is my HDD defective?

[turkeyspit]

Hello

Had a new system built for me a few months back.

Last week, my system began to boot to a black screen with the error message: Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Media in selected Boot device and press a key.

Soft rebooting does nothing, and after variable hard reboots (5, 10, 20+) Windows will boot.

Searching online, everyone says this is a boot order issue. But when I enter the BIOS, the HDD isn't even listed, and the system is trying to boot from the virtual drive created by Daemon tools.

When the computer is working, I don't dare reboot to the BIOS to see if it's detected for fear of getting the error again?

Getting tired of spending 20-30 mins just trying to get the computer started.

Drive is a WD BLUE 1TB Sata3 7200rpm 64mb. Running Win7 Ult.

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[tripledouce]

Check your connections, and possibly try a different SATA port.

 

[mbarnes86]

Hi

Having checked power & data cables properly connected

Get hold of wd diagnostic software to test hard drive
Available from wd website or on Hirens boot cd

In bios / Uefi bios look to option to delay accessing hard drive after post
Usually used if there are multiple hard drives to stagger hard drive startup to reduce load on psu

Check psu is putting out 12 v yellow black and 5 v red black
correct to 0.5%
Look for a spare molex connector to attach probes on volt meter

http://en.kioskea.net/faq/3312-identify-the-connectors-of-the-power-supply

For Picture of psu connectors

Regards
Mike Barnes

 

[fzabkar]

Try reducing the SATA link rate to 1.5Gbps with the OPT1 jumper.

Jumper Settings Info Sheet - Western Digital:
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/other/2579-001037.pdf

I would also examine the SMART report with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo.

http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

Look for reallocated, pending, or uncorrectable sectors.

 

[turkeyspit]

Hi Triple.

No, I already checked that.

 

[turkeyspit]

Delay HD access was already set to 3 secs.

Why would jumper settings be the issue? The drive worked fine for months?

Ill try Crystal if I can ever get it to boot again. 1hr so far just trying to get it to boot

 

[fzabkar]

When I'm troubleshooting a detection problem, I try to eliminate as many variables as possible. That's why I suggested the OPT1 jumper, even though it probably won't change anything.

That said, if you read through the following article, you'll see numerous problems to do with SATA link rates:

https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Known_issues

There is one chipset (Intel P67) that degrades gradually over time.