Installed a 2nd Hard drive 2 months ago, at installation, drive was recognized as 186.31 GB. I formatted it and partitioned it to 2 partitions, 1 at 93.1 GB and the other at 93.1 GB. Used mainly for capturing and editing home movies. It worked fine for 5 to 6 weeks. Now the played file skips video and sound, causing WM9 to close due to error. It's not the files, because when I installed the hard drive, I put some video from C-drive to one section of this new hard drive for safe-keeping. And now this same file plays good from C-drive, but is jerky video and distorted audio from F section of new hard drive. All my home videos from E section of new hard drive are jerky video and distorted audio. They have played good in the past, up until recently. Also, in the beginning of December, when capturing video to section E of new hard drive, rarely was a frame dropped. Just for trials I tried recapturing same video and it was dropping 40 to 60 frames in less than a minute of capture. I have uninstalled all software that had been installed to computer since the original good captures were made. This did not help. I have uninstalled and reinstalled drivers for new hard drive from Windows XP and this did not help. I have two VOB files video_ts in section E. These, when played with Cyber Power DVD Player are jerky video and distorted sound, and when recorded to DVD with Nero, DVD plays fine in my stand-alone player, also DVD-R plays fine in my DVD drive on computer.Today when I turned on computer the 2 short cuts to partitions E & F in 2nd HD had red question marks on them. I clicked on my computer Icon and
the Icons for this HD were not there. I rebooted and went to setup and HD
was turned off. I turned it on and rebooted,still no signs of HD or new
hardware installed. I rebooted and went into Bios, did a IDE diagnostic HDs, both passed and when I rebooted 2nd HD Icons did not have red X's . I could access both partitions, but when I tried to play video file with WM9 seemslike I had worse distortion and jerking in video than ever and I could hear the hard drive in the CPU growl and seem to stop then growl again as the video jerked along. Does this sound like a failing hard drive to you guys? Everything I have on Drive C plays excellent, but everything on E and F is pitiful. Thanks, Foz
+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 25 of 25
-
Foz the newbie
-
Sure sounds that way. What brand and model of drive? Many MFG's have a diagnostic utility available on their site to verify whether a drive is going bad. Have you tried going to the MFG site and download/testing? Many require it even before issuing an RMA.
BTW -- many extensive diags include a destructive write/verify test -- so make sure you back up your data prior to running these destructive tests.
Also -- I assume that the drives are on the same IDE channel (Master/Slave), therefore the IDE controller can be eliminated. Either way, try replacing the IDE cable. If you have introduced a new longer or ROUND IDE cable (i.e. longer than 18'), try replacing the cable. There have been a few round cable that have caused issues. also -- the IDE standard for the cables is not to exceed 18" in length. -
Ripper2860, This is a WD2000JB 8MB cache drive, I purchased in Nov. 03. It is being used on the primary IDE with Seagate 120GB 2MB cache that came with my Dell 8250. Both drives are set on cable select, and the Seagate is on the end 40 pin connector, if I understand correctly makes it the master. I'm using the flat cable that came with my computer. I have the extra cable that came with new drive that I could try. Thanks again Ripper, you sure are a lot of help on these forums. Foz
Foz the newbie -
Try to re-jumper the drives,make the C drive the master and the second drive the slave on the same IDE ribbon cable. Not sure what Cable Select is for but most HD instrucions tell you not to use it.
-
I'm Not real sure about cable select, but I think Dell uses this on all their computers. All hardware, CD/RW drive and Seagate 120GB HD that came installed on computer were set on cable select. The instruction manual for Dell 8250, says to use cable select. The HD I installed worked fine for several weeks with this set-up. Just recently(for whatever reason) it has quit working fine. I also recently installed a DVD burner and it is also on cable select and works fine. Thanks Foz
Foz the newbie -
If you are going to try the other cable, you may need to re-jumper your drives to Master/Slave as I believe the cable would need to support cable-select. Try it with the drives juimpered as CS and if things look strange (i.e. drive(s) not found, 2-master or 2 slaves, etc.) then jumper the drives as MASTER and SLAVE.
** Cable select cables are typically marked as such, but not always.
Also -- you may already have this, but here is a link to the WD DatalLife Guard / Diagnostics to test the drive ...
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp#windlg -
Ripper, Thanks for the info. I have e-mailed Western Digital about my problem. With the extra knowledge you have provided maybe I can talk to them and understand them better. will let you know how it turns out. Foz
Foz the newbie -
Ripper,
There is no difference in the cables. I personally think the OEMs do use CS because it is easier than to set M or S and always get them in the right order, if there are 2 drives. Rare, I think, for an OEM machine.
Set the drives in the order you wish, Master, or C on the end, Slave, or D (whatever ) in the middle.
One problem is the first partition of the first drive has to be set as A, Active. Whether you can do that in XP when you format, I don't know. I do it under fdisk.
Foz,
You should go into BIOS and ser S.M.A.R.T to Enabled. Every time you boot your machine it will show whether your drives are good or going bad. I have had it tell me that a drive was failing, and to back up and replace.
That, and DL the makers diagnostic utility, if you don't have the disk that came with the drive, Maxblast, or Data Lifeguard, whatever. You'll have to make a bootable diskette to use them, but they will tell you if the drive is good or bad, as well as failure codes the tech people will want from you if you call for an RMA.
Cheers,
George -
If you have been using for a while doing video you might do a scandisk and defrag. I have had programs fail while doing video and they leave parts of the files that scandisk fixes and my drives frag also. You might try Diskeeper and do a boot defrag with scandisk.
If you get a fragged drive it can really growl sometimes as the head is going all over the drive to get data. -
gmatov,
Thanks for the info. I was not sure about C/S as I never use it. I also recall that OEM Compaq IDE cables had what appeard to be a "pin hole" in their cables (on the ribbon just ahead of the IDE connector to the primary drive). I commented that I thought the cable was defective and needed to be repalced and one of my techs told me that C/S cables had that. Never having seen them in my other cables, I assumed it was unique to the cable and therefore a different cable.
Good call on the S.M.A.R.T setting in BIOS. I always run mine and frankly, forget that it is ususally set to OFF in BIOS. Good initial DIAG tool. -
Hi Guys, I have found out that my primary IDE mode on my poor working slave HD is set in PIO mode. The master drive is set using the ultra DMA mode 5. Both are on auto detection, and run DMA if available. I do not know how this slave hard drive got into PIO mode. I don't know how to change it to ultra DMA mode 5. Both my secondary IDE drives CD/RW & DVD-R/RW are set using ultra DMA mode 2, and they work fine. Thanks for your Help Foz
Edited:1-12-04 cst 9:22
OK I went into my Bios and setup, could not find S M A R T
Also what is scan disc, I use disk cleanup & defag regularly
I also have the Data Lifeguard Tools floppy that came with my new HD,but not sure how to use it if I put it in floppy Drive?Foz the newbie -
Does it show as PIO in BIOS or in Windows or BOTH?
If it shows up OK in BIOS but not in Windows. Delete the PRIMARY IDE CONTROLLER in DEVICE MANGER. Shut-down/Re-boot and let Windows re-detect. This happens occassionally, although it should have been fixed as part of SP1 or other Hotfixes.
If it does not show up properly in BIOS, then it is most likely a H/W problem. Try connecting the drive to the secondary IDE controller as a slave and see if it shows up as PIO or UDMA? in BIOS.
Note --
Scandisk is CHKDSK on Windows XP/2000 or NT. It is run from the COMMAND PROMPT. Just type in CHKDSK /? to get the settings
Just download the DLG for Windows I linked to an my earlier post. This is a Windows-based version and you should just install it like any Windows program after you download. It will have a GUI and should have HELP. It is probably VERY intuitive and once loaded will probabley be very easy. This was designed for the general consumer, so I'm sure the technobabble is held to a minimum. -
Ripper, I am posting on my wife's computer. I have my 8250 in safe mode and running Scandisk on one partition of my troublesome H/D. According to Dell, if all checks out okay defrag while in safe mode. My question is if partition E checks out okay, I guess I will just proceed and do the same with partition F of the hard drive. I guess this will take a while for a 200 GB H/D. Any comments appreciated. Foz
Foz the newbie -
It will take a while. Scandisk/CHKDSK will only test the filesystem and media integrity (if you told it to do that).
Have you tried the WD diagnostics utility? It is much more thorough and will test the mechanical and electronic apsects of the drive to determine if it is within WD's acceptable tolerances.
If you don't use it, I honestly feel that you could be overlooking a very valuable tool in determining if the problems are related to the drive failing or another matter. -
Ripper,
No prob.
Foz,
You have a P4. Your BIOS should have an option to enable SMART. It is set to disable as it is felt you take a small hit to performanc with it enabled. So small, I always "enable".
It will tell you if there is a prob, such as bearings going, the drive requirws more current to spin the disk, etc. I once had a drive that ground to a halt afrer SMART told me "Drive Bad, Backup and Replace"".
After it cooled down, I was able to rescue my data before it ground to a halt again. Took it to the local shop I bought it from, they put it in their machine, the tech came out shaking his head, saying, " I never saw that before. SMART says drive is bad." They gave me a new drive, no question.
If you have the install disk that comes with every new, large drive, read it, it will tell you how to make a bootable disk to test your drive. It can go very deeply. It can overwrite your drive, destructively, so watch what you are doing..
If it does give you failure codes, write them down, so you can tell the tech what they were. Most likely, they will tell you, yeah, it's bad, here's your RMA #.
Cheers,
George -
Where and how do you enable SMART, or would this be necessary since I have run the Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tool and in quick and extended test no errors found (error code 0000). I think my problem is that in IDE primary controller, my master 0 drive is listed running in ultra DMA mode 5, and my slave 1 drive is running in PIO mode ( this is the problem drive). How can that be corrected? Foz
Note: Dell advised me among other things, to:
* Shut down Windows and choose Restart.
* As the system boots press [F2] or [Delete] every few seconds to enter the BIOS Setup program. The screen display will prompt for the correct key.
* When the BIOS Setup Program appears, press [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[D]; the computer should beep in response.
* If the test returns a failure, make a copy of the failure message. (Drive 0: is your first hard drive; it is attached to the Primary IDE controller on your motherboard. A second hard drive would be called Drive 1: on the Primary controller).
* Turn the computer off and then back on; run the test again.
* If your hard drive fails both instances of the 90/90 test, it may be possible to solve the error condition by debugging, partitioning, formatting, and then reinstalling all software and data or you may need to replace the drive.
* If your hard drive passes either 90/90 test, it is probably mechanically sound, so replacing it will not solve the error problem; debugging, partitioning, formatting, and then reinstalling all software and data probably will solve the problem.
I did this nothing seemed to happen, so I entered all my drives primary and secondary. Instead of saying auto detect they now said DETECT, after wating a while nothing happening I exited Bios set-up and puter rebooted. I went to device manager and IDE controllers problem drive 1 now said not available instead of PIO mode. I rebooted went into Bios setup checked all drives and they were back to auto detect. I exited setup and rebooted returned to device manager, IDE controller, and problem drive 1 is back to PIO mode.Foz the newbie -
Does it show as PIO in BIOS or in Windows or BOTH?
If it shows up OK in BIOS but not in Windows. Delete the PRIMARY IDE CONTROLLER in DEVICE MANGER. Shut-down/Re-boot and let Windows re-detect. This happens occassionally, although it should have been fixed as part of SP1 or other Hotfixes. -
Ripper, Well, I have run Scandisk, Defragged, run a Data Lifeguard Tools, all checks out okay, except my primary drive 0 is running in the Ultra DMA mode 5, and my primary drive 1 (slave) (problem drive) is running in the PIO mode. The only place I can find this listing is in Device Manager of Windows. I"ve gone into the BIOS, looked everywhere and cannot find either of these drives listed as to what mode they are running in. In BIOS:
Drive 0 (drive type - auto) (capacity - 120)
Drive 1 (drive type - auto) (capacity - 200)(This is problem drive) Secondary drives are listed similarly, both on auto & capacity n/a
One thing I have questions about in the BIOS under IRQ Reservations, these are listed: IRQ 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15. All of these are listed as Available except 5, which is listed as Reserved. Does this mean anything?
In BIOS I have looked at Integrated Devices, PC IRQ assignments, and have not found the DMA mode of either hard drive listed.Foz the newbie -
Foz,
You won't see it in the BIOS SETUP screen. It will be in the POST Screen.
When the system powers up and goes into POST (Power On Self Test), it should display the installed devices shortly after mem count has completed. At this point you should see the drive maker, model and MODE (PIO,DMA, UDMA, etc), Serial adapter IRQ and address, USB ports IRQ and address, parallel port IRQ and address and so on.
If your system is an OEM such as Dell, Compaq, HP, etc., it may have a full screen MFG logo at boot. If so, hit the "ESC" key. That sometimes will close the logo screen and show the POST/BIOS screen.
BTW -- If the BIOS POST screen goes by too fast, you can sometimes hit "PAUSE" to stop the process. Hitting SPACEBAR should complete the boot process.
On a different note ...
It would not hurt to delete the primary IDE controller in Windows HARDWARE/DEVICE LIST and re-boot to let Windows re-detect. This has been a problem with Windows in the past and re-detecting and installing the controller has fixed the problem. -
Ripper, HOORAY it worked, I did like you said un-installed the primary IDE driver and rebooted. When I logged on new hardware was recognized and installed drivers for both hard drives and primary IDE. It required another reboot, after logging on I went to primary IDE and both hard drives were running in ultra DMA mode 5. My videos on this 2nd drive play good now. I tried the esc key to access the other screen you were talking about, but it would not go there. The Windows logo screen came up. This is a OEM Dell 8250. I can not thank you enough, I've been trying to find out what was wrong for several weeks. I have tried to encode and author home movies for DVD burning and the play back was so bad I would delete them and try again. I've un-installed all my movie editing,encoding and authoring software, thinking it may have been the problem. Oh well I'm happy now and this was a good learning experience.
Till we meet again Thanks FozFoz the newbie -
This happens occassionally with XP, although I do not know why. Glad I could help.
-
For the record, There are several keys that get you into the Bios on different machines.
Esc will usually clear the "Giant Logo" many OEM's put up and you may see somethiuch thingng telling you what key to use to enter "setup" or somesuch thing
IIRC the Delete key is what I use on mt mom's Dell, (A PII 450,) F10 on any compaq Deskpro model I have seen, from PIII's with 810 and 815 chipsets to all the P4's i've seen.
Shift+Esc was used on at least one older computer.
To add further information on the diagnostic front, I have also seen Smart indicate haed drives were going bad, in a few percent of cases where there was a bad hard drive.
In all of those cases, data was not being read correctly, and the hard drive knew it, and would continue to retry to read the sector, causing the PC to lock up, (Perhaps because Win98 kicks the CPU into real mode to access the HDD.
I have also seen this problem in drives that SMART did not report a problem in, but the way to test is with a hard disk scanner, like Spinrite, or Scandisk (In Dos) that gives you a sector by sector count of how far it's gotten. watch closely. If the counter pauses or stutters, your hard drive is going. -
Yes I realize there is a lot of different ways to ride that donkey. On my Dell 8250 I can tap F8 and go into safe mode, but we tried this on my wifes Dell 2350 (both new in Jan. 2003) and her puter would not go to same place in setup mine did. Both machines have Windows XP SP1. We were going to run check disk and defrag in safe mode. Foz
Foz the newbie -
Ripper, Found this link telling why Windows XP turns off DMA mode. Thought you might be interested in it. Foz
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_sid=kk5h_qXg&p_lva=&...hZ2U9MQ**&p_liFoz the newbie -
Originally Posted by Ripper2860
My brand new WD160JBRTL 160GB drive (device 1 on Primary IDE Controller) is tranferring in PIO mode, and my primary Maxtor 80GB drive (device 0) is transferring at DMA2.
Many people in several forums have had success after deleting the Primary IDE Controller in Device Manager and then rebooting in Windows XP.
My question: Does anyone know if this works in Win2K 5.00.2195, SP4?
PS: System is a Dell Dimension 360.
Thanks in advance,
JeffD
Similar Threads
-
Sony Vaio with partitioned hard drive(Want full hard drive space on C)
By neworldman in forum ComputerReplies: 11Last Post: 17th Mar 2010, 13:42 -
Bad Hard Drive?
By mccoady in forum ComputerReplies: 53Last Post: 3rd Apr 2009, 18:47 -
Bad hard drive, or something else?
By capman21 in forum ComputerReplies: 4Last Post: 23rd Aug 2008, 01:59 -
question about where bad hard drive disk sector info is stored
By jimdagys in forum ComputerReplies: 1Last Post: 20th Apr 2008, 16:24 -
Bad Hard Drive - Not!
By videobread in forum ComputerReplies: 4Last Post: 11th Sep 2007, 14:47