3rd Master Hard Disk Error

apress155

Distinguished
Nov 25, 2011
16
0
18,510
Hello boys and girls!

My name is Alex, I am a first time poster here. Although this is my first time contributing to the community I have used tom's hardware for various crafts and maintenance.

I am in a predicament.

About 6 months ago my rig (Desktop Computer) began presenting me with 3rd master hard disk errors. I was able to bypass them and restart/reboot my rig enough to where, miraculously, id be able to get windows to boot and everything was stable. My computer wasn't crashing, lagging or slow, etc.

Specs:
M4N68Tv-2 Asus Mobo
620 watt HCG (High current gamer) PSU
HD 6950 (Flashed to a 6970)
amd phenom 965 x4 @ 3.20 Ghz
Western Digital HDD (Came stock with my old HP that i upgraded to what you see here)

A few months ago, we lost power and my rig shut down. I had to restart it multiple times before it would boot to windows and I finally got into the OS. I ran Lifeguard, and about 2-3 other HDD scans and they ALL returned with no errors. My HDD was healthy as a horse...

So, last night, big storm, lost power, RATS! My rig wont boot now. Ive tried everything i feel like. Theres a couple of goofy things going on though... Like, i cannot get into the BIOS while hdd is plugged into the mobo. Once i disconnect the sata cable running from my HD to my MoBo i can get into the bios and tweak the boot priority, etc. But i cannot, for the LIFE of me get into the BIOS while my HD is connected. It is very odd and terribly annoyng.

I dont understand where the "3rd" is coming from. I dont even have 3 sata cables plugged into my motherboard. I honestly have only the ONE from my hdd going to my mobo. I disconnected my cd/dvd drive the last time this happened and figured that it might help. Ive reset the CMOS, replaced the Sata Cable. took apart and reinstalled everything multiple times. Its downright absurd. I JUST upgraded my GPU @ christmas time and BEFORE Xmas it was still doing the 3rd master hd error so im positive it has nothing to do with upgrading the GPU. I just really want to get this taken care of the correct way. I dread putting things off, and i really enjoy going to my friends' houses with my rig and having a lan party. good, good times. But i cannot do that anymore in fear of not being able to start up my computer. If you can help me solve this problem I will be eternally grateful!

~Karben

(Sorry for the Wall of Text :X)
 

ngrego

Distinguished
Jan 25, 2012
1,119
0
19,660
If the problem only exists when your Sata drive is connected then it looks like the drive is whats causing the problem.
I have seen that happen before, I didn't believe it when I saw it but as I witnessed, it can and it did. In my case it was a Seagate Barracuda.
You could try connecting the drive externally, put it in an enclosure or use a Sata to usb adapter. If none of those are available take the drive to a friends house and connect it as a second drive on a sata port.
If you do that and you get access to the drive, then your Mobo has probably been damaged by the power failure.
 

apress155

Distinguished
Nov 25, 2011
16
0
18,510
Its just so weird. I wish i could get into my BIOS while the drive is hooked up to see if my computer is even recognizing it. Why wont my BIOS load? It makes absolutely no sense : /. I wish there was a screen that would pop up and just give me a clear answer. Why do computers have to act so JANKY when theyre screwed up. giving false readings and wrong directions, etc. Jankys.
 

ngrego

Distinguished
Jan 25, 2012
1,119
0
19,660
It's possible that your drive is shorting the rest of the system. It is pretty clear that the disk is causing the problem. You should consider yourself lucky to have found something so uncommon so easily. It took me a while to rule out everything else and actually find the problem when it happened to me.
 

ngrego

Distinguished
Jan 25, 2012
1,119
0
19,660
Your disk was probably damaged and is now short circuiting the system causing the BIOS not to load. If you do get BIOS when disk is disconnected then it's clear enough that the disk is at fault. Consider yourself lucky to have found the cause of the problem so easily. I think that many would have thought that the MOBO or PSU was cooked. It took me a few hours to figure it out when it happened to me!
 

apress155

Distinguished
Nov 25, 2011
16
0
18,510
Yeah its definitely not the motherboard. I just hooked up my cd drive and it rcognizes the cd drive in the bios while my hdd isnt plugged in, thank whomever that its not my mobo. Now i have to start looking for hdds. I have a buddy with a couple layin around. The only thing im concerned about is having to pay retail for a copy of windows 7. Ridiculous that its so expensive. Thanks for the help.