Hard Drive Disappearing??

[Papa]

This has been a long term problem. I have Searched Google for problems like
this, but they all seem to be older (2002). Their problems do seem similar
to mine, but I found no resolution, except drive replacement.

I bought a new 2nd drive and it seemed to work fine for a short while. Then
while I was using the computer or while the computer was idle, but still on,
the drive just disappeared from "My Computer". The Drive Gradually got
worse and worse until I could not access it at all(over a few days).
Western Digital sent me a new Drive. I also put in a new HighSpeed IDE
cable. I put the new Hard Drive in and it worked fine for a few months.

The same thing is happening again. Now, they are sending me another Hard
Drive. Is there anything else that could cause this trouble? When the Hard
Drive disappears, it takes out the slave DVD Rom. When I take the Hard
Drive off the IDE cable, the DVD Rom reappears. I have a 300Watt power
supply, in which the voltage has measured ok. The temperature of 2nd drive
is some higher than that of Hard Drive (C). If it is a power supply
problem, then why does it not affect Drive (C)? Western Digital has not
Hesitated to send replacements. Is anyone aware of similar problems and
solutions?

I have the following on my machine:

2.4Ghz Pentium 4
512 mb DDR SDRAM
80GB Hard Drive (C) IDE1 Master - Western Digital
160GB Hard Drive (F & G) IDE2 Master - Western Digital
DVD Rom IDE1 Slave
DVD/RW IDE2 Slave

Thank You for your time.

 

[Guest]

Try putting the 2nd hd on the same ide cable as master,set jumpers t
slave,put the dvd on 2nd ide cable as master.Then in xp,go to run,type
diskmgmt.msc in msc,L.click the slave drive,actions,all,select,make driv
active,close-out.Then R.click my computer,properties,advanced,virtual memory
change button,set the slave as,let windows manage,click set 2X,set C: drive as
let windows manage,set 2X,close-out,a restart will be prompted if set right.Also,pu
the slave 1st on ide cable,xp will use as a page file,giving xp better system performance
Once set as page file,xp will not let it disapear,guaranteed.