3 Harddrives start all dying same way

[rbf27]

Hi all,

This one stumps me good, I've never seen this behaviour in an HD until my first HD went about 6 months ago. Since then I temporarily used an old 20gig, which died the same way. Now I've had a brand new 80gb WD Caviar for less than a week, and it has started behaving the same way.

The best I can describe is while in windows (XP) usually when I launch an app or while I'm watching a video, it makes a sound like the plates abruptly stop spinning, and then the HD reinitialises if that makes sense. When this happens, the computer freezes, usually for a few seconds, and then continues normally, although it sometimes sounds like the HD has a harder time doing what it's trying, and it takes 2 or 3 tries.

I have a strong background in hardware, but I've simply never encountered this behaviour and definetly suspect some issue with my power supply (I'm leaning towards this) or possibly the MB. Any thoughts? Anyone seen this before?

Thanks in advance.

 

[003]

Yes it is most likely something with your computer, but I dont have any idea what it could be...

 

[Wayniac]

Reformat the hard drive you're worried about and try it in a different computer. If it works, then it has to be something with your computer. Then just narrow it down. You know, eliminate things. If it works in that other computer, take out the power supply and put your power supply in and keep doing that with different hardware until you find the problem.

 

[daappleby]

I would say your psu is having issues keeping a constant voltage. try the other suggestions fist, if that still doesn't fix it replace your psu and see if that helps.

 

[timmer]

yea u need to reformat really befor u try anything sing u have a few hdds it shouldnt be bad backing stuff up. make sure u do a full reformat not quick!!!! then what wayniac said troubleshoot

 

[RicoDirenzo]

The drives die? Do you have another computer where you can mount these drives as slaves and check to see if they are detected? Generally, if a power supply is failing your system just suddenly reboots and then fails to boot upat all after awhile. have you checked for a virus that might casue hd overspin? Sounds like something in your mobo may be causing power spikes and damage to the hd's controller chips. Definitely weird!!!

 

[Nitestick]

u mean the hdd sounds as if its powered down? sounds like a power problem.

 

[FadingTheory]

Power problem.... most likely.

 

[rbf27]

Well I took a look at the voltage readings in my BIOS. 2 of them mildly fluctuated about .02, and another two were almost 3/4 of a volt off. Thinking I wanted to minimize use until I figured out the problem, I turned my PC off last night, something I rarely do. In the morning the drive wouldn't detect, voltage readings on 2 of them were almost 1.5 volts off, and a couple other pretty messed.
The power supply seems like best guess to me since it does seem to be acting up. But I would also like to know is it normal the see the reading off a bit, or fluctuate a bit? Back when I actually delt with hardware regularly the BIOS didn't have handy options to show things like voltage.