

Nothing happened for a couple of days, then I started to get Disk Read Error when trying to start up the PC. Similiarly to the D: drive though it only happened some of the time, sometimes working fine for a couple of times in a row and sometimes taking about 10 tries before it got past the Disk Read Error and loaded Windows.

A few times when turned on it's got some of the writing up (Press F10 for this, these hard drives detected, etc) and then froze completely.

I tried using the Windows CD to get into Recovery Console to try a fixboot or something, but it kept coming up with an error on reading a file. I think that's because of the CD though, I tried following a guide on creating a bootable XP CD with SP2 already on but I kept getting cylclic redundency error for 40SP3.cab. I tried using another bootable CD (Spinrite 6.0) and that loaded fine (despite that I couldn't figure out how to make it do anything and that the Benchmark test failed).

The last thing to happen is that on managing to load Windows successfully the D: drive suddenly came back online. I installed SP3 just before that in the unlikely hope that it might do something with the boot up.

Does anyone know how I might fix the problem and what might of caused it? I'm a bit wary of replacing the drives since if both fail at almost the same time, it makes me wonder if something is causing them to fail and if it'll effect any new drives or these if I format them.

[philthomas]

Can you tell us a bit more about your system ... i.e specs and PSU wattage.

As the errors and problems you are having are not consistent and things are working, then not working, I would suspect Ram, but the PSU could be an issue too.

Also is your XP CD an original M$ Installation CD ?

[EdenB]

For the specs, I'll put in a partial Everest Report which should cover most of it. The full thing is too long for a post, so I'll link it here.

As for the CD it's XP Home on a CR-R (which is proberly why the cylclic error), not an original since I'm using an OEM key.

Something I noticed on the report was that it does say my C: drive (The Samsung) is 60GB but it then says that the C: partition which is supposed to be all of it and was 60GB (or rather just under) before is now 32GB.

---

--------[ EVEREST Home Edition (c) 2003-2005 Lavalys, Inc. ]------------------------------------------------------------

Version EVEREST v2.20.405
Homepage http://www.lavalys.com/
Report Type Quick Report
Computer ALTIMIT (------s PC)
Generator ------
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition 5.1.2600 (WinXP Retail)
Date 2008-07-05
Time 20:44


--------[ Summary ]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Computer:
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
OS Service Pack Service Pack 3
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
Computer Name ALTIMIT (------s PC)
User Name ------

Motherboard:
CPU Type AMD Athlon 64, 2200 MHz (11 x 200) 3700+
Motherboard Name ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 (3 PCI, 1 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 1 AGP, 1 Future CPU Port, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, LAN)
Motherboard Chipset ULi/ALi M1689, AMD Hammer
System Memory 1024 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type AMI (03/31/06)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT (256 MB)
Monitor SyncMaster 732N [NoDB] (HMELC12731)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter ULi/ALi M5455 AC'97 Audio Controller

Storage:
IDE Controller ALi M5229 PCI Bus Master IDE Controller
SCSI/RAID Controller A347SCSI SCSI Controller
SCSI/RAID Controller SCSI/RAID Host Controller
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive HDS722516VLAT20 (160 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Disk Drive Seagate FreeAgentDesktop USB Device (698 GB, USB)
Disk Drive SAMSUNG SV0602H (60 GB, 5400 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Optical Drive _NEC DVD_RW ND-2500A (DVD+RW:8x/4x, DVD-RW:8x/4x, DVD-ROM:12x, CD:32x/16x/40x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions:
C: (NTFS) 32240 MB (1726 MB free)
D: (NTFS) 157061 MB (67288 MB free)
G: (NTFS) 715402 MB (570481 MB free)
Total Size 883.5 GB (624.5 GB free)

Input:
Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse Microsoft PS/2 Mouse
Game Controller Microsoft PC-joystick driver

Network:
Network Adapter ULi PCI Fast Ethernet Controller (192.168.62.52)

Peripherals:
USB1 Controller ULi/ALi M5237 USB Open Host Controller
USB1 Controller ULi/ALi M5237 USB Open Host Controller
USB1 Controller ULi/ALi M5237 USB Open Host Controller
USB2 Controller ULi/ALi M5273 USB 2.0 Host Controller
USB Device Logitech QuickCam Express #2
USB Device USB Human Interface Device
USB Device USB Mass Storage Device

Problems & Suggestions:
Problem Disk free space is only 5% on drive C:.


--------[ DMI ]----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ BIOS ]

BIOS Properties:
Vendor American Megatrends Inc.
Version P1.70
Release Date 03/31/2006
Size 256 KB
Boot Devices Floppy Disk, Hard Disk, CD-ROM, ATAPI ZIP, LS-120
Capabilities Flash BIOS, Shadow BIOS, Selectable Boot, EDD, BBS
Supported Standards DMI, ACPI
Expansion Capabilities PCI, AGP, USB

[ System ]

System Properties:
Product 939Dual-SATA2
Version 1.00
Serial Number 00000000
Universal Unique ID 00020003-00040005-00060007-00080009
Wake-Up Type Power Switch

[ Motherboard ]

Motherboard Properties:
Product 939Dual-SATA2
Version 1.00
Serial Number 00000000

[ Processors / AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3700+ ]

Processor Properties:
Manufacturer AMD
Version AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3700+
Serial Number TBD
Asset Tag TBD
Part Number TBD
External Clock 200 MHz
Maximum Clock 2200 MHz
Current Clock 2200 MHz
Type Central Processor
Voltage 3.3 V, 2.9 V
Status Enabled
Socket Designation CPUSocket


--------[ Overclock ]----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CPU Properties:
CPU Type AMD Athlon 64 3700+
CPU Alias San Diego S939
CPU Stepping SH-E4
CPUID CPU Name AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3700+
CPUID Revision 00020F71h

CPU Speed:
CPU Clock 2199.80 MHz
CPU Multiplier 11.0x
CPU FSB 199.98 MHz (original: 200 MHz)
Memory Bus 157.13 MHz

CPU Cache:
L1 Code Cache 64 KB (Parity)
L1 Data Cache 64 KB (ECC)
L2 Cache 1 MB (On-Die, ECC, Full-Speed)

Motherboard Properties:
Motherboard ID 62-169-0000010-00101111-033106-ALI$939M2169_939DUAL-SATA2 BIOS P1.70
Motherboard Name ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 (3 PCI, 1 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 1 AGP, 1 Future CPU Port, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, LAN)

Chipset Properties:
Motherboard Chipset ULi/ALi M1689, AMD Hammer
Memory Timings 2.5-3-3-7 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
Command Rate (CR) 2T

SPD Memory Modules:
DIMM1: Micron Tech. 16VDDT12864AG40BD1 1 GB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (3.0-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz) (2.5-3-3-7 @ 166 MHz) (2.0-2-2-6 @ 133 MHz)

BIOS Properties:
System BIOS Date 03/31/06
Video BIOS Date 05/25/06
DMI BIOS Version P1.70


--------[ Power Management ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Power Management Properties:
Current Power Source AC Line
Battery Status No Battery
Full Battery Lifetime Unknown
Remaining Battery Lifetime Unknown


--------[ Sensor ]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sensor Properties:
Sensor Type Winbond W83627HF (ISA 290h)
GPU Sensor Type Driver (NV-DRV)

Temperatures:
Motherboard 35 °C (95 °F)
CPU 41 °C (106 °F)
Aux 39 °C (102 °F)
GPU 46 °C (115 °F)
SAMSUNG SV0602H 38 °C (100 °F)
Hitachi HDS722516VLAT20 41 °C (106 °F)

Cooling Fans:
CPU 4327 RPM

Voltage Values:
CPU Core 1.34 V
Aux 1.41 V
+3.3 V 3.34 V
+5 V 5.08 V
+12 V 11.86 V
-12 V 1.38 V
-5 V 2.34 V
+5 V Standby 4.87 V
VBAT Battery 0.26 V
Debug Info F FF 27 FF
Debug Info T 35 41 39
Debug Info V 55 59 D1 BD C4 C6 C9 (01)


--------[ CPU ]----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CPU Properties:
CPU Type AMD Athlon 64, 2200 MHz (11 x 200) 3700+
CPU Alias San Diego S939
CPU Stepping SH-E4
Instruction Set x86, x86-64, MMX, 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3
Min / Max CPU Multiplier 4x / 11x
L1 Code Cache 64 KB (Parity)
L1 Data Cache 64 KB (ECC)
L2 Cache 1 MB (On-Die, ECC, Full-Speed)

CPU Physical Info:
Package Type 939 Pin uOPGA
Package Size 4.00 cm x 4.00 cm
Transistors 114 million
Process Technology 11Mi, 90 nm, CMOS, Cu, SOI
Die Size 112.9 mm2
Core Voltage 1.100 - 1.400 V
I/O Voltage 1.2 V + 2.5 V
Maximum Power 89 W

CPU Manufacturer:
Company Name Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Product Information http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...30_118,00.html

CPU Utilization:
CPU #1 0 %

[philthomas]

Have you got a spare stick of Ram to try, to eliminate Ram as an issue ?

Your 60gb Drive clearly shows one partition of 32240mb .... are you certain it was previously partitioned to the whole capacity of the drive ?

Whilst fault finding, unplug the external drive .... does this have its own PSU or is it USB powered ?
Might be a good idea to unplug all USB devices too.

Have you opened up the case and reseated all the IDE & Molex connectors ?

What is the size of the PSU ?

You really need to buy/beg/borrow or steal an original XP Disk, as to go much further, you are going to need one.

[EdenB]

Unfortunately I've not got a spare stick of RAM. I have two in there though I think so if it might be just one I could try removing one, then the other possibly.

I'm certain it was partitioned to the full capacity. Now it can't even see that there's more than 31.4GB.

The USB devices have been unplugged, with the exception of the external hard drive when I was backing up data. I've had it unplugged while fault finding though, it has it's own power supply.

Yes, I've opened up the case and reseated all the IDE and Molex connectors.

The PSU is a strange one in a different shape than most. It came with the case since there's no place to put a normal one. It's an arctic cooling case. The PSU is 350W and is a Seasonic SS-350 ATC Active PFC.

I should hopefully be able to borrow an XP Disc later today, but the same guy said he'd get it to me yesterday and the day before too so it's not certain.

For some unknown reason when I shut the computer down and turned it back on, it came back on straight away, ran chkdsk on D: and both drives were accessible. It's rare but not unseen for it to work twice in a row for C: without a disk read error, but since D: came back on (right after I installed SP3 if that makes a difference) it's worked both times which is strange.

[philthomas]

Yep ... try removing one stick and then swapping, if no improvement ... this will at least eliminate the Ram.

Also it might be a good idea to test the Ram. I have had good results with this diagnostic tool from M$ ... you can create either a boot CD or Floppy.
Switch to the extended test mode (T) when running the tests and run at least 5 passes.

[EdenB]

Problem possibly resolved. Sort of anyway.

I'm not sure why but it started working fine again, or at least it's managed to do so for about five times in a row now. It might be something that changed on the first startup after installing SP3 since I think that's the only thing I've changed since. It seems strange though that if it was something like that, it wouldn't of effected each drive seperately.

On every startup it tries to use chkdsk on D: (without finding errors) though I've turned off manually from doing it. I'm still not sure why it started working consistantly, if it'll stop again and why and how my just less than 60GB partition turned into a just over 30GB one.