VOGONS


First post, by ratfink

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I've got a machine I use for old games:

GA5AX, K6/3, Voodoo 2 SLI, S3 Trio, EWS64XL, SW60XG, Quantum FireBall and a CD ROM.

Now I put a second HD in [IBM Deskstar].

It runs OK for a while, then the Quantum sounds like someone hitting a tin lid with a spanner. So I take it out, and try it in another machine. Works fine. Put back in the original machine, everything hunky dory.

Leave it on a few hours, turn it off, turn it on. Quantum has failed. Disconnect IBM, Quantum fine. Wait and try again with both. Both fine. Then again... no IBM drive. WTF!

I am wondering - is this likely to be a power supply problem? Maybe it can't handle the higher load now? Grateful for advice!

Reply 1 of 3, by Jorpho

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Power supply? Sounds like an interesting idea.

The other thing I might double check is the position of the master/slave jumper. If you're putting the drive on its own IDE channel, the jumper position may be different.

Reply 2 of 3, by 5u3

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Could also be a defective IDE cable. These cables don't take much abuse, escpecially if you often plug and unplug drives.

If your disks are not of a recent vintage, maybe they are failing because of old age. Almost all IDE disks (even older ones) support the SMART system for diagnosis, so you could try out the smartmontools package for more info about the state of your disks.

[edit] The theory about the power supply could also be true, especially if you have a rather weak one and the disks only fail on startup. Hard disks don't need much power except on spin up. The motors of desktop IDE drives are usually fed from the +12V rail.

Reply 3 of 3, by GiGaBiTe

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If I were you, I'd drill a couple of holes in that deathstar and toss it out into the trashcan. They are notorious for failing, and that grinding sound was probably from it and not the quantum. Quantums are generally loud, but I have never had any of them fail on me (some of my Quantums are over 10 years old.) On the other hand, every last deathstar I have bought has failed within months of installing it.