Hard disk read error! Any help?

[Noni]

Hi there, first abit of info about my system-

It is a PC with a Asus A8N SLi deluxe with a Maxtor 250GB HD. This problem came out of the blue! Everything was working fine the night before.

The problem-

When I boot the system it will go onto the windows loading screen for ages, then freeze. When I restart it says disk read error.

When I try and boot from CD and repair windows it says there is not a HD installed.

The computer works if I boot it in safe mode.

I have checked all connections and they are fine.

I have tried moving the HD to the top of the boot list.

The HD is reconised in the BIOS.

Is it time to order a new HD?

[Max Tractor]

I would try the hd manufacturers utility first, it used to be called powermax

[i4000]

From personal experience I would give Spinrite a try (http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm), I've lost count of the number of times I've recovered a system or hard disk using this excellent utility. However bear in mind that although it may fix your current problem, if your disk is really giving up the ghost then ultimately you may need a new HD utlimately anyway

[synaesthesia]

Maxtor hard drives are infamous for large batch failures. At one point I was dealing with around 90 failures a month ranging between their 40gb units up to 250gb. I've not had the pleasure of dealing with anything more recent than that, so have no further frame of reference.

But yes, it is Powermax you need to be running to diagnose a fault. I'd imagine it'll tell you it has an electro-mechanical failure.

What about the data you have on there? Thankfully it won't be lost. If you haven't already tried Spinrite which will probably entirely kill it off, grab a linux live CD such as Ubuntu and boot from that. Modern linux distributions are more efficient at reading windows file systems than Windows is, and as a result it will let you access the data and copy it elsewhere - i.e. pendrive, external hard drive etc.

Then remove the drive and play cricket with it

Ohh edit : this isn't to say Spinrite is bad or anything, its a fantastic little utility, it's more to do with the fragility of the Maxtor units in these situations.

[Thorsson]

It is a PC with a Asus A8N SLi deluxe with a Maxtor 250GB HD

Wasn't there a known issue with this combination and NCQ? Have you updated the BIOS or the drivers recently?

[Noni]

Well around a month or two ago I reset my computer due to a virus, so all drivers where updated, Ill check on what the test says, as people have reccommended I do that too. Thanks!

[Thorsson]

Try turning off NCQ in the BIOS (if that's possible) before resorting to hairy methods.

[dagwoood]

Try turning off NCQ in the BIOS (if that's possible) before resorting to hairy methods.

Just a heads up. IIRC, if you did that, you'd have to reinstall the operating system.

[Thorsson]

Not AFAIK. Anyway I'm right that there is a problem with NF4 mobos and some HDDs, particularly Maxtor. Here's 11 pages of woe about it: http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion...php?t8171.html

I suspect that some data has been corrupted and it's unfortunately something the PC needs to boot. However if the underlying problem isn't fixed it will happen again, even if this can be corrected by Repair.