Can a motherboard problem destroy hard disk drives?

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

I have a machine I have been using as a test bed. I started
having hard disk drive failures, and finally realized this
motherboard might be the problem. At first, I thought cable
problems, etc. I finally tried the drives in other PCs, but they
still are displayed as failing by the powermax maxtor drive test
program, even after a low level format on one. Is it likely that
a motherboard problem could actually destroy the drives? Or, is
the damage recoverable? Is there a test program which can verify
proper motherboard disk controller operation?

Bob

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

"kony" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
news:3uvar05qi3i0jvqt8om9o0imtiqld5kbcf@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 07 Dec 2004 04:27:00 GMT, "Bob"
> <bobnospam1@softhome.net> wrote:
>
> >I have a machine I have been using as a test bed. I started
> >having hard disk drive failures, and finally realized this
> >motherboard might be the problem. At first, I thought cable
> >problems, etc. I finally tried the drives in other PCs, but
they
> >still are displayed as failing by the powermax maxtor drive
test
> >program, even after a low level format on one. Is it likely
that
> >a motherboard problem could actually destroy the drives?
>
> No.
>
> >Or, is
> >the damage recoverable?
>
> No, if they fail the Maxtor diag. they're gone.
>
> >Is there a test program which can verify
> >proper motherboard disk controller operation?
>
> Why assume it's the motherboard?
> Do other drives work if connected to that board? If so it'd
> seem to be in working order still.
>
> Far more likely an overheating or power supply problem.
> If it were only one drive we might wonder if it was just a
> random drive failure but with multiple drives it'd seem most
> likely to be the power supply.
>
> What power supply and what was the rest of the system like?

I was thinking about this last night and decided that the power
supply could be the problem. I'm glad to have your confirmation.
The supply was a "tiger power" supply in a micron millenium
chassis. I just swapped in a 350 watt supply, and will run some
tests to see how it's doing.

This is the first time I've had a problem like this in many years
of building and rebuilding systems. I'm afraid I've fried a few
drives in the process. I will retest them with the replacement
supply and hope for the best.

Bob