[GoatIronMaidn]

As I sit here waiting for my 6th replacement drive from Maxtor, I start to think it might not be the drives after all. The problem is, after a few weeks of working fine, I start gettting boot errors like the system files are corrupt or missing and I have to use the XP disk recovery panel to reinstall them. I have the knowledgebase article about recovering the hive files and reinstalling them memorized by now. Happens all the time. BUT, when the Maxtor failed, I would use the 10 year old Seagate from the kid's computer to be able to keep working. Since this Seagate has always worked, I assumed it was just the Maxtor drives.

This morning, the Seagate gave me the same message. urrgh. So, maybe it isn't the drives after all. Could it be a bios problem? It was flashed about a year ago to Asus 1008. Could it be a motherboard problem or ATA problem? It doesn't seem to matter where I install the drives, master, slave, cable select, ATA, IDE, where ever I put them, they eventually fail.

I am currently back on just the Seagate, with minimal junk on it, just drivers. Although I did download the SP1 for XP yesterday. Possible connection? No viruses, just ran Panda and NAV. Any ideas?

[Thorian]

I have never heard of that happening before but it sounds like a logical conclusion

have you tried to F disk the Segate and put it back in the kids box to see it it still has the same error

[GoatIronMaidn]

The Seagate hasn't been back in the other comp since the errors this morning, but I'll have to try it when the new drive shows up. Although after talking to several people, I think it is narrowing down to the power supply. Asus Probe shows the power supply is good once the machine is up and running, but it may be a problem at the initial power up that it surges or whatever.

[GoatIronMaidn]

An update for anyone interested...

I put a new 320w PSU in and had the same problems. So I bought a new mobo and still had the same issues. I bought a Gigabyte GA-7VAXP and a gig of new DDR-333 memory and had the exact same problems, so I took it in to the shop to have it checked out. They found a brass riser behind where the IDE cable plugs in that was shorting out everytime I plugged a cable in, which was every time I swittched out drives and/or cables. They also found a bunch of stuff messed up in the registry, which I think is unrelated, since I took it in with a two day old OS on it.

But the riser makes sense, considering where it was.

[Jbssfelix]

oi, i'm just about to start building my comp (amd 2100+, 60 gig hdd, 420w ps, and some other stuff that i'll figure out later), and well, i'm scared now, lol. But thanks, i'll keep on the look out for brass risers that are outta whack.