Here we go again (Maxtor)

[EDJO]

Hello, All!

Below is my story a week ago.
I tested the primary 5T040H4 (without removing the secondary 5T040H4).
The Powermax software congratulated me and indicated that I had a errorfree
HD...!
I'm puzzled, but a bit more sure about this disk.
Could it be something with my board (A7M266)?

I have two Maxtor 5T040H4 harddisks in my PC.
The primary (boot) one has two partitions, C: (10 Mb) and D: (30 Mb).
The secondary has one partition, E: (40Mb)
The PC and the disks are appr. 3 years old.

Since 8 months, when booting, sometimes there's a sound, like a soft beep
from the disk and the primary is not recognised. Sometimes it is recognised
(no beep), but I'm "advised to backup my data ASAP, because the primary
will
fail soon". And sometimes everything seems OK and booting goes normally.
Once WinXP is running, there's never a problem.

I have replaced the IDE cable form the motherboard recently. At that time I
cleaned my computer and the disks, there was much dust. After a few days
the
problem was gone and I had a fawless booting PC for months. But now, since
a
few weeks, the problem returns and gets worse.

Is my primary indeed giving up? Or is this a know phenomenon that can be
solved?

With best regards, EDJO.

 

[Alceryes]

The HD is on it's way out. The message you are getting is from the HD's
SMART (system management and reporting tool). The HD itself is telling you
it's going to fail. Of course it could act like this for 6 months before it
happens. On the times that it doesn't boot does the HD actually spin up?
--


"I don't cheat to survive. I cheat to LIVE!!"

- Alceryes

 

[kony]

Hello, All!

Below is my story a week ago.
I tested the primary 5T040H4 (without removing the secondary 5T040H4).
The Powermax software congratulated me and indicated that I had a errorfree
HD...!
I'm puzzled, but a bit more sure about this disk.
Could it be something with my board (A7M266)?

That's a pretty open-ended question...

Generally no, the only other likely culprit is the power
supply. Your motherboard could be corrupting data to the
drive, and a logical error could then be resolved, but so
far we have no indication of this, rather the "beep" you
described is typical of the drive itself, failing of it's
own fault (except for aforementioned power or perhaps
insufficient cooling being contributory causes if
applicable).

The drive is bad, if you call up Maxtor and ask for an RMA,
they might give it to you without even asking about a
diagnostic code (they didn't ask last time I RMA'd one),
providing you mention the loss of data and "beeping" sound
from it.

 

[Buccaneer]

That's a pretty open-ended question...

Generally no, the only other likely culprit is the power
supply. Your motherboard could be corrupting data to the
drive, and a logical error could then be resolved, but so
far we have no indication of this, rather the "beep" you
described is typical of the drive itself, failing of it's
own fault (except for aforementioned power or perhaps
insufficient cooling being contributory causes if
applicable).

The drive is bad, if you call up Maxtor and ask for an RMA,
they might give it to you without even asking about a
diagnostic code (they didn't ask last time I RMA'd one),
providing you mention the loss of data and "beeping" sound
from it.

RMA ? Not come across this acronym before.

 

[Mac Cool]

Buccaneer:

RMA ?

Return Merchandise Authorization

 

[Miss Perspicacia Tick]

RMA ? Not come across this acronym before.

It isn't an acronym. Strictly, an acronym spells a word, or the letters are
pronounced as a word - e.g. NATO isn't a word, but you pronounce it
'nay-toe', rather than 'N-A-T-O' (e.g. SMART and RAM are acronyms, RMA is
not). The word 'acronym' comes from the Greek akron meaning 'point' and
'nym' 'name'. It's not a very old word either - it wasn't known before 1942.

Anyway, enough history. An RMA number is what you're given when you return
something to an online retailer (I believe it stands for Return (to)
Merchant Authorisation, though someone correct me if I'm wrong).

 

[Buccaneer]

Buccaneer:


Return Merchandise Authorization

Thanks,

I was trying to link it to something really technical ;o)