Computer can't recognize disks anymore. Please help!

[AddictiveGamer]

Hi guys,

My computer doesn't recognize the hard drives anymore. Below is my computer setup:
MSI K8N Neo2 Plat
AMD 3500+
1 IDE HD (OS)
1 IDE HD (Data)
2 SATA HDs (Data)

Here is my problem:
The computer worked perfectly fine with 4 hard drives for about a year. A month ago, whenever it powered up, it did a diskscan and sometimes hung. I removed the hard drives one-by-one and found that if I disconnected the data IDE hard drive, the system booted up and worked fine. So I left the system with one IDE drive disconnected.

A week ago, the computer sometimes failed to recognize all drives (even the main OS drive). Sometimes, it recognized all 3 drives but hung at scandisk. So, I used the same trick again, but this time, I have to remove BOTH SATA drives for the system to bootup. Right now, the system is working, but with only one IDE drive (main OS drive) connected.

I scanned virus, but found nothing. I upgraded the BIOS, but it still doesn't work. Are all 3 drives dead? Is there anything I can do to fix this? Thank you in advance!
Regards,

 

[PCcashCow]

I'm sure that your drives are fine. Your mobo could be failing, are the drives always detected in the Bios? And are the IDE\Opti drives configured correctly via jumpers\cable select? Have you tried using diffrent IDE ribbons or Sata cables?
Since you running you os off an IDE drive, try off loading your data of the sata drives and install your OS there (with current pre-install drivers). See if you have the same issues.

 

[nucas]

What power supply do you have?
Before anything else, check if the PSU is ok and has enough power to feed all the little "piglets"

Take care

 

[farmkid]

Do the drives appear when the computer posts? If they are always identified by the bios, but not when it starts to boot, then the problem is most likely something wrong in Windows.

However, I suspect it is a hardware problem. It sounds to me like it is probably a failing south bridge on your motherboard. If so, you need a new board. As mentioned above, the power supply is a possibility, so check that too.

 

[AddictiveGamer]

Hi,

Thank you everyone for your help. The problem is fixed by simply clearing the BIOS. FYI. Loading default doesn't seem to have the same effect. Thanks!

Regards,