Weird, irritating problem

[Parapunter]

I have a dual hdd system - a Seagate 320gb hdd which contains the os and a further partition which is just used for general file storage etc and a second hdd, a western digital caviar 500gb which is used exclusively for media storage - music, videos etc. Thus the first hdd with the os vista home premium x86 is really very under utilised, since I pretty much only use the thing as a home theatre machine via Vista media centre (it's set up in the front room through 5.1 speakers & an lcd panel) Yesterday, I noticed that the tv pictures became unusually jerky & the internet connection was dropped. these are unusual events, so I opted for a restart to clear what ever was wrong.

The machine on reboot could only see the 2nd non os Hdd in the bios & absolutely refused to boot into windows. I tried new sata cables, force detecting the hdd & removing the 2nd hdd and a restore via the MS disc, all to no avail. Finally, at a loss, I rebuilt the os on the original hdd & fired true image over it, so more of an inconvenience than a disaster, but any suggestions on what may have happend are welcome, since I can't think why. Updates & avg all current.:confused:

[born2fly_au]

You answered your own question with one word. "Vista". in my opinion the biggest load of rubbish ever produced. I ran vista Optimum (Beta Version) on my computer for as long as it was available an had no end of problems with it including virtually the same things you mention. After I don't know how many reinstalls just to get it to boot i gave up in discussed but hoped they updated the bugs to get it up to scratch. For me this just didn't happen. You only have to read reviews about it on the net, most of who say it is full of problems. True there are people who have had a good run but you have to have just the right combination of the right hardware to make it run flawlessly. I will be sticking to XP for as long as i can or until they bring out another future operating system with the performance and stability of XP. IMHO go out and buy a copy of windows XP or download a copy of Linux Ubuntu or similar. It will be worth the piece of mind.:ok:

[Parapunter]

Given that I'm runnig x86 Vista and therefore have no EFI support, then BIOS loads the bootloader, so I can't see how your view holds up since the bios didn't see the HD at all. But hey ho.

[boguing]

A huge number of variables in your summation, but, even though I'm a Vista sceptic I wouldn't blame it just yet.

If the bios couldn't find the drive, there is definitely something going on. You've changed sata cables - was the power cable seated properly, and is it using any 'splitter' cables that aren't seated correctly?

If you are confident that all is fine in the cables department, I'd really be questioning the reliability of the drive itself. Most drive manufacturer's offer a test app on their websites. Try that - but run the full test at least four times. When I've used them they seem to sail through, until they are hot. Then the app finally puts it's hands up and says 'dead'.

Maxtor anyone?

[Parapunter]

The sata cable had a split - I tested it on the other drive & it worked, but I replaced it anyway & tried the good one on the missing drive - still no dice, so I can eliminate that as the problem. The drives have an extra case fan blowing on them, added by me, since it's a half height htpc case - it gets warm. Even so, the drives run at around 45-47 degrees - warm but not excessive & they're both new-ish.

I've rebuilt Vista on the original drive as I said and it's running tickety boo...for now. I'm supposing that something went skibaa in the bootloader interface but it's really not anything I know about - yes, I tend to poo poo anything from the Linux brigade - they usually come armed with an agenda rather than a desire to help - I'm after someone well acquainted with Bios's & HDD's.

[Bushfiva]

Seagate has a nice utility that will test the drives in a system. It's good for checking if the drive is issuing any SMART codes, which usually herald impending doom. Windows, in its wisdom, ignores both SMART codes and soft read errors. PassMark has a free utility for checking the SMART codes.