[SOLVED] How can I test to see if MOBO or PSU causing HDD failures?

[SirGrizzy]

Hi all,

Computer is about 4 years old. Recently, the first Seagate Barracuda 1TB starting having issues of disappearing and re-connecting. SMART tests passed, but long generic failed and I decided to replace the drive. Bought a brand new Seagate Barracuda 2TB, and 2 months in, it is doing the same thing. It's created some errors on the drive that I have repaired, but it keeps happening. I've replaced the data cable but not the power cable. The power cable also connects to the SSD and has not had issues that I can tell. The SSD's have never had issues. How could I test whether the MOBO or PSU might be causing issues before I simply enact the warranty and get another Seagate drive? It seems unlikely to be coincidence.

Here's the link to my parts list:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JqrmbX

And a link to my CrystalDiskInfo HDD results:

https://imgur.com/Gmvk1uF

View: https://imgur.com/Gmvk1uF


I'm not an expert on PCs by any means, so help is appreciated.

 

[Colif]

of the two items, the PSU is the more likely cause of premature HDD deaths. I went through a run of short lived hdd about 15+ years ago and learned years later it was likely my PSU at time. Your brand isn't a bad one but PSU also don't last forever and can take out parts with them.

Did you run https://www.seagate.com/au/en/support/downloads/seatools/seatools-win-master/ on the new drive?

Seagate had a bad run a few years ago and their drives weren't as reliable as before. Having said that, my 2nd hdd is a Seagate 2tb model and its going fine

ssd don't have physical sectors though, so unstable power wouldn't affect them as much.

It is difficult to test either of those items, normally when troubleshooting you reduce the number of possibilities by making sure everything else works, and once its down to these two, unless you have multimeters and PSU testing equipment, its probably time to buy a new one and see if that fixes it.

most cases I found of motherboards being blamed for killing hdd, it was actually a bad PSU. COuld try using a different connector on motherboard to see if that makes any difference.

 

[fredfinks]

Mobo or PSU? The bane of PC troubleshooting at home. I have a spare PSU just for this purpose.

Agree with Colif that if one of the two parts is killing a HDD its a PSU. Good luck.

 

[SirGrizzy]

Yeah, maybe so. I've had no other noticeable power issues though that I can tell. There's no software based way to test PSU?

 

[SirGrizzy]

of the two items, the PSU is the more likely cause of premature HDD deaths. I went through a run of short lived hdd about 15+ years ago and learned years later it was likely my PSU at time. Your brand isn't a bad one but PSU also don't last forever and can take out parts with them.

Did you run https://www.seagate.com/au/en/support/downloads/seatools/seatools-win-master/ on the new drive?

Seagate had a bad run a few years ago and their drives weren't as reliable as before. Having said that, my 2nd hdd is a Seagate 2tb model and its going fine

ssd don't have physical sectors though, so unstable power wouldn't affect them as much.

It is difficult to test either of those items, normally when troubleshooting you reduce the number of possibilities by making sure everything else works, and once its down to these two, unless you have multimeters and PSU testing equipment, its probably time to buy a new one and see if that fixes it.

most cases I found of motherboards being blamed for killing hdd, it was actually a bad PSU. COuld try using a different connector on motherboard to see if that makes any difference.

Yes, I've run SeaTools. The drive continues to pass the SMART tests and every other test except Long Generic.

 

[Colif]

about only way to check PSU using software is run Hardware monitoring software and look at the values

https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/hwinfo64-download.html

but that not a test, it just shows scores. it might indicate if PSU isn't supplying enough power. I don't think that is what causes hdd problems, more power spikes