Has anybody else had this problem?

[Vapor]

Awhile back I had a problem with one of the Maxtors and was wondering if anybody else ever had the same problem (the HDD is already gone, so no use telling me there's a fix, but would like to know if there was an easy one).

After I used it for about a month, it crashed, I thought it was a typical crash, but I guess not. Turned out that my computer started to refuse to POST, so I played with the cables, jiggled, reconnected, etc., still no luck. So I took off the 2nd drive on the channel, tried again, nothing. Tried all lister jumper configs, nothing. Took the HDD out, it posted, all's good. Put in my 2nd HDD, installed windows, blah blah blah, had my computer running fine. Tried to put the Maxtor on the channel again, no post with any jumper configs for the two drives. Tried a different channel, nothing with all the jumper configs tried. Put it in a drawer for about a week and tried on a different computer, SAME FRIGGEN PROBLEM! I tried back in my computer again and noticed that the power LED wasn't even going on with it connected, PSU fan didn't move either. Could it have been some sort of short?? The PSU is fine, too, I have more devices on it now and my computer is rock solid. All my molex connectors are being used now too, so no chance of a faulty one.

Anyway, thanks for any input or anybody else's similar experience.

Damn Rambus.

 

[lunitic]

No power led, no fan, no post at all -> yeah, seems like a short. Never seen this happen with a HDD, but I have seen the same with an odd-shaped bracket on a PCI card which shorted the motherboard.

 

[Vapor]

Alright, glad to hear that has happened to something else.

Damn Rambus.

 

[jim552]

I can only assume that YOU are the one who cursed me!

I am a bit, different, first off. Not that I live by karma, but I stick with what works and I shy away from that which I've had problems.

Maxtor, was one such thing I had be shy of for over a decade.

Shortly after they merged with Quantum, which I had always liked, I decided maybe they were a company I could work with again.

I purchased a Maxtor ATA-100 hard drive.

It has been in my system for 1-2 years, along with another drive. (The other was a Seagate.)

All has seemed well. No issues, no noticeable compaints, etc.....

Last night, I was backing up miscellaneous data from CD's and putting them onto DVD's. (Yes, this really was a problem from last night.) I replaced the Seagate drive with a Western Digital drive. So the Maxtor was co-existing with something different than what i had been used to. (Coincidentally, or not, 12 years ago when I had a problem with Maxtor it was with coexistance with Western Digital Drives as well.)

5 hours, all seemed to be working quite well.

I started writing the first DVD full of my data.

About 25 minutes into it, (I only have a single speed DVD drive), the system restarted.

NO HARD DRIVES!
The DVD drive was present.

Both hard drives spin up. They don't do their little after spin up test though. (When IDE drives spin up, they do some reading from the drive or maybe a self test or something.)

Neither drive is recognized by the BIOS.
Other drives work with that system.
Neither of these drives work with any other system I have.

Both drives were on the same controller, and now both drives are dead!

This problem sounds similar to yours.
Did your drive spin up?

So I am back to sticking with what works for me again!
(Western Digital, and Seagate)

A new replacement drive will be to me tomorrow.
Saturday I will have my primary PC up and running again.

This will be the first data loss I've had in about 15 years if I can't get the Western Digital drive to work again! (I actually have a second identical Western Digital, and since the controller boards are external I may try swapping them to see if I can get that one drive to work again.)

 

[Vapor]

Wow, I know what that is like...sort of. Mine was a little different in that NOTHING worked when the drive was fully connected. Didn't spin up or anything. Anyway, the replacement that I got had a similar problem with a WD drive of mine, but w/e, I RMAd that and all seems to be good. The only thing I can say/recommend would be to play with thejumper settings. I've read somewhere (maybe here) that WD and Maxtor drives don't like to use cable select when they're on the same channel...makes no sense, but they might work if you play with the jumpers

I really don't know what to say...sorry for jinxing you I guess. Anyway, you seem to have it under control, good luck with the new drives.

Damn Rambus.