SATA hard drive drop out problem

G

Grei Stokes

I have 2 x maxtor 160gb SATA drives on my computer (ECS PF1 mobo, P4 2.4 HS
800FSB, 1gb RAM, RADEON 9200). The problem is when writing to either drive
they drop out, I lose them from MyComputer and Windows reports "unsafe
hardware removal".
I have updated the mobo to the latest bios, re-formatted the drives using
Maxtor's MaxBlast 3, re-installed a clean copy of Windows XP SP1 (I had to
buy cos pre-SP1 doesn't support 137+ HDDs) and still both drives drop out.
The computer supplier says it's a hard drive problem or Windows, the hard
drive supplier says it's the Mobo or Windows and Microsoft won't help cos
it's OEM.
Can anyone help? I currently have 320gb of hard drives that I can't use and
this has dragged on a month.
 
J

John Vinson

I have 2 x maxtor 160gb SATA drives on my computer (ECS PF1 mobo, P4 2.4 HS
800FSB, 1gb RAM, RADEON 9200). The problem is when writing to either drive
they drop out, I lose them from MyComputer and Windows reports "unsafe
hardware removal".
Click to expand...

Grei, you should ask this question on a hardware newsgroup. Microsoft
Access(TM) is a database management program, part of the Office Pro
suite; this newsgroup is for users of that program. It would only be
by sheer coincidence if a hardware expert should happen to see your
post.
 
W

Wayne Morgan

John is correct, this isn't the place to get the best answer, but I'll give it a shot.

1) Do you have the most current SATA and chipset drivers for your motherboard?

2) Try the drives one at a time. Do you still have the problem?

3) Try a different cable(s).

4) Try a different OS. Do you have Win2k available? While it won't recognize the full size
of the drives during install, you should be able to format enough of the drive(s) to
install the OS and give it a try. (I don't know if Win2k will even support SATA, I haven't
checked. Probably, it would be an add-in driver at boot up, F6 key if I remember
correctly)

5) If both drives act up when run separately then it is probably the hard drive controller
on the motherboard. Do you have a SATA add-in card you could try to see if that eliminates
the problem?

6) Have you run a diagnostic using MaxBlast? Try the long one where the drives will get a
good long workout, although this probably won't put as much stress on them as Windows
does.
 
T

Tony Toews

Grei Stokes said:
I have 2 x maxtor 160gb SATA drives on my computer (ECS PF1 mobo, P4 2.4 HS
800FSB, 1gb RAM, RADEON 9200). The problem is when writing to either drive
they drop out, I lose them from MyComputer and Windows reports "unsafe
hardware removal".
Click to expand...

I would also see if there is a newsgroup on your ISPs server
specifically for your motherboard vendor as there are frequently very
knowledgeable folks who hang out in such.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
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