Multiple HD Failures... Bad luck or underlying issue?

[GhostGT]

I've had my current build for ~5 years now. During that time, I can say that I've RMA'ed about 4-5 different internal hard drives (most of them being WD 1TB drives, a couple being my Raptor/Velociraptor drives). For the most part, I've assumed that the drive was bad, and that nothing else was causing the failures.

However, a recent issue I had (a few months ago) caused another one of my 1TB drives to go bad. Specifically, one of the partitions on the drive disappeared, was corrupt, and had a bad MBR. I was able to recover the files using *Active" File Recovery software, so all was well.

Now, fast-forward 6 months, and the same exact problem has appeared on the replacement 1TB drive. The same partition has disappeared and is corrupt! I ran Active again and was able to find the missing files again, but I'm at a loss now... what exactly do you guys think is going on here?

My initial thoughts were that my hot, dusty room is probably causing all of these HD failures. But is it possible that ALL of the hard drives have failed because of this? Or could there be something else that may be affecting my drives? I ordered an external SATA enclosure and popped the 1TB into it, hoping that the problem could possibly be narrowed down to the SATA connectors on my mobo, etc. But the partition is still corrupt and won't show; the drive itself is definitely corrupt again.

Any comments? I know this is somewhat of an open-ended problem, but I'm just brainstorming for some ideas and suggestions from you guys. If I had free time on my hands, I'd gladly start troubleshooting every single aspect of my rig, but that won't happen until summer!




Cheers,

Chris

 

[Fujitsu_Technician]

good job you got all the files back

you could start by using the following;

Command prompt commands

chkdsk /f /R

and download western digital hard disk scanner

WD Support / Downloads / SATA & SAS / WD VelociRaptor

and let us know how you get on later I will look in to the problem in more detail but now I have to go.

Kind Regards

 

[jmacavali]

Well I would rule out bad luck. No one can have that bad of luck over a 5 year period.
Do you monitor the temps in the PC? Although I'd say that heat/dust will kill your CPU/MoBo before the HDD.
What about power issues? But I'd still think it would have affected another component(s) as well.
There is definately an underlaying issue, but I'm at a loss to as what it could be.

 

[*= WildCat =*]

Strange ! are you using the same Motherboard header each time ?, do you use new cables each time you change the HDD ?

 

[GhostGT]

I do monitor temps regularly... I average around 40*C most of the time. Max temps don't go too high anymore, especially since I got my Tuniq Tower a few years ago.

As far as wiring and SATA headers go, I've bought new SATA cables and have tried all of the ports. It doesn't seem to make a difference.

One thing I've always been aware of is my PSU. I believe it's a 450W Corsair model, and I'm not sure if it's being maxed out every now and then.

 

[T3ChN1Ca]

I do monitor temps regularly... I average around 40*C most of the time. Max temps don't go too high anymore, especially since I got my Tuniq Tower a few years ago.

As far as wiring and SATA headers go, I've bought new SATA cables and have tried all of the ports. It doesn't seem to make a difference.

One thing I've always been aware of is my PSU. I believe it's a 450W Corsair model, and I'm not sure if it's being maxed out every now and then.

Sound much like heating issue. Monitor the temp n the box.

 

[dale]

You might want to get a UPS. Perhaps it has something to do with unstable power supply.

 

[setishock]

I agree with dale. You're vid card specs recommend a 26amp 12 volt rail psu. Taking in to consideration you're also pushing a quad core cpu and 2 power hungry hard drives, along with case fans, optical drive, and the mother board itself, best to invest in a better psu.
Brown outs to the hardware can be rough on them. I went 850 watt, 70 amp on the 12 volt rail psu for my baby. No brown outs for me.

 

[Celegorm]

I have seen something like this in the past - turns out the motherboard's SATA controller was flaky and causing issues with drives and in some cases corrupting them. A PCI SATA controller confirmed that the drive was still working without issue when connected to the motherboard it was reported as corrupted.

 

[GhostGT]

Nice to hear from some of the OG members here. Hi folks.

As far as temps go, Technica, I'm sure it isn't a big problem. The rig is sitting around 38* to 40* about 95% of the time, and goes down to almost 30*C during nights. The heat in the rig itself isn't a problem IMO.

As far as the mobo and PSU go, they may be the culprits behind the problems. I will probably build a new rig in the next year or so... as such, I may just upgrade the PSU and save the rest of the money/time for the next rig. That is, unless, further troubleshooting can unveil another source of the problem.