Hard Drives and Heat

[singularity2006]

somehow I don't think it's necessarily a hard drive issue as a lot of processing power does go into moving large files. I would actually check CPU temps instead of hard drive temps. Run your motherboard's temp monitor (if u have one) while u are transferring files to see what's happening across the board.

And even though you do have a raptor, the raptors do not run all that much hotter than regular drives. All in all, I'm pretty sure it's your processor or RAM temperatures as those would be more or less the culprit for a crash. If your drive were the one crashing out, you'd most likely here noise and would receive errors on screen while copying files (this is a result of all your other components still being able to run while the hard drive stalls out).

[opreska]

Thanks for the info.

Do you know of any free PC temp monotoring software?
Any recommendations?

[singularity2006]

Motherboard monitoring programs are highly dependent on the motherboard's ability to be compatible with the software reader..... try looking for your motherboard mfg's site for a utility. I recall there being an open source application that seemed to have universal mobo support, but I personally did not have much luck with it so stuck with the one provided by ABIT. I do not recall the name of the application, but browsing through the forum, you might be able to find it. If anything, take out your HSF, clean it, re-apply your thermal grease, and try it again when the temps are warmer.

[lots]

SpeedFan is a pretty universal temp/fan monitor.. even does SMART checks on hard drives that have that technology available (checks the health of the drive). Its pretty self configuring. The only thing you have to figure out is which temperature is what. A few tests of the CPU at load can figure this out.

As for hard drive temperatures. This is a very important factor, actually. You want to have flowing air around your hard drive(s). This does not have to be alot of moving air, but the hot air does need to be moved away from the disks. Heat is a sure fire way to kill a hard drive, and all the data on it.

Just to check you can run Windows scan disk on your system and that should help you find out if there are any errors on the disk.

[opreska]

Thanks for the info.

By the way, I just checked my bios and my cpu1 temp is about 10-15C higher than my cpu2 temp. Upon initial boot.

Is it normal for your cpu1 to run at a higher temp; or should I reseat my heat sink or buy a better one?

[opreska]

One more thing, when I copy files to my regular IDE drive, there is no problem with the computer freezing.

For instance, say I'm copying a large file from my DVD drive (3+GB). If I try to copy to one of my SATA drives, it usually freezes the computer. But, when I do the same with copying to my IDE drive, there is no problem.

Any idea on why that might happen?

[singularity2006]

Oh wow, that is odd. Might be the hard drive then. As for the CPU, not sure what the standard temps should be for dual cores.... did you do a scandisk yet?

[lots]

Its usual for my motherboard (K8WE) to report CPU temps for one socket 5 or so Deg C higher than the other socket. This is mostly a direct result of the proximity of the northbridge heatsink to one of the CPU sockets (though, initially it was also a BIOS issue as well).

[opreska]

So, lots,

We're running on almost the exact same setup.
Have you had any issues with the computer locking up due to heat?
What temps do your cpu's usually run?
Oh, and what bios version are you running?
\thanks

[habañero]

Might want to check your ncq settings and further it could well be your HD is on its way to the eternal hunting grounds ... Try to check it (although do not fix it) with scandisk.

Sata drives combined with especially Nvidia chipsets can be a pain. Not to mention, are you running nvidias IDE driver? In that case, could be you could try XPs.

Disk temperature above 50 means the disk has half its normal life or less to sport -- and it very rapidly heads for the dung if you push it beyond that.

Sisoft sandra will normally give you both proc. and hd temperature, as well as a reading from your HD if the mechanics are ok (the SMART data).

Ram testing and Cpu burning should be a second and a thirds after checking smart data -- this is possible with sisoft sandra as well.

And obviously try and get any valuable data off that disk before messing much more with it ...

[PanzerMKZ]

What about other things? Maybe newer chipset drivers? I would think the drive is on the way out but just wondering of other things to check out.


Panzer

[opreska]

Okay,

So, I've pretty much ruled out a heat issue.
Whenever I copy files from one SATA drive to another, no computer lock up occurs.
However, it's only when I copy from my IDE drive to a SATA that the freezing occurs.
Also, when I copy a large file from my IDE DVD-RW to one of my SATA drives, the computer will freeze.

So, I'm assuming that it's an issue with the different IDE and SATA bus speeds.

Does anyone know anything about this issue?
Do you think I should buy an IDE to SATA converter for my DVD drive?
Should I install Windows on one of my SATA drives and remove the IDE drive all together?

[habañero]

You don't state if you tried to rule out other components like ram power etc. Could well be related to your PSU this issue although it does smell like either a driver issue or a broken hardware issue.

You check the smart data? If you have mechanical problems, then the disk is dying and it aint IDE problems ...

You overclocking? this can create trouble with Ide drives as well as sata drives depending.

If there are known issues with your board and IDE drives, google would likely enlighten you with a specific search. If else, more likely something is broken.

Oh and check your event log -- there could be info in there that you could google. Good Luck!

[opreska]

I did a check on the memory using memtest86. I let it process over night, no errors were reported with the memory.

I'm NOT overclocking.

I did see something in my event log about sigle-bit ECC memory error. However, these were dated around 2004. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the problem.

Any way to check the PSU? Is there some freeware that checks for you?

Also, how do I check the smart data?

[lots]

SpeedFan can view the smart data from the HD.

[opreska]

Thanks for the info guys.
I did a S.M.A.R.T. read on my hard drives. However, only two of them showed up (both of which got an excellent result) my IDE drive and my SATA Raptor.
My two other SATA drives didn't show up??
Any ideas?
When I start up SpeedFan 4.31, when it's detecting all my components, it does show my other drives, it even says SMART enabled for the other sATA drives. But, under the SMART tab, just two drives show up.

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