Boot disk error

[Lenster]

Hello people,
Having annoying problems here with a friends computer I built for him a few months ago. He was having problems with it booting up so I took it home to take a look at it. After formatting and re-installing windows xp pro, I still have some problems.
At pcpitstop it says low performance c-drive. (uncached speed @ 1.2mb/s) Then sometimes when I shut the computer down it says something about virtual memory paging file low. Now the worst thing is 2 times already when I rebooted the computer I would get a disk boot failure error, and then i go into the bios and see that it doesnt even recognize the hard drive. Just 2 mins before the hard drive seemed to be working ok. So I disconnected the ribbon from the ide controller and from the hard drive then re-connected and it booted right up to the desktop. Can anyone tell me what is wrong here? Why the inconsistencies? I cant give this computer back to my friend without this computer running well.
Thanks

[wju425]

Was that a new drive when you built the system? It sounds like a faulty drive. I had a similar problem like that when I bought a new drive that lasted 5 months and the replacement (a refurb!)only lasted 1 month. They behaved just like what you said before they took their last click. I bought it from an online reseller (upgrade solution) that must have stocked up on rejects. Both of those drive sounds like they have something loose in there.

\o/ Billy

[SeanC]

It sounds most likely to be one of the following:

- Faulty IDE cable (easily/cheaply replacement)

- Bad IDE connector (if possible try the secondary IDE connector)

- Bad hard drive (run chkdsk/scandisk first, then try another hard drive)

Sean

[Lenster]

Hey Billy,

Yes, it was a new hard drive I bought when I built my friends computer about 3months ago. Western Digital 60gb 7200rpm.
I went to WD website and tested the hard drive using their tools, it passed. (then again, it was their tools so Im wondering if thats why it passed..lol) I emailed WD and told them of this problem, waiting on a reply from them.
I have a WD 40gb 7200 rpm in my computer, no problems at all.
Like I said, I cant give the computer back to my friend until I know its free of problems.
Thanks for your input.
Lenny

[Lenster]

Hey Sean,

I was thinking maybe the ribbon, so I switched my ribbon in my computer with my friends computers ribbon. (see if that helps).

I hope its not the ide, hate to send back the mobo.
So I can try the secondary ide for the hard drive? Will that propose any problems?
BTW, he has a gigabyte ga-7vax mobo
windowx xp pro
256 ddr memory (pc2100)

[wju425]

Be a good idea to try the secondary ide port and you can boot from it. The drives I was talking about was also a WD 30g 7200 and I also used their tools which gave me a code 210 (unrepairable). I kept at it with scandisk and all the sudden it acted normal (no bad sectors). I don't trust this and in two days it crapped again. So I got myself $60 worth of fun with a hammer and went bought a maxtor 30g 7200 at my local supplier.

\o/ Billy