Hey,
Recently I added a new 320GB internal Sata 2 HDD to my already existing 250GB and 160GB (all sata 2).
After solving a few bios related problems, I booted up my computer for the first time with all 3 HDD's.

Everything seamed to be working fine for about 10 min, but then a error message popped up informing me of a write error on my second HDD (the 250, which at the time only had 400mb free) had occurred, something about a Bitmap%& error, or something. when I clicked OK, the drive was REMOVED from "My computer" and I could no longer detect its existence.

Rebooting solved the problem for about 10 min, until I would get the error again. Eventually I ran CHDISK, and found no bad sectors, and no errors, but the Bitmap problem went away.

Now every time I start up my computer with that 250 HDD plugged in, before booting Windows XP, my computer runs the CHECK disk again. (but when the computer does boot there is no longer a problem with the hard drive)

Question 1: Why does CHDISK run every time I boot? and, how do I stop it?

A week later my computer started to freeze randomly. all my open windows cease to minimize or maximize, Ctrl-Alt-Del stops working, along with Alt-F4, and Alt-Tab. Eventually even the mouse stops moving. After about 30 seconds of total freeze, the mouse frees up, but none of the other programs do. This continues in cycles until I reboot, which solves the problem temporarily.

I might add that as SOON as a freeze starts to happen, the HDD indicator light on my computer goes on, and stays on constantly. (Hence the reason I mentioned the previous HDD problem.) As a side note, I left my computer on for long periods of time after it starts freezing, and when i check BACK, the time is always hours off (like time HAPPENED slowly on the computer)

I have even tried disconnecting all but the first 160gb HDD (where the operating system is) but the problem still persists. Also i changed back all the settings in the bios, and that did not fix the problem. Another side note: the freezing can sometimes be induced by opening lots of Firefox tabs rapidly, or minimizing/maximizing a lot of windows from different programs quickly.

Question 2: what could be causing the freezing?

A few of my own ideas:

-My 500w power supply perhaps it is not enough for 3 HDD's, and my current setup?

-A piece of my hardware is failing?

-There is an error somewhere on my main drive, or in the operating system that necessitates a complete reformat.

-A stick of RAM has a broken sector.

Question 3: If all else fails, and i do reformat, will i be able to connect in my additional 2 HDD's and read the information on them without having to reformat them and loose all the data?

Sorry for the long post, but i figured i would tell you everything I could.

Here are my tech specs:

Intel 3.4 single core
500w power supply
Radeon X850, 256mb GPU
(4) 80mm case fans
2 optical drives
2 Gb DRR2 667
Windows XP SP2
160GB SATA 2 HDD
250GB SATA 2 HDD
320GB SATA 2 HDD

Thanks so much for putting up with my idiocy.













Answer 1: Do you have any external drives plugged in? Try unplugging them and see what happens. Also, what drive does it check? one or all?

Answer 2: Could be that you have a virus or spyware. check your computer with a spyware detector (such as Spybot S&D) and an antivirus program (like AVG or mcafee) When scanning for viruses, boot into safemode first.

Answer 3: If you reformat your system drive the other drives will be fine. No need to reformat.
1) i have a printer, and thats about it. ill try the reboot without it. Also, it just checks the 250GB HDD, the one that had the error previously.

2) I use Spybot and Adaware on a regular basis, and i always run Symantec (school licence). Ill try the safe mode boot.

3) thanks, i might try that, to see if it fixes the problem.

Thanks for taking the time to read the post
Ok i read your post 3 or 4 times and im trying to figure this out we can try and rule out your memory for causing this big issue i have a funny feeling it could be your psu.....


Download this software memtest burn it to a cd at slow speed ..... reboot with disc in machine ok, quick update:
I reformatted my 160GB HDD, the one with the operating system on it, but I left the other alone.
all the problems seamed to be fixed (the computer ran fine for a couple hours) untill I plugged in the other two hard drives and about 2 hours after that the computer froze again (same problem as before).

The system is still running scan-disk on the 250GB drive when it boots up, and randomly the 250HDD comes up with a write error when I'm transferring files, (it stops being accessible, which is the same problem as before).

Thanks Richenstony, I'll try that memtest thing.
Ill buy whatever new Hardware i need, i just want to be positive what is causing the problem before I go out and purchase anything.Hey there go into run and type chkdsk see and see if it picks up any errors on your HD .....if it does .... reboot when prompt.... and see if thats solves it....

Tony

Let me know if this helps ya!! Tony What brand of 500W PSU is that and how old is it ? ?The PSU is a TURBOLINK atx 2.03, 500w. It is about a year and a half old.

I ran the memtest cd, and it came up with 5 errors. Is it possible that these errors caused corruption on the hard drive?

Also, the 5 errors would explain why the computer freezes at random times, as opposed to after or during a specific function.

I am going to try to move the memory module around, and remove one to see if I can find the source of the errors.

Also, i have not ran CHKDSK yet, is that the one that checks for errors and fixes them, or is that SCANDISK?

Yh its scans your HD and fixes your errors.....

Tony see if you can write down the errors... you got when you ran memtest......

i did write them down

unfortunatly i dont know how to get a table to show up in forums, so here is a link:

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dfx2nqd9_0d48t8t

sorry, but i accidentally stopped the test before it was done, it had been running for 20hours, and I thought it had finished. (it was about 38% done with test 8 i think)

Anyway, the only errors i got were from test 8, which i gather is the Modulo 20 test consisting of only 1's and 0's.

Do you think these errors could have been caused by something in the motherboard? (i ask because about 6 months ago i booted up my computer, and out of nowhere i was missing a whole Gig of RAM. I am running my ram in Duel Channel mode and so i moved both the sticks over one slot, and everything went back to normal.)
Hello again.

i just got a blue screen. It happened when i was trying to open an image file on the 250HD.

the error was :

0x0000007a

i read up about it and it occurs when the system can no longer read the paging file of a hard drive.
in another forum someone else posted the same problem, and they decided over there that the hard drive was going bad.

My question is, could the hard drive be the sole source of the computer freezing? The freezing persisted even when the 250GB drive was completely unplugged.

Do i need to be really concerned about the memory errors, or is the Hard drive the only issue?
Any errors at all mean bad RAM...
If you have more than one stick then test them one at a time to find which is bad.
Faulty RAM can cause data corruption.

For finding out what type that machine will take Crucial has an online advisor at their site...