Seagate Barracuda in ACHI mode - physical damage???

[Just D]

Did anybody get any trouble with Seagate Barracuda 1 TB SATA hard drive

working in ACHI mode in Windows 7? It is a very strange coincident. I had

one 2TB IBM/Hitachi and three Seagate 1TB Barracuda working on the same

machine in IDE mode for a few months. I switched BIOS and Windows to ACHI

mode using the driver that came with this mobo, all the hard drives worked

for a day or so, I shut computer down as usual, next day computer stopped

recognizing one of the Barracudas freezing for a very long time on the BIOS

check, then giving me BSOD when Win7 was finally trying to boot up. Ok, I

disconnected this Seagate drive, tried it on the external controller - dead.

Rebooted machine, it worked just great. One day later, means today, I tried

to start the same machine with already 1 Seagate out - same issue. To make

the long story short I can say that the second Seagate became dead. It spins

like the first one, but the controller can't recognize this hard drive -

second for last two days! It looks like the controller is dead or maybe the

technical cylinders on these hard drives are overwritten or something like

that. Any ideas? I tried IDE mode, rolled back the driver, no luck. So I

returned the driver and BIOS to ACHI mode to test if this is a real problem

with the driver or not. Anyway I will to send 2 hard drives to RMA. So who

cares if there are 2 or 3 in the box. But what the real reason and if this

is a real coincident or ACHI mode can kill the hard drive?



Just D.

 

[KCB]

"Just D" wrote in message

news:zX4vn.62003$y13.8693@newsfe12.iad...

> Did anybody get any trouble with Seagate Barracuda 1 TB SATA hard drive

> working in ACHI mode in Windows 7? It is a very strange coincident. I had

> one 2TB IBM/Hitachi and three Seagate 1TB Barracuda working on the same

> machine in IDE mode for a few months. I switched BIOS and Windows to ACHI

> mode using the driver that came with this mobo, all the hard drives worked

> for a day or so, I shut computer down as usual, next day computer stopped

> recognizing one of the Barracudas freezing for a very long time on the

> BIOS check, then giving me BSOD when Win7 was finally trying to boot up.

> Ok, I disconnected this Seagate drive, tried it on the external

> controller - dead. Rebooted machine, it worked just great. One day later,

> means today, I tried to start the same machine with already 1 Seagate

> out - same issue. To make the long story short I can say that the second

> Seagate became dead. It spins like the first one, but the controller can't

> recognize this hard drive - second for last two days! It looks like the

> controller is dead or maybe the technical cylinders on these hard drives

> are overwritten or something like that. Any ideas? I tried IDE mode,

> rolled back the driver, no luck. So I returned the driver and BIOS to ACHI

> mode to test if this is a real problem with the driver or not. Anyway I

> will to send 2 hard drives to RMA. So who cares if there are 2 or 3 in the

> box. But what the real reason and if this is a real coincident or ACHI

> mode can kill the hard drive?

>

> Just D.

>

>



http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976



included text from KB article above:

"For example, assume that you install Windows Vista or Windows 7 on a

computer that contains a controller that uses the Pciide.sys driver. Later,

you change the SATA mode to AHCI. Therefore, the drive must now load the

Msahci.sys driver. However, you must enable the Msahci.sys driver *before*

you make this change. "

 

[Just D]

> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

>

> included text from KB article above:

> "For example, assume that you install Windows Vista or Windows 7 on a

> computer that contains a controller that uses the Pciide.sys driver.

> Later, you change the SATA mode to AHCI. Therefore, the drive must now

> load the Msahci.sys driver. However, you must enable the Msahci.sys driver

> *before* you make this change. "



Everything was added and enabled BEFORE this change for sure, if not the

system would never boot up for sure. I wrote about 4 drives in the system.

The system was working perfectly right after this change and for a few more

days days, and all the drives were in a very good shape, no problems at all.

The problems appeared first to the first Seagate drive and then to the

second Seagate again drive. The third from this collection still works

great, and that's good. Also the primary one, which is a newer IBM/Hitachi

2TB drive is also in a good shape. The system is installed on this drive.



Btw, neither controller recognizes these drives after that happened. If it

was only logical issue related to the file system I would expect to be

recognized, but nothing worked.



Just D.

 

[Chuck]

On 4/8/2010 12:43 AM, Just D wrote:

>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

>>

>> included text from KB article above:

>> "For example, assume that you install Windows Vista or Windows 7 on a

>> computer that contains a controller that uses the Pciide.sys driver.

>> Later, you change the SATA mode to AHCI. Therefore, the drive must now

>> load the Msahci.sys driver. However, you must enable the Msahci.sys driver

>> *before* you make this change. "

>

> Everything was added and enabled BEFORE this change for sure, if not the

> system would never boot up for sure. I wrote about 4 drives in the system.

> The system was working perfectly right after this change and for a few more

> days days, and all the drives were in a very good shape, no problems at all.

> The problems appeared first to the first Seagate drive and then to the

> second Seagate again drive. The third from this collection still works

> great, and that's good. Also the primary one, which is a newer IBM/Hitachi

> 2TB drive is also in a good shape. The system is installed on this drive.

>

> Btw, neither controller recognizes these drives after that happened. If it

> was only logical issue related to the file system I would expect to be

> recognized, but nothing worked.

>

> Just D.

>

>



A similar problem occurred a couple of years ago on two older MSI MBDs

in my P/Cs running Win ME. Turned out that there was a power supply

failure or, more likely, a failure in the MBD 5v regulators, likely due

to failed capacitors.

Two WD PATA drives died in one, with blown chips on the drive I/O card.

(One at a time, with a couple of days between the failures.



Naturally, the P/Cs were old enough that it was not worth the

trouble/cost to repair, and while some parts were recycled, it was time

to replace them. (Newer, better, faster, etc)



In your case, I'd likely try to get my hands on the drive Mfrs "low

level" utility, and see if it recognizes the drives. If these driver

were 1TB drives, there is a possibility that they are two of a "bad lot"

of drives that were sold a couple of years ago.

 

[KCB]

"Chuck" wrote in message

news:b4mvn.96417$gF5.61088@newsfe13.iad...

> On 4/8/2010 12:43 AM, Just D wrote:

>>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

>>>

>>> included text from KB article above:

>>> "For example, assume that you install Windows Vista or Windows 7 on a

>>> computer that contains a controller that uses the Pciide.sys driver.

>>> Later, you change the SATA mode to AHCI. Therefore, the drive must now

>>> load the Msahci.sys driver. However, you must enable the Msahci.sys

>>> driver

>>> *before* you make this change. "

>>

>> Everything was added and enabled BEFORE this change for sure, if not the

>> system would never boot up for sure. I wrote about 4 drives in the

>> system.

>> The system was working perfectly right after this change and for a few

>> more

>> days days, and all the drives were in a very good shape, no problems at

>> all.

>> The problems appeared first to the first Seagate drive and then to the

>> second Seagate again drive. The third from this collection still works

>> great, and that's good. Also the primary one, which is a newer

>> IBM/Hitachi

>> 2TB drive is also in a good shape. The system is installed on this drive.

>>

>> Btw, neither controller recognizes these drives after that happened. If

>> it

>> was only logical issue related to the file system I would expect to be

>> recognized, but nothing worked.

>>

>> Just D.

>>

>>

>

> A similar problem occurred a couple of years ago on two older MSI MBDs in

> my P/Cs running Win ME. Turned out that there was a power supply failure

> or, more likely, a failure in the MBD 5v regulators, likely due to failed

> capacitors.

> Two WD PATA drives died in one, with blown chips on the drive I/O card.

> (One at a time, with a couple of days between the failures.

>

> Naturally, the P/Cs were old enough that it was not worth the trouble/cost

> to repair, and while some parts were recycled, it was time to replace

> them. (Newer, better, faster, etc)

>

> In your case, I'd likely try to get my hands on the drive Mfrs "low level"

> utility, and see if it recognizes the drives. If these driver were 1TB

> drives, there is a possibility that they are two of a "bad lot" of drives

> that were sold a couple of years ago.

>



Now that you mention it, the Barracuda 7200.11 series were having issues,

causing Seagate to issue firmware updates. Look here if this may be your

problem:

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207951&NewLang=en

The 7200.12 series has (supposedly) solved the issues.