Disk error message on startup...but only now and again....any thoughts????

[bellyboy]

hi guys, anyone have any thoughts about a problem i have. my machine is on long periods of time, but when i do shut it down, say for a day or so, then turn it back on, just before windows loads it will say "DISK ERROR cannot read from drive". i will restart it, then it will say "please insert satrtup disk", then if i restart it, it will load, but then say it cant find some fules please reinstall them.....but if i turn it back off for 5 minutes, then on again, it will load up fine......this is a really annoying thing. i have a new maxtor 120gig hard dive and windows xp home. i have no problems or erros while my machine is on, everything works fine.

another point, if i reset my machine, it starts up fine, it is only after 24/48 hours of it being off do i get this strange problem. any input would be great. thanks

Raggio

[da_ging]

sounds like a dodgy harddrive ,run maxtors powermax diagnostics on it ,also check the cables are in tight

[serlex]

reinstall windows
or
try a diffrent hard drive, to see if anything else is broke

[bellyboy]

i have reinstalled windows, i switched from xp pro (it was happening on pro too), to home edition. i will try the diagnostics now, havent tried that, all leads are in tight, it shows up on startup all the time, if it is helpful i have my DVDROM as primary master and my second hard drive as primary slave, and the maxtor(OS harddrive) as Secondary master, and my DVDRW as my secondary slave.

[Jonny M]

What motherboard are you using?

[bellyboy]

its an asus a7v8x.

[john-boi]

Ok put your OS hard drive as Primary master on IDE 0 and your other hard drive as slave.Then bung your opticals on IDE 1.

I had a similair problem my PC (albatron) just didn't like my OS anywhere else than Master on IDE 0.

Make sure you choose cable select on all drives or set correctly master slave etc

best of luck
John

[bellyboy]

no errors using the diagnostic tools, so i think that is my best and only option i think, thanks for all the info guys.