Hello, PLEASE READ THIS!

About 3 months ago, my 5 year old fujitsu 40gb HDD died, and so i payed to have my data recovered (which was expensive!)

I bought a new Maxtor 80gb HDD as a replacement, which was fine until about a month ago, when...

- It got noisy
- It kept freezing

So i became suspicisuos and backed up everything.

Sure enough, it died too. Would not boot from bios etc

So, i installed an IDENTICAL but not THE SAME fujitsu as the one that had previously died, installed OS and managed to take all the data from the MAxtor 80GB (as a slave) i wanted and save to the Fujitsu.

However, here is the next twist in the story....

The fujitsu became noisy, clicking sounds, and slowing down/freezing, until...............DISK BOOT ERROR, INSERT VALID SYSTEM DISK etc @ BIOS

It appeared to have died!

So, next morning, i turn on the pc, and both drives work!

Until 5 minutes later the computer crashes and wont turn on! 30 mins later i turn on the pc and it boots from the maxtor slave (that i thought was broken) NOT the fujitsu master (that now appears to be broken!)......

next time i turn on the pc, it boots the fujitsu master and i cant access the maxtor slave!?

NOW, i am writing this via the master fujitsu, with FULL ACCESS to the maxtor slave, as if everything was OK!

WHY!? HOW?!

Why would HDD's keep DIEING! (and then come back to life?!) its most odd?!

MOBO error? PSU error? I dont get it!

I want to eliminate the source of the problem and get a new reliable HDD that WILL NOT FAIL!

Any information would be superb, thanks very much, D

Hmmm... :-o

Well when there are "clicking sounds" then the hard drive is definately faulty and is going to break down.

I have no idea why it would start working again and then stop... I would have to suggest either a faulty IDE controller which is on the motherboard or a faulty PSU which could be giving off too much or too little voltage.

I would suggest replacing the PSU first and seeing whether this helps (borrow one from a mates PC)

If it still gives problems then I think it could be the IDE controller in which case you could either purchase an IDE controller card (PCI) or replace your motherboard.

I concur, potentially a motherboard issue.

but could an ide controller (like on the motherboard) cause THREE HDD'S to die?

are there mechanical faults that could cause this? vibrations?

it amazes me how they can "die", and yet i am typing this message to you now! via the "dead" hdd's.........

yea, i am thinking of getting a new psu, some monster so that there is no doubt about power issues

So........

After both HDD's running perfectly fine for another two days, a clicking sound begins to develop.

Within a few minutes a "blue screen of death" appears, with a windows code, explaining that any recent hardware or software installed should be checked, and that memory caching or shadowing should be disabled in the BIOS?!

Does this mean anything to anyone?

Shortly after that message the pc switched itself off

It wouldnt boot up for a few minutes then once again miraculously returned to normal!?

Please, any help would be much appreciated

Have you checked to see whether your system is overheating?