HDD Problem

[konanv]

Hi,
I'm new to this site and also a new user of Windows Vista. I'm currently experiencing a problem with my non-vista HDD. In Vista Home Premium x86 (and only in Vista OS because I also have Windows XP and no problem there) every so often my 2nd HDD will disappear completely. That is, no detection of sorts and this happens after my PC has already been running for a while. I initially thought it might be a power supply issue but after playing around a little with my PC I found out that's not the case. I'm wondering if anyone might have any ideas about this. Oh, and also before my HDD dissapears the PC will make a noise very similar to the one you hear when it hangs (a beeping sound from the case).

I have a dual-OS custom built PC. Both OS are installed on 2 physically different SATA drives. My configuration is

1x Asus P4P800SE
1x P4 at 3.0Ghz
4x Kingston K-series PC3200
1x ATI Radeon X700 Pro
1x Sounblaster X-Fi
1x Seagate 120g ST3120026AS SATA (XP Drive and the one that dissapears)
1x Seagate 500g ST3500630AS SATA (Vista drive)
1x Windows Home Premium x86
1x Windows XP Professional SP2

Thank you for taking the time to look at this

P.S. Upgrading at this point is not an option unfortunately. Furthermore, sometimes the computer will go days or even weeks without a glitch.

 

[rajinisback]

I wonder after you hear that noise, and the drive dissappears, can you tell is if the drive has spun down? I'm thinking the XP drive is dying and spinning down and then when you reboot the PC it will tell the drive to spin back up then it can be seen again in Vista. What power supply is in that PC? Maybe the PC is underpowered?
Raj

 

[soldatz]

You may have an underpowered or failing PSU. I had this problem a few years ago with an XP machine. Replacing the PSU solved the problem.

 

[KentuckyRanger]

I had a simmular situation with a Wester Digital external H/D.
When I hooked it up Vista took forever to load but all seemed to work OK until after a few boots my BIOS and Vista lost their Minds.
The BIOS hung in drive detection and Vista would freeze and I had to do a hard boot to get out of it.
I finally had to disconnect the external H/D and un-plug my Computer overnight to resolve the issue.

I know it's the H/D doing it because after I got everything back to normal I bravely hooked the H/D up agin with the exact same results.

I tested the H/D on my Wifes P/C with Win XP and it's still hooked up running fine so I know it's not a bad Drive or Power Supply.

I think Microsoft needs to address the issues with SATA and USB drivers in Vista because all my internal H/D's are SATA and for some reason this is not only an issue with Vista but it seems to be an issue with Motherboard's as well.
Sometimes my DVD drives don't get detected and sometimes bootup freezes when detecting SATA drives.
Right now booting up is a crapshoot. Some Days everything boots up fine then other Days, I just have to walk away and take 10...

Since puting this Rig together I've come to the conclusion that if I had it to do over I would have chosen a single SATA H/D because it seems that multiple SATA drives confuse Vista to the point of meltdown.
Another issue I'd have done different would be the 2 SATA DVD drves.
There's something glitching with SATA drive detection that really seems to be causing conflicts all over the place and I'm glad to see it's just not my system suffering.

All I can say is untill this issue is resolved with Vista, multiple SATA drives and external USB Hard Drives are best left alone.