TSGL: Hard drive not in good spirits

[H Davis]

Don,

Have you had anything else on drive H before? Windows seems to 
"remember" what has been assigned to a given drive letter in the past. I 
don't know any more details than that, but you might try changing the 
drive letter to one that hasn't been previously assigned.

Desperation begets invention.

H Davis

Don Penlington wrote:
> XP SP2.
>
> About 2 months ago I added a new Samsung 250Gb hard drive (H). Up till now, 
> everything has been fine. It was immediately auto-detected by the BIOS and 
> the installation all went without a hitch.
>
> Suddenly, yesterday for no apparent reason, when I rebooted, the new drive 
> was no longer recognised by the BIOS (Award).
>
> It did not appear in Device Manager and was nowhere to be seen. As if it's 
> been spirited right away---and, no, it hasn't fallen out of the case.
>
> The primary drive is SATA1, the new drive is SATA2.
>
> Checked all cables, all tight and nothing loose. No strange noises (I have 
> the sides off). The drive seems to be spinning and is running cool.
>
> I rebooted and went into BIOS, changed Hard drive auto-detect to manual and 
> back again to auto. Then rebooted and H appeared again as normal.
>
> Rebooted once more, and again---no H!!!.
>
> Same procedure, changing BIOS from Hard Drive auto-detect to manual and 
> back again spirited H back once more.
>
> After several more reboots, no regular pattern is emerging---sometimes H is 
> present and working, sometimes not.
>
> I imaged C-drive back (Acronis True Image restore) a couple of months, but 
> that had no effect on this behaviour.
>
> What could account for this intermittent problem?  Is it possible that my 
> shiny new H has some intermittent failure? I'm sure if I send it back to 
> Samsung under warranty, they'll say it's fine.
>
> When it's present, it seems to be running OK. I use it for data only.
>
> Maybe I need to indulge myself in some spirited behaviour. Any other 
> suggestions, short of suicide?
>
> Do BIOS'es ever wear out? The computer is only 2 years old.
>
> Don Penlington
>
>
>
>  From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
> Computer tutorials, local scenery,  and other things at my website:
> http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html
>
>
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-- 
H Davis   hdavis1 at gmail.com