Western Digital, or my motherboard?

[Beetle B.]

In Feb of 2003, I bought a WD400JB.
In about Oct of 2003, I bought a WD1200JB. I copied everything from the former to the latter, but kept it around.

A few days ago, I began to have problems booting and noticed that my WD400JB was sometimes not being recognized. That sometimes turned to almost always. To avoid problems, I disconnected the drive.

I didn't feel bad as that drive was not in use since I had bought the WD1200JB.

However, as of last night, my WD1200JB is not being recognized.

This is scary. Is there an issue with these drives?

I had them on the same cable (Master & Slave). Could it be the cable or the IDE controller on the motherboard (which is an Asus P4PE)?

Thanks.

(Writing this from an old Maxtor which was on the other controller).

[glc]

A WD cannot be jumpered to "master" if there is no slave drive on the cable - you have to remove the jumper. However, you should be using "cable select" with 80 wire Ultra ATA cables.

Download and run Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Diagnostics.

[Beetle B.]

I'll check if it's set at Master or cable select (not at home right now).

However, if it is set to Master, will it work at all (it did work for a number of days after I disconnected the slave)?

[Burnout]

I had the same problem. It was the ide conection on the hard drive. Luckly mine was still on warranty.

[Beetle B.]

OK.

Two days ago I reconnected the HD and they were detected and worked. I turned my computer on yesterday, and left it running (booted up on those drives).

Crashed again overnight. And when I reset the computer upon awakening, neither of those two HD's was detected. I'm just now using my third one (on a different IDE connection), and my HD light is continuously on (no sounds though).

Somehow I'm sure if I disconnect the two HD's for a day or two they'll be working again.

Could this be a heat issue? I can't see why - given I was using it for months like this.

Or lack of power (Again - I can't see why). I'm using a 300 W supply for P4PE motherboard, three HD's, a Radeon 8500 LE video card, and one CD burner.

[glc]

Time to run diags on the drives.

[Jaggannath]

It shouldn't be a power issue, that's more than enough, and you said it was working well for at least 6 months. I'm assuming you've added nothing since.
I don't reckon it's a heat issue either if it doesn't recognise when you start your computer.