[Keyboard Cowboy]

i have been having a series of problem with my sister's BF's computer over the last 6 months.

December 2005, the hard drive died. We needed to send it off for RMA.
Before it died, it was making some strange werring and clicking noises,
We got it replaced under warranty with no problems.

April 2006, windows could not reload as the sys file was corrupted. I can not rememeber which file it was. However reloading the operating system fixed it up.

May 2006, (today) Same problem that happened last month where the windows could not load.
Now having the same problem happen 2 times in 4 week is a bit odd.
So I have advised to change the memory around on the PC and update the motherboard bios.
No booting up first time, the POST beep one very long continous beep.
Restart the computer, Now this time, the hard drive is making a very simulare Wirring and clicking noice as before.

When installing Windows back on to the computer, it becoming apparent replacement hard drive is stuff.

All ready, I know that I am going to be replacing the hard drive again under RMA. However there is some thing else that is causing a problems on this machine.

Doing some googling on line, I have found that the sys file in question is related to the SATA Controller drivers.

Question 1 :- What is the likelhood of a faulty SATA Controller being able to stuff up a SATA hard drive down to the point where you need to send the Hard Drive off for RMA? The SATA Controller is Silicon Image 3112 / 3512 SATA Driver. This sata control can do both SATA Raid and ATA. The motherboard has been set to ATA.

Question 2 :- What is the chances of an RMA replacement hard drive having the same fault? Does any one know if there was a bad batch of Seagate 80GB Sata Model Number #ST380013AS Hard drives?

Question 3 :- Any other suggestions on what could be going wrong. Reason is that my sister and myself are getting tired of the same sets of problems (Corrupt Windows, Dead Hard Drives) happening every 3 months?


Specs of the computer are
AMD Athlon Xp 2800
Gigabyte GA-7N400V Pro2 Rev 1.x Motherboard (on board SATA)
2x 512Mb Hynix ChipSet Memory
Seagate 80Gb SATA Hard Drive #ST380013AS

Currently to get things fix up now, I am replacing the ram, and I am lending my spare hard drive. However I need to sort this problem out so that it does not happen again.

[c0rr0sive]

I have one of there controller cards installed, similar issues to yours if i use a SATA drive, but when using ATA without any RAID array it works just fine...

[Keyboard Cowboy]

The sata is onboard the motherboard.

I have just formated the SATA hard drive. It does have a habit of making some strange noises and slowing down when it about midway through the drive.

[Apokalipse]

it could even be the PSU. I once had similar problems on a Pentium 3 machine, though to a lesser degree. files would get corrupted, Windows sometimes wouldn't boot, though I didn't get dead drives.
I replaced the PSU, and the problems kinda stopped.

you could try using the hard drive in onbe of your machines for a while, to rule out the hard drive being the problem

it may be the SATA cable

if it's not anything above, then I'd point to the motherboard