Sata Hard Drives and Vista Operating System

NormCameron

Vista Guru
I would like to describe a problem, the solution I arrived at, and put a question to the Forum.
I recently re-arrange my 4 500GB SATA drives to provide better cooling. The system rebooted fine but every two or three days on booting Vista would kick me back to the BIOS starting screen, or, completely freeze, requiring a reboot. The system then wouldn't boot saying it couldn't find an operating system. Turning the computor off, and a restart would fix the problem until the next time. I resolved this by rearranging my hard drives so that Vistas C drive was the Motherboards logical boot drive. An obvious solution. My question is two fold. Why would BIOS find the Boot Drive sometimes and not others (The disks are not faulty), I perhaps don't fully understand how SATA operates, and, Is this the solution or a fix that masks another problem. I have had no further problems to date. :sarc:
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Scratch Built
    CPU
    Intel Quad Core 6600
    Motherboard
    Asus P5B
    Memory
    4096 MB Xtreme-Dark 800mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Zotac Amp Edition 8800GT - 512MB DDR3, O/C 700mhz
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 206BW
    Screen Resolution
    1680 X 1024
    Hard Drives
    4 X Samsung 500GB 7200rpm Serial ATA-II HDD w. 16MB Cache .
    PSU
    550 w
    Case
    Thermaltake
    Cooling
    3 x octua NF-S12-1200 - 120mm 1200RPM Sound Optimised Fans
    Keyboard
    Microsoft
    Mouse
    Targus
    Internet Speed
    1500kbs
    Other Info
    Self built.
Hi Norm,

When you rearranged your drives, did you disconnect the cables from them whilst you were doing so? It is possible that you didn't connect the drives back to their original port on the motherboard when you wired them back up. Check this, and also check that all cables are securely fitted.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dwarf Dwf/11/2012 r09/2013
    CPU
    Intel Core-i5-3570K 4-core @ 3.4GHz (Ivy Bridge) (OC 4.2GHz)
    Motherboard
    ASRock Z77 Extreme4-M
    Memory
    4 x 4GB DDR3-1600 Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B (16GB)
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI GeForce GTX770 Gaming OC 2GB
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition on board solution (ALC 898)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ViewSonic VA1912w Widescreen
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    OCZ Agility 3 120GB SATA III x2 (RAID 0)
    Samsung HD501LJ 500GB SATA II x2
    Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 1TB SATA II
    Iomega 1.5TB Ext USB 2.0
    WD 2.0TB Ext USB 3.0
    PSU
    XFX Pro Series 850W Semi-Modular
    Case
    Gigabyte IF233
    Cooling
    1 x 120mm Front Inlet 1 x 120mm Rear Exhaust
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 3000 (USB)
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    Microsoft Comfort Mouse 3000 for Business (USB)
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    NetGear DG834Gv3 ADSL Modem/Router (Ethernet) ~4.0 Mb/s (O2)
    Other Info
    Optical Drive: HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH10LS30 SATA Bluray
    Lexmark S305 Printer/Scanner/Copier (USB)
    WEI Score: 8.1/8.1/8.5/8.5/8.25
    Asus Eee PC 1011PX Netbook (Windows 7 x86 Starter)
Thanks Dwarf. I didn't reconnect the drives back to their original port. I had them connected up wrong in the beginning, before I changed the configuration. The C drive has never been on the logical first port on the Motherboard. It is now, I have connected them up C - Port 1, E - Port 2, F - Port 3 and E- Port 4. It seems to work fine now. The question was, well mainly for my education, and the education of others if interested about why Vista would boot from a cold start, but not on a restart initiated by Vista crashing? It may well be the answer is glaringly obvious, but I was curious to know if my solution was rectifying a problem caused by shoddy installation, or if there was something else going on. Is Vista fussy about the location of it's primary drive? What was happening to cause BIOS to "forget" which drive was the boot drive on a restart (and know where it was after powering off and a cold start?)
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Scratch Built
    CPU
    Intel Quad Core 6600
    Motherboard
    Asus P5B
    Memory
    4096 MB Xtreme-Dark 800mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Zotac Amp Edition 8800GT - 512MB DDR3, O/C 700mhz
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 206BW
    Screen Resolution
    1680 X 1024
    Hard Drives
    4 X Samsung 500GB 7200rpm Serial ATA-II HDD w. 16MB Cache .
    PSU
    550 w
    Case
    Thermaltake
    Cooling
    3 x octua NF-S12-1200 - 120mm 1200RPM Sound Optimised Fans
    Keyboard
    Microsoft
    Mouse
    Targus
    Internet Speed
    1500kbs
    Other Info
    Self built.
Agreed with Dwarf. Bad SATA connections and bad cable are a known problem. Especially for gamers who has a subwoofer near by as an example myself. The shock wave, I believe, keep knocking the connection loose. I did the same thing you did to rearrange the SATA cable on my raid drives which work for a while and then stop; it happens over and again. I finally moved the sub further and, guess what, hot glued the connections. I am sure any other solution would be better the hot glue, but at the time a quick fix is needed. It has been working consistantly for a while and I also glued my fingers cross together. Lol!
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    E6850
    Motherboard
    EVGA 122-CK-NF67-A1 680i
    Memory
    4 x OCZ Platinum 1GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 5850 1GB
    Sound Card
    SB X-Fi X Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 23" 5MS
    Screen Resolution
    2048 x 1152
    Hard Drives
    2 x Barracuda 7200.10 320GB RAID 0 / 1 x 500GB Maxtor
    PSU
    Seasonic 600W M12
    Case
    CM Centurion 5
    Cooling
    air
    Internet Speed
    100Mbps
Good point made by both of you. Could have been a badly installed cable which lost connectivity fron fan, drive activity etc vibration. On a warm start the fan and drives would still be working and the problem would still be there. Reconfiguring the drives could well have ensured a good connection.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Scratch Built
    CPU
    Intel Quad Core 6600
    Motherboard
    Asus P5B
    Memory
    4096 MB Xtreme-Dark 800mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Zotac Amp Edition 8800GT - 512MB DDR3, O/C 700mhz
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 206BW
    Screen Resolution
    1680 X 1024
    Hard Drives
    4 X Samsung 500GB 7200rpm Serial ATA-II HDD w. 16MB Cache .
    PSU
    550 w
    Case
    Thermaltake
    Cooling
    3 x octua NF-S12-1200 - 120mm 1200RPM Sound Optimised Fans
    Keyboard
    Microsoft
    Mouse
    Targus
    Internet Speed
    1500kbs
    Other Info
    Self built.
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