- Sep 6, 2011
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I made a thread recently about this issue, located here; http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-3576941/drives-failed-idea-recoverable.html
However, in summary;
At this point I had come to the conclusion that at some point the PSU had gone faulty, and took out that one particular HDD power cable and the two drives plugged into it. I figured once I got my HDD's replaced, I'd simply plug them in and be good to go. For the last week or so I've been using my system completely fine, no issues whatsoever.
They arrived today, I plugged them in and...no boot. Bearing in mind this is with a NEW power supply, TWO NEW DRIVES, and a NEW(ish) HDD power cable. The reason why I say newish for the latter component is because it's a cable from my old XFX power supply, but has never been used.
To test the drives and ensure they were not dead-on-arrival, I took the power cable out of two fully-functioning SSD's and plugged them in. The system booted fine and I was able to get to BIOS, Windows etc and format the drives. They are working.
So I tested the power cable using two methods. One was to keep the HDD's unplugged, but use the power cable on the SSD's. They didn't show up on the system. The second method, when the system was running, was to plug the power cable into an SSD and see if would then be picked up; the system instantly died and rebooted the moment I took the cable out again.
The only two things I can think of right now are A) The XFX HDD power cable is not compatible with my new Corsair PSU, or B) My system is refusing to switch on the moment too many drives are added to the system, which doesn't make any sense because for the longest of time I had this amount of drives (six) working perfectly fine.
I'm completely stumped. I have a fair amount of experience with computers, been building PC's since I was young etc and this is the first issue I've come across I haven't been able to rectify. It's hard for me to put into words because of the amount of testing / components I've replaced, so I hope someone out there understands and can offer guidance.
EDIT:
Are HDD power cables interchangeable between brands? The only power cable I've got on hand at the moment is an XFX, whereas the new supply is Corsair. Not familiar with this being an issue or not.
However, in summary;
Returned home to find PC stopped booting intermittently, then completely.
Tested components. Assumed it was faulty PSU. Replaced PSU, same issue.
Continued testing. At first I assumed that two particular HDDs (both 1TB WD Black) were faulty as PC would boot fine when they were unplugged, however I found the issue would still occur if the same power cable was used on my SSD's. Determined this HDD power cable was faulty, so replaced.
Continued testing. PC booted fine but the two drives previously connected to the replaced power cable were no longer visible. Tested on another machine. Dead.
I had old PSU tested professionally. Declared faulty.
At this point I had come to the conclusion that at some point the PSU had gone faulty, and took out that one particular HDD power cable and the two drives plugged into it. I figured once I got my HDD's replaced, I'd simply plug them in and be good to go. For the last week or so I've been using my system completely fine, no issues whatsoever.
They arrived today, I plugged them in and...no boot. Bearing in mind this is with a NEW power supply, TWO NEW DRIVES, and a NEW(ish) HDD power cable. The reason why I say newish for the latter component is because it's a cable from my old XFX power supply, but has never been used.
To test the drives and ensure they were not dead-on-arrival, I took the power cable out of two fully-functioning SSD's and plugged them in. The system booted fine and I was able to get to BIOS, Windows etc and format the drives. They are working.
So I tested the power cable using two methods. One was to keep the HDD's unplugged, but use the power cable on the SSD's. They didn't show up on the system. The second method, when the system was running, was to plug the power cable into an SSD and see if would then be picked up; the system instantly died and rebooted the moment I took the cable out again.
The only two things I can think of right now are A) The XFX HDD power cable is not compatible with my new Corsair PSU, or B) My system is refusing to switch on the moment too many drives are added to the system, which doesn't make any sense because for the longest of time I had this amount of drives (six) working perfectly fine.
I'm completely stumped. I have a fair amount of experience with computers, been building PC's since I was young etc and this is the first issue I've come across I haven't been able to rectify. It's hard for me to put into words because of the amount of testing / components I've replaced, so I hope someone out there understands and can offer guidance.
EDIT:
Are HDD power cables interchangeable between brands? The only power cable I've got on hand at the moment is an XFX, whereas the new supply is Corsair. Not familiar with this being an issue or not.
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