View Full Version : AWOL hard drive.
PPRuNe Pop
22nd Oct 2007, 09:34
Occasionally I find that one drive (D), I have three, does not load at start up. I restart and it always does then.
Any ideas please?
Could be a 'dying' drive? Is it showing in the Bios during boot? Do you have a drive manufacturer's diagnostic? HDD Heath is a free monitoring programme.
Saab Dastard
22nd Oct 2007, 15:36
Now there's an interesting thing - BOAC's reply is 12 minutes before PP's question!!!
Telepathy rules in advance!
Back to the question (or is it the answer...)
Pop, it can often be that one drive is taking too long to spin up - not necessarily a problem with the drive - it's as likely to be a problem with the PSU, especially if you have several physical disks and CD/DVD drives!
There's a time limit for the BIOS to identify drives at boot - if one of them hasn't reported in, it will then not be visible to the BIOS and therefore not to the OS.
It is possible on some (newer) mobos to specify a longer drive seek time at boot (up to 35 secs on mine). I have pared it back to 20 secs - 15 is too short, and it doesn't find the drive.
SD
OK - so we are 'in tune', PPP and I.:} However, 'tis your settings I fancy as my machine shows mine at 1022 and PPP at 0924.
Being a pilot, I do, of course, use GMT/UTC:)
Bushfiva
23rd Oct 2007, 05:42
A utility such as diskcheckup will check the drive's SMART codes and may let you know if the drive is generating any errors.
Since there are 3 drives in the machine, it's likely you added one or two yourself, so it may be worth simple reseating the connectors on the affected drive. You may want to swap a couple of power connectors around to see if the problem moves around, too.