HDD Crash - why?

[Lokolo]

Ok so during the night my HDD died on me and caused something to go wrong and windows wouldn't load (the scrollbar repeated the whole night!!). Used the Western Digital fixer which fixes everything.

Event log has 2 repeating things (5 times)

ERROR 1) The device, \Device\Scsi\viasraid1, did not respond within the timeout period.
ERROR 2) An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a paging operation.

Could someone explain them to me?


The only thing is this is approximate the 5th time in 6 months the HDD keeps 'dying' on me and I am not sure why. I am thinking its more the motherboard than the drive as the drive is pretty new. I have another SATA drive which also died on me a few times, which makes me to believe its the mobo even more.

Are there any tests or anything I can do to find out where the problem may lie? It does seem pretty random though :(

Thanks,

:)

[HDD1: WD 160GB SATAII, HDD2: Maxtor 90GB SATAI, Mobo: Abit AV8-3rd Eye]

 

[Fred]

While I've always like DFT for finding hdd problems, it may also be in your best interest to use a separate drive testing program also such as Seatools. This software also tests the hdd controller and other things. It is a pretty good tool in my experience. Although have to say, if you've DFT'd it several times and did not find a bad hdd, it DOES sound like another problem. Have you tried any other hardware scans such as Memtest or PC Check? One more thing.. I dont know what version of DFT you are currently using, but try Support - Downloads and Utilities

One last thing, as for the first error, a timeout does not neccesarily indicate a problem with the drive. It may also be a motherboard problem.

Some other things to try are: swapping out the cable to your drive and swapping hdds and testing the known working one with your current configuration. Sorry I cant give more advice right now, but I am kinda in a busy situation.

 

[Lokolo]

Um its not that they weren't bad at all. Errors were found on the Western Digital fixer thing. But they were fixed.

The thing is it looks to be completely random (other than the fact I've only been here once when it happened - computer froze, restarted, blue screen). I have swapped cables etc. around but nothing heh.

I have tried memtest before, did it was just over 24 hours, and no errors. Just about to try that program you just linked to to see if that reports anything.

My motherboard has been discontinued so I am going to email Abit asking why (if it caused HDDs to fail we got our answer).

But other than that its a mystery.

 

[donkey42]

Ok so during the night my HDD died on me and caused something to go wrong and windows wouldn't load (the scrollbar repeated the whole night!!). Used the Western Digital fixer which fixes everything.

Could someone explain them to me?

ERROR 1) The device, \Device\Scsi\viasraid1, did not respond within the timeout period.

it is saying the error is on a HDD SCSI RAID controller (thats what SATA is)[ot]isn't there a HDD number? (hd0, hd1, hd3, hd4 or just a number[/ot]

ERROR 2) An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a paging operation.

i think this is saying IDE HDD 0 (primary master) and i guess it referring to partition D:[ot]but ive never used SATA drives[/ot]

yeah, Freds right only connect 1 HDD while diagnosing HDD errors, theres some other things to try swaping the HDD power & data cables as Fred suggested

Seatools

yeah, seatools is good

 

[Fred]

Um its not that they weren't bad at all. Errors were found on the Western Digital fixer thing. But they were fixed.

Well, judging by the fact that you have found and fixed errors several times, I would say it would not at all be beyond the realm of possibility for your drive to be going bad. Maybe you keep fixing bad sectors over and over because your drive is failing. Its kinda like bailing water out of a sinking ship.

it is saying the error is on a HDD SCSI RAID controller (thats what SATA is)

This would also be indicative of a bad motherboard as I suggested earlier. The strange thing I just noticed is the fact that one of your errors suggests Scsi and the other references IDE, yet I only see SATA hdds at the bottom of your original post. No advice here, but I just thought I'd throw that up in the air.

I hate to go on a hunch, but I'd say your hdd is probably bad. Though, like donkey suggested, it would be a great idea to test them separately to narrow down which drive. If one drive in particular is giving errors and not the other, then I would definetly replace the hdd. And like I mentioned before, running a full system test such as PC check would be very handy in this situation, though I dont know if there is even a free version (Once again, in this case I revert back to suggesting Seatools as it has been loads of help to me in the past).

I hope some of my advice has been able to help. Keep us updated and I will do my best to keep up with the thread.

Fred

 

[donkey42]

IDE, yet I only see SATA hdds at the bottom of your original post

:doh: :doh: :doh: :swear: sorry, i'll read it again but i may not be helpful, as i've never used SATA, all i know about SATA is what i've pick up on HWF, but i'll look

Edit:

it would be a great idea to test them separately

yeah, test each drive separately, and see if one still has any errors, then try replacing that drive if there are any errors

BTW: i wouldn't be surprised if there are no errors with just 1 drive connected

 

[Big B]

One thing to be aware of: if you're motherboard uses an nForce 4 chipset, there's a glitch in SeaTools that will report errors on drives. If you use it, make sure it's not on any nForce 4 motherboard.