What shape is the power supply in? Do you have another you could swap in to see if the spindowns occur with it?

Looks like drives are not getting sufficient power, check PSU or tighten molex power connector pins.

Conner harddrives are really tough buggers, but also can go bad for no reason (the same way as Quantum drives, sadly enough...)

Checking your power supply isn't a bad idea, but Conner harddrives usually spin down when timeout occurs. I would check for bad sectors and try to run HDD Regenerator, as a last resort I would low-level format them or run HDD Regenerator on regenerate all sectors mode.

Still, Conner and Quantum are my all-time favourite drives just because they sound sooooo nice... (Yes, I am sucker for harddrive sounds 🤣 )
My goal is to score Maxtor 7120AT harddrive someday just because how the spin-up seek sounds 😁

I think I found the problem. Both drives are using power cables that are being slightly drawn from for the CPU fan and LED display.

I've rewired it so both are getting full molex power. It seems to be working better so far. Hopefully it stays that way.

@clueless1, I unfortunately do not. It's in a big case with a large power supply that rarely comes by, this is the only one I have.

@krivulak

I don't know for Conner hdds, but for quantum ones, often this is due to rubber bumpers that becomes sticky after all these years. Restarting the computer a few times makes the hdd able to unstick itself ... at least it does in my 486 DX33 ^^ Maybe one day I'll open it to replace those bumpers but for now, restarting that computer a few times is fine to me. Once it's started, I don't have many issues

cj_reha wrote:

I think I found the problem. Both drives are using power cables that are being slightly drawn from for the CPU fan and LED display.

I've rewired it so both are getting full molex power. It seems to be working better so far. Hopefully it stays that way.

@clueless1, I unfortunately do not. It's in a big case with a large power supply that rarely comes by, this is the only one I have.

Well, it was power-related anyhow. 😀 Hopefully your fix holds!

It held for a few hours. 😵

Making shortcuts to Windows 3.1 games, and the time to create shortcuts got progressively longer until it did it AGAIN.

This time it corrupted the second Games program group. (the first one is full.)

I restarted, and it actually could not load Windows. another restart, it works.

Seems to be getting more and more unstable. Is it time for a CF card? 🙁

(Also, what is a program I could use to image these hard drives before they crap the bed completely? For Windows 98.)

I tend to agree with clueless1 & SSTV2.
I think your PSU (or at least the capacitors on your PSU) might have reached the end of their life.

Had a similar problem recently with an old 286 I bought - PC starts up, but HDD fails to spin up. After opening up the PSU, the problem was quite clear (the HDD works fine in another PC).

You could just unplug the drives, plug it into another PC and transfer the data across like that.

In any event, I would stop using the PC until you've opened up and inspected the PSU. Just be careful. You can still shock yourself.

I would chuck the HDD's on the secondary channel of your in the P3 in your sig (if you still have it) or any other IDE PC you have.
quick easy "stress test" being able to send/receive data much quicker then the 486 even can, and see how they hold up.

dirty way to image is to simply copy the entire drive with it connected as a slave. On the new HDD you will still need to run a sys a: c: for the boot files but you can then simply copy everything back. Win9x isn't smart enough to know its on another drive or if its a different size.

I like CF but miss the noise, so I have the OS on a physical HDD and games on CF, works well as once a game is loaded you cant hear the HDD anyway

It seems to be leaning towards some sort of either molex or HDD problem.

Switched out molex connector and it seems to be okay now, however another Windows 3.1 program group corrupted itself.

Note that the molex connector connected to the problematic drive plugs in unusually "softly" (aka plugs in and comes out easily)

Hmm

I'd still play it safe and inspect the PSU.
If you have access to a multimeter, then you can also test the voltage output of the connectors

If it is a HDD problem, then it's not as bad, but if it is the PSU, then it could lead to potential damage to other components as well.

So, I think you need to debug this problem some more, like other have suggested. It's possible the problem is the motherboard. I have a M726 that exhibits similar symptoms to what you describe but worse, and just overall instability.

You should test the disks in another system first. If they hold up it's probably either the motherboard or the PSU to blame.

Get slightly newer 2GB Caviars. They are the largest drives that make relative sense for a 486, and may last a bit longer.

You can also just grab a random IDE hard drive (If you're like the rest of us, you have them oozing out of every part of your house) and throw it in there.