Hard Disk Headache Part 2

heavymetalsmith

Distinguished
Apr 10, 2008
45
0
18,530
So not too long ago I parted together a computer with the following components and I'm running Windows Vista 64 Bit Business:
Gigabyte X48 DS4 ( AHCI mode enabled )
Core 2 Duo E8600 3.3 GHz
2x2GB OCZ PC 1066
ATI Radeon 4870 ( Saphire )
Seagate ST3640323AS x 3
LG DVD Burner
Corsair HX 1000
Antec 1200 Case

Originally I had an issue where the os would lock up at random and games would freeze. I made sure it wasn't temperature issues and after a while I determined that hard-disks cutting out where the cause of the failures and had actually caused corruption in the ATI drivers. Now the big problem here is that this seems to be a connection issue with the hard drives. I can tell because from time to time the hard drives will vanish from the system, i.e. totally dead, not visible. Yet when I play with their connections they come back. So what it seems is that I have a loose power or SATA connection. The SATA connectors that came with the gigabyte motherboard feel quite flimsy though I am not above suspecting the power cables. Does anyone have a solution to address this? Every time I seem to give the pc a good bump or move it, it seems that the drives will act up not to much after that.

Edit: Not running Raid or anything like that, just the three drives in AHCI.
 
You could get a different sata cable. There are some nice 90 degree cables that don't come loose as easily. Alternatively, you could get a secureconnect cable like this:
http://www.costcentral.com/proddetail/WD_Serial_ATA_with_SecureConnect/WDSC50RCW/C45968/
---good luck---
 

heavymetalsmith

Distinguished
Apr 10, 2008
45
0
18,530
I looked around a bit and I found a suggestion of how to deal with SATA cables. I will give it a try and see how it goes. Feel free to drop any other suggestions.


 

heavymetalsmith

Distinguished
Apr 10, 2008
45
0
18,530
Still no love, I'm really starting to get frustrated as I can't figure out what is going on with my systems. The drives seem to randomly freeze up or vanish altogether. I've tried my best to make sure it's a good connection and now I'm starting to wonder if it's something else. Anyone have any ideas?