Multiple HDD Failures

[horaceman]

I have had multiple HD crashes and need troubleshooting advice. I am not sure if my problem is MB, power supply, or other. This all started when I came home to find the blue screen of death. The HD was making a clicking noise and was unresponsive. I figured it was dead and ordered a new HD. After installing the new drive, I shut the computer down and left for a few hours. When I turned the computer on, the new HD was clicking and the POST kept cycling without the OS loading. I RMAed the new drive and have since received another HD. I am scared to install this new drive after the previous two crashes. Any advice would be appreciated.

Pentium 4 2.8Ghz
Abit IC-7 MB
ATI Radeon X1300 8X AGP 512MB
1 GB RAM
Soundblaster Audigy 2
Dynex 500W power supply
Windows XP Pro OS

[l337_GuY]

You sure it was the HDD that was clicking both times ?
Did it sound liek any of these ?
Could be a simple thing like PSU fan, or CPU fan thats covered in dust and making noises.

[horaceman]

It sounded like the slow spindle motor soundbite. I am pretty positive it was the HD because with each click I could feel it when I placed my hand on the HD.

[l337_GuY]

You may have a problem with your PSU, as in its not supplying the right amount of voltage which is causing the HDD to not spin properly, Since it happened with 2 HDD's. The only way to check voltages is with the HDD in the computer and use speedfan or similar to check the voltage readings in windows. So up to you if you want to try installing it and setup xp to try get the readings. But then again, might be wrong and maybe those 2 HDD's were just faulty.

[horaceman]

Can you check the voltages with a multimeter without a HD installed? I can buy the fact that the second drive was faulty but the first one worked for two and a half years. Additonally, I had the second HD installed and functioning properly before I turned it off and left the house. I don't want to put my replacement drive in and have the same thing happen if I can do something before hand.

[l337_GuY]

Actually yeah, multimeter would be perfect. The yellow wire should get a reading of 12V (roughly) and the red wire should be 5V (roughly).
Post back your findings.

[horaceman]

Should I be checking the voltages on the wiring harness that connects to the MB or one of the plugs that powers the HD?

[l337_GuY]

One of the plugs that connect to the HDD.

[horaceman]

I checked the voltages and I was getting 12.09V and 5.11V

[l337_GuY]

Ok then your PSU is fine. Should be fine to put the HDD in this time.

[horaceman]

I just wanted to verify the sound the old HD was making so I placed it back in the system. Of the sounds listed, it did sound like a slow spindle motor. Just for the heck of it, I tried booting from a system disk. Windows was loading the system files and then an error screen popped up saying there was a problem with the partmgr.sys driver. What does this mean?

[l337_GuY]

Googled it and it seems to be related to a PAGE_FILE_IN_NONPAGED_AREA (BSOD error). Which could be caused from corrupt or failing HDD.