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Basically ive got 2 hard drives in my comp my raptor has got xp on, and most games and a few applications etc, whilst everything else is stored on my other hard drive, recently in the last few days, when I first boot up my pc the second hard drive doesnt even show up, so I reboot, and its there again, although not always for very long, is this by any chance major warning signs of an inpending hard drive failure?
Seems to me like the hard-drive isn't initialising immediately on boot, try reconnecting the cables by fully removing them and then reconnect them. If that doesn't work try resetting the BIOS and putting your settings back.
I know this sounds simple but it can do wonders.
When you say "although not always for very long," do you mean that the drive is recognised and then (during the same session) is lost? If so, make a backup of all your data, emails, game saves, etc.. as it may indicate possible drive failure.
Have you been to Seagates page and downloaded the tools to test your drive (either seatools or maxblast) - http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/ , theses will often show if the drive has a problem or not, and if the drive is still covered by warrenty, it gives a code which tells the supplier what the prob is.
However, as DataMatrix, points out, it's poss that a connection (either hd end or mobo) has become loose, so make sure they are tight. If no connections appear loose, it may be time to bite the bullet and get a new drive (lucky for you it's not your system drive).
right slight update, have checked and double checked the connections, and even connected the drive to a differnt sata port, still no luck, am in the final process of backing-up stuff from it, looks like ive either gotta rma it, or go hard drive shopping!
If trying a different SATA port didn't work then the hard-drive is most likely on it's way out.
thats what I was affraid of :( I really cant afford to get another one atm, so just gotta keep my fingers crossed till the end of the month, otherwise il be stuck on my macbook for all of june.
If you can't afford one atm, then make sure that you backup all of your important data at the end of each session, this way you won't lose too much if it goes belly up.