HDDs ejecting themselves

[tecje]

Dear all,

I'm currently having an issue with new drives and I'm not sure how to solve it.

System:
PSU Thermaltake W0103 600W
775 Intel Core2 Q6600 2.4 @ 3 ghz.
Asus 775 P5Q-E S/R/GBL/F/ATX
4096MB HyperX KIT CL5 Kingston
1000GB Samsung HD103UJ 32/S SATA HD
Samsung SH-S223Q 22x blk LS zw Sat DVD
MSI ATI R4850 512
Windows 7 Ultimate

Issue:
- The system has been running smoothly for three years, until one day on of my drives (4 by now) failed and the BIOS resetted itself (although not the time and date).
Checking each drive individually I confirmed loss of one of them and ordered two new ones (was running low on space anyway).

When installing the new drive (Hitachi 2 TB) I also rechecked the 'broken' one which was running again...(?). So I started transferring the data of the old one to the new Hitachi and within minutes either Windows froze for a few seconds, the new drive ejected itself or the system restarted... The other new drive did the same (I guess two DOA is very unlikely).

I checked the sata data cables but that was not it. I switched the power cable with three sata connectors (drives 2-4), with the one connected to my DVDdrive and boot HDD and it stayed stable for a few days. But then while transferring I started Firefox and it ejected again.

My first guess was the Power supply (peak voltage being unstable?), so I went ahead and ordered a new one.


But... it's not in yet and I wonder if it could be Windows itself or maybe the motherboard?

Please share your thought,

Thanks,

Rick

 

[Hawkeye22]

Wait until your new PSU comes in and see if that fixes it. After the new PSU is in, use HDTUne, speedfan, or some other utility to check the SMART status of the drives. Check the smart status once a day or so and make sure none of the counts for reallocated sectors and current pending sectors is increasing. If the values are increasing, you may need to replace the drives.

 

[tecje]

Thanks for the message,

I did HDtune and the error it gave was Ultra DMA CRC error count (up to 2600 from 1660 in a day).

I also did the bootable Hitachi disk check and both passed.

Hopefully the new PSU will fix it (both disks that is)

 

[Hawkeye22]

I've had CRC errors that were fixed with the newer locking sata cables. I guess my old ones didn't fit snug enough and were causing this issue.

Unfortunately you stated you already tried different cables.

 

[tecje]

I tried the ones available, but those are all three years old. I bought new ones though, I will try those before installing the new PSU. Can't hurt trying.