4th HDD gone bad...coincidence?

Peripherals, parts, data storage...
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SparksFlyn
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4th HDD gone bad...coincidence?

Post by SparksFlyn »

I am on my 4th WD HHD that seems to reports to many bad sectors after running a few days in the system. I have dual celeron 466 w/768MB RAM RV without the HTP366 BIOS. Adaptec SCSI controller with 2 - 1 GB HHD in RAID 0 running the page file for Win Svr 2K3 Ent Ed. The C: drive is a WD2500JB upgraded from a WD1600JB after 4 years. The C: and D: drive are running off of a Promise Ultra100TX2 and I have flashed the BIOS on that from WDC

The problems have been the D: drive - starting with a WD1600JB that failed after 4 years. So I replaced it with an old WD 40 GB I had laying around. That seemed to deteriorate after a few weeks, so I reformatted and tried again and could get the system to recognize it. So I replaced the Ultra100TX2 and installed the 250 GB drives. It ran for about 2 weeks and the D: drive failed according to WD Diagnostics. I replaced it with a brand new WD800JB 80GB drive and I am still getting all kinds of errors from my server.

WD Diagnostics are reporting that the SMART is failing and to send them back to WD. The 160 GB drives are out of warranty, but the 250 GB and the 80 GB are still under warranty. I am running the WD diagnostics on another PC with a USB adaptor to verify that they are toast. I can see the files, so the directory is intact, but when I try to access the file, it Windows Explorer says it's gone.

I think I am going to flash the BIOS back to RU since this system ran so long an well until that first 160 GB went bad. The other thing I was thinking was that I have a power connector not delivering enough power. I do have a PSU tester that I should try out on it.

I hate to think about retiring my BP6. It has been a very good computer for so many years now. But maybe it's time for a Core 2 Duo?
Dave Rave
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Post by Dave Rave »

you joined 3 years ago and this is your first post !?!?

there are som many posts that say the HPT will kill your hdd, I wonder why people still use it.
bp6's 3 x dual @ 533
. . . . 1 x dual @ 466
. . . . 1 sngl @ 400
[( 2 x dual xeon 2.4ghz )]
[( 2 x dual xeon 2.66ghz )]
[( 1 x 2.4C ghz )]
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[( 1 x P4 1600 )]
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KliK
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Post by KliK »

well i also use WDs on my computer: one 80GB-8MB & one 40GB-2MB (cache size is in MB)...and both work fine, but they heat a lot...maybe a good thing would be to use the coolers for your HDDs?!
SparksFlyn
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Post by SparksFlyn »

What can I say, I haven't had any problems or horror stories with my BP6! I guess I was always lurking and using other's suggestions. My only other problem I had was trying to add a USB 2.0 board. It was not compatible. But I'm networked to a computer that does have USB 2.0.

Now that it has been a few days since the 80 GB has been in there, I have had some BSDs and a couple of lock ups. I checked the event log and it was Windows Live Messenger that was causing problems, so I reinstalled it and so far my BP6 has been running for several hours without a crash.

I'm sure I have some other bad or corrupt files on here. I probably should do a Windows repair installation and have it verify the system files. I was looking to see if the RU Bios was a problem, but I don't think it is. If the server stay up for the next week or so, I'll know it was just a bad hard drive.

This server runs my parent's payphone business and I remote into it all the time. My 80 year old mother is getting pretty good at system admin stuff. She gets pissed when she can't check her email.
KliK
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Post by KliK »

many of the guys use the USB 2,0v from VIA chipset...but that adapter wont work with BP6...so you might try one with different chipset...

i got one from STlab U-163...works fine for me!! :D
SparksFlyn
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Post by SparksFlyn »

Thanks for the tip on the USB chipset. I'll check it out. I would be so nice to plug in external components directly if I have the server off-line for some reason.
OOPs! Shouldn't touch that with a screwdiver while plugged in!
Wolfram
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Post by Wolfram »

I would check the memory (memtest86+) and the capacitors (bulky? leaking?) on the BP6. Possibly the PSU (capacitors, beware of high voltage) and the harddisk cables. Since you run the HDs on the Promise, I guess you can't blame the HPT366. But check the temperatures (dtemp), like KliK suggested.

Personally, I have had data corruption issues two times: When I ran the memory on a ASRock Dual SATA II board with timings it couldn't manage, and on a Seagate 60GB drive on the HPT366/BP6. But I'm not sure if it was a faulty drive or if the HPT366 did what it is infamous for. Anyway, the HPT3666 shouldn't cause your problem.
BP6, RU BIOS, XP SP3, ACPI, 2x366@523(1,95V), Pentalpha HS + 1x 12cm fan @5V, 768MB, Powercolor Geforce 3, RTL8139D NIC, Terratec EWS64L, Samsung M40 80GB (2,5''), LiteOn CDRW
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