Tech computer problem

computer problem

my computer does not always detect the master hard drive as the master so the boot up fails. it takes many tries resetting the computer to get it to work. on the boot up screen the line reads detecting ide drives. then it's supposed to read:

primary master: then what ever the drive is called
primary slave: then what ever the drive is called
secondary master: then what ever the drive is called
secondary slave:

but when it fails it reads:

primary master: none
primary slave: then what ever the drive is called
secondary master: then what ever the drive is called
secondary slave: then what ever the drive is called

i did a system restore to the previous day and that did not fix it.
why wont it detect the drives correctly? do i have a virus?

also it started shutting down on its own while i am using it. its not getting hot, thats only happened a couple of times, but there is no reason for it to do it now.

please help!!!
thanks

your hard drive might be going bad, check your connections make sure they are not loose.

i checked all connections and they seemed to be fine. all drives are maxtor. the system was build by my brother in law. he probably got some cheapies from e-bay.

Maxtor drives are not that good. Your drive has just failed. Get a new one. Seagate makes good ones.

GL

X

well if it is the hard drive then i think it finally crapped out. i cant even get the computer started.

you can try data recovery programs....sometimes they can recover data from that kind of stuff.....but does seem like your hard drive ate shit

I guess I'll contribute this then...

A little while back a computer at work crashed. I also thought that it was the hard drive. That wasn't the case. About 3 weeks and numerous visits to comp usa later we find out that it was the processor that crapped out. We went through a bunch of crap like a new mother board and everything. Needless to say, it was a learning experience.

Try to see if you can pull your HD out and slave it to another machine. From there at least you'll be able to tell if its the HD.

thanks for the help.

im very pissed, lots of info is now gone. damn!

well i switched the hard drives around (master to slave, slave to master) and it works fine. i dont know why but it is fine now. anyway i am looking at 120gb seagate drives on ebay. funds are a little tight right now so i will have to hold off. thanks for all your help everybody.

maxtors are POS!
i had one that died on my in less than 7 months! i lost like about 1000 pictures.

you should look into the cable. i had a cable go bad and it was the same problem that you're describing.

maxtors really aren't that bad