HDD continuesly corrupting data

[PilotinCommand]

Hi,

I got this really upsetting problem with one of my harddrives. I have an Western Digital 160 GB HDD (F, which I only use for storage of data. My 2 OS's are stored on C: & D: (E: is used for Applications).

What happens is really weird in my opinion. When I create new data on my F: and I switch between my OS's or just reboot data becomes corrupted. Music isn't playable and documents won't open anymore. I have had my system overclocked for a while (P4 2.26 GHz @ 2.53 GHz) but recently I went back to normal 2.26 GHz setting. However this didn't solve the problem. And it seems to only be occuring on recently added data. Old data (added before the problem) doesn't get corrupted as far as I know.

What could be the problem here? Is it the overclock which might have damaged the drive (if so why did my other one (Maxtor 80GB) not get damaged). When installing XP I had to change the drive letter from G: to F: manually via the windows diskmanagement (I did this for both OS's (both XP btw)). Could this be the problem in some sort of way?

I'm desperate cause everytime I want to open something I'm afraid something got corrupted again. What can I do about this?

PiC

[EzyStvy]

My 2 OS's are stored on C: & D: (E: is used for Applications).......When I create new data on my F: and I switch

Is the drive with the problems F?

How many actual hard drives? Which OS's are involved?

[PilotinCommand]

F: on the Western Digital is indeed the one with the problem.
C:, D: & E: are on the maxtor HDD.
I got 2 HDD's installed in the system.

Partition setup & usage:
C: Win XP (for office use)
D: Win XP (for gaming use)
E: Additional Applications
F: Data storage (was recognized as G: after reinstall of windows XP on both partitions)

PiC

[Force Flow]

I ran across this problem with a VIA chipset I was using on a spare rig. The chipset couldn't handle HDDs above a certain size.

[Panama Red]

First thing I would do is run Data Lifeguard (WD's diagnostics) on the suspect drive. Find out if it's the drive itself or if the corruption is being caused somewhere else.

[PilotinCommand]

I'll do that. I'll report the results back.

By the way. The chipset has never given me poblems before. I have this WD HDD now for almost 0.5 years and it never gave me trouble untill 2 months ago.

PiC

[PilotinCommand]

The quicktest didn't show any problems. I'm running the extended test now. In 45 minutes I'll know more hopefully.

[PilotinCommand]

Extended test didn't show any problems too. However afterwards the WD website said that there where new tools available. I'm running those now.

These are the results of the quick- & extended tests:
Test Option: QUICK TEST
Model Number: WDC WD1600JB-00GVA0
Serial Number: WD-WCAL91330292
Firmware Number: 800.D280
Drive Type: IDE
Capacity: 160.04 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: PASS
Test Time: 20:33:55, July 11, 2005

Test Option: EXTENDED TEST
Model Number: WDC WD1600JB-00GVA0
Serial Number: WD-WCAL91330292
Firmware Number: 800.D280
Drive Type: IDE
Capacity: 160.04 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: PASS
Test Time: 21:33:17, July 11, 2005

I noticed I didn't have the "SiS busmaster PCI IDE" that came with the Asus mobo. I immediatly installed this driver. I'll have to restart and see if I get corrupted data again with this driver installed. Could this in any way be be the problem?

PiC

[PilotinCommand]

Wow, this is surprising (at least it is to me). See what Data Lifeguard tells me (see attach.)

PiC

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by PilotinCommand Wow, this is surprising (at least it is to me). See what Data Lifeguard tells me (see attach.) PiC

.........and you clicked "OK" and the results are???...........

[Trent Steel]

What are your two OS's? Does the corruption happen on only 1 of them, or both?

[PilotinCommand]

Well I was excited to see the message alone. So I posted that allready. So what it did after restart was; it immediatly began the scandisk and removed floating files (I'm not sure if this is the correct translation, cause this is a Dutch XP version). When I came back in Windows XP I immediatly checked the "found.000" folder for removed data. It contained several maps with data. So I copied those back to a permanent folder. So those data files where at least saved.

Now I have installed the newest IDE drivers from Asus. The Asus IDE driver from the CD still indicated it supported the WD disk up till 128 GB instead of 160 GB. I'm now gonna reboot and see if this works and what the status is of the IDE tool on the support of the WD drive.

Corruption happens via both OS's on F:.

PiC

[PilotinCommand]

I got a screenshot of the IDE utility from Asus. It now shows 156 GB support for the WD drive (see attachment). I assume this is proof enough to be sure enough no more corruption will occure.

If this is still not gonna work... !!!

I always thought drive support was BIOS business and not Windows business. Hard lesson learned here.

Thanks,

PiC

[PilotinCommand]

Well I'm still getting corrupted data. I'm gonna update my BIOS to the latest Alpha release. See if that helps.

The Asus website tells me that there are 2 ways of updating the BIOS (http://support.asus.com/technicaldoc...Language=en-us).
1 Updating only the BIOS main block
2 Updating main block, boot block & ESCD

I'll first update only the main block, maybe somebody can give me some advice if the second option will add value to this troubleshooting proces?

PiC

[Gizmo]

I usually associate data corruption with bad RAM if it's not the hard drive. Here's Memtest if you want to give it a go.

[PilotinCommand]

I'll give it a try, but I don't think it's the problem, mainly because:
1. I only get corruption on 1 drive (which is only for data storage, so relatively low data exchange via RAM)
2. When I put data on the drive it's OK, but when I restart or switch from OS, troubles begin and corruption takes place.

But I've been proven wrong before , so I'll try memtest. Thanks for your input.

PiC

[PilotinCommand]

Well, after 2 passes of memtest (default settings) no errors where found.

I'm still not completely sure if the corruption stopped. I think time will tell.

PiC

[PilotinCommand]

I have some bad news. The problem still persists. I did a test wherein I got a piece of data from another PC put it on F: while I was in a Win XP session (installed on C:). I could open this and could also open data from the previous WIN XP (C:) session.

Then I restarted and choose my XP installation on D:. I tried to open the same newly added data, and guess what... it was corrupted. But only the newly added data was corrupted. The data which was added in a previous Win XP (C:) session didn't get corrupted.

I haven't got a clue what's going on. It only happens on F: (the WD drive) and it only happens after switching from OS via the boot menu.

The only thing I think the problem could be related to is the fact that on both XP installations the drive letter of the WD drive was G: at first. I changed this back to F: in both XP installations. Could there be a bug in the drive management tools from Windows XP?

PiC

[Panama Red]

Yes, changing the drive letter may be the cause. When you change drive letters using Partition Magic, they offer an opportunity for proper reassingment of data. I forget the program name right now. But they also provide a disclaimer that changing drive letters may cause data corruption. Guess I would have thought the corruption would be limited to Existing data not newly created files.

One other thought comes to mind. Are both XP installations using the same file fomat? Both NTFS or both Fat32? Don't know if that one have any effect but ya never know.

[glc]

Is backing up your data, zero filling the drive, and repartitioning/reformatting it an option?

[PilotinCommand]

I didn't use partition magic this time. But I know what message you're talking about. But this message concerns programs and states that programs installed on the concerning hard drive might not work after reassignment. I use the drive only for data storage, not for apps. The strange thing is that the problem only arrises when new data is added.

Everything is NTFS. That shouldn't be a problem.

I thought of zero-filling, however I don't have parking space for my data. Next to that, no bad sectors where found after an extensive drive test & check-up.

But after bad news there's always good news, they say; When I restarted via my C: installation of XP (after just having seen the problem arrise in a session of the D: installation of XP). I tried to open the "affected" files, without any hope. But then a miracle happened or I just found the solution :lol:. The "affected" files (3 .avi files, 350 MB each) just opened. Then I began thinking why that could be possible.

For C: I used data lifeguard which gave me the message (see attachment) that a registry tweak was needed to support drives over 137 GB. I allowed the program to execute the registry tweak. Restarted, and installed the newest PCI-IDE drivers. The C: installation of XP was OK now, the problem didn't arrise via C:, which meant that reading and writing data for the 160 GB drive was supported now.

I did the same for D:, however I didn't take the first step. I thought the PCI-IDE driver from Asus would automatically make this registry tweak. It seems that was not the case, considering problems still arrised.. I ran data lifeguard again but the message about the registry tweak didn't appear.

I will try to uninstall the PCI-IDE driver for th D: installation and go through the above discribed process again, unless somebody knows what registry tweak this is what Data Lifeguard uses, and knows where I can download it.

PiC

[PilotinCommand]

Hello, here I am again.

I'm sorry to bother again, but this problem is really persistent.

I reversed the situation and tried to do the same trick for my D: installation of XP. Guess what, it didn't work.

I searched somewhat in the Microsoft Database and found this article (http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;303013) I checked my version of the atapi.sys file and since I have SP2 installed the version was up to date. So Windows, shouldn't be the problem.

The above mentioned article mentioned "48-bit LBA-compatible BIOS" in the requirements for the PC. I have a P4S533 mobo with the latest BIOS installed. I enclosed a picture of the HDD details in the BIOS. Could somebody tell me what these settings mean? And if there is something wrong with them?

Thanks,

PiC

[glc]

I'd turn on SMART monitoring. That shouldn't have anything to do with your issue, the other parameters look fine - but what are the other options for multi-sector transfers?