Is my hard drive about to die???

[agent64]

I have this hard drive which has just started to act funky. It takes my computer about a minute to detect it when booting up, and when it finally gets detected it seems to work fine but the IDE activity LED is on all the time whether I'm using the computer or not. I downloaded the powermax diagnostic utility from maxtors website but it did not find any errors with the drive. Do you guys think this drive about to die or should I keep using it. Thanx.

 

[bighurtx82]

Do you hear any clicking noises from the hard drive when data is being accessed? That is always one sign of a hard drive that is ready to go. I had a maxtor with that problem and had no problems getting a new one from Maxtor. They even sent a better model back to me!

 

[RadioactiveMagpies]

My hardrive behaves way you described when I bent a ide pin on my motherboard.
I was able to bend it back, but i think the signal is still a little weak form not enough contact.
It was bend because I was trying to put a cdromas a slave and the cable wasn't really long enough.

 

[agent64]

No it does not make any kind of clicking noises. I know it's not the motherboard either because I've tried several other drives and they work fine. Just waiting to hear from maxtor to see if they will replace it. Thanx guys.

 

[Jeff7]

Did you just add this hard drive to the system, or has it been in there awhile? I had a problem with a new drive, and it turned out to be an inadequate power supply - I was running lots of motherboard peripherals, an AthlonXP, a DVD-ROM drive, CD-RW, and 2 HDD's total. It kept resetting itself randomly, locking the system. Popped a new PSU in, and the hard drive stopped resetting itself.
What are your system specs?

 

[agent64]

This drive has been in my system for a while. Here are my specs:

Win XP
512MB Ram
Epox 8kha+ mobo
Athlon XP 1900+ (not overclocked)
Lite-on 32x burner
maxtor 80gb drive
350w athlon approved psu
soundblaster live
geforce 2 gts

Again, the drive has been in the system for a while and one day it just started acting this way. Thanx