Atapi.sys Nightmare

[oooooo]

k here is my situation. one of my desktops with dual hdd drives, is playing up big time. problem started last night when i got BSODs, stamped atapi.sys and subsequently stop. 00x700000. etc.

i got about 10 mins uptime to bsods, then later about 4 mins then later about one min to the point where the whole sys refused to turn on at all.

so i think no prob, format c:/ , reinstall XP and be done with it. boy was i wrong, i tried to install XP without any luck at all for about 20 times. couldnt even format C: . abort abort was all i got.

here is my drive hierarchy:

a: fdd

b: none

c: primary hdd partitioned into two. 10 gigs (master)

d: secondary partition on primary drive 30 gigs

e: single 40 gig partition on secondary hdd (slave)

f:s sony dvd burner

g: lite-on dvd reader

but i needed this machine tonite as i dont have much in the way of redundancy available. so i started failed XP installations onto both c:/ and d:/ (on the primary) which gives me way to install XP onto the secondary hdd. and which went ok just fine.

so for right now XP is happily residing on drive e:/ , booting and working, as soon as i access drives c: or d: i will get a nasty stop message again. also i am not permitted to format either c: or d: from within windows unless i wanna get another stop BSOD.

i myself attribute this to mechanical hdd failure of the primary hdd, but i would be very happy to gain ur insights on this issue.

and on an other note, if i had to replace the primary hdd how would i change the boot sequence?

never say never i guess, learnt it last night

thanx

o^6

[cdnvic]

k here is my situation. one of my desktops with dual hdd drives, is playing up big time. problem started last night when i got BSODs, stamped atapi.sys and subsequently stop. 00x700000. etc.

i got about 10 mins uptime to bsods, then later about 4 mins then later about one min to the point where the whole sys refused to turn on at all.

so i think no prob, format c:/ , reinstall XP and be done with it. boy was i wrong, i tried to install XP without any luck at all for about 20 times. couldnt even format C: . abort abort was all i got.

here is my drive hierarchy:

a: fdd

b: none

c: primary hdd partitioned into two. 10 gigs (master)

d: secondary partition on primary drive 30 gigs

e: single 40 gig partition on secondary hdd (slave)

f:s sony dvd burner

g: lite-on dvd reader

but i needed this machine tonite as i dont have much in the way of redundancy available. so i started failed XP installations onto both c:/ and d:/ (on the primary) which gives me way to install XP onto the secondary hdd. and which went ok just fine.

so for right now XP is happily residing on drive e:/ , booting and working, as soon as i access drives c: or d: i will get a nasty stop message again. also i am not permitted to format either c: or d: from within windows unless i wanna get another stop BSOD.

i myself attribute this to mechanical hdd failure of the primary hdd, but i would be very happy to gain ur insights on this issue.

and on an other note, if i had to replace the primary hdd how would i change the boot sequence?

never say never i guess, learnt it last night

thanx

o^6

Have you tried this in safe mode? You're probably right on the mechanical failure, but when you get that many drives running there's all sorts of quirky things that could happen. It may be as simple as a bad ribbon cable.

[oooooo]

thx cdnvic

yes i tried it out on safe mode. was denied access to the drive a number of times. i also interchanged the ide cables just to make sure they were not incorrectly connected or faulty, took memory out of slots and airblasted the things. then i alcohol-cleaned all connectors of all AGP/PCI peripherals and airblasted the motherboard.

cpu overheating does not seem to be an issue as it runs at between 67-69 centigrades. thanks for ur input very much.

seems there is a ghost in my machine

or something like that

0^6

[Tywais]

cpu overheating does not seem to be an issue as it runs at between 67-69 centigrades. thanks for ur input very much.

That's actually quite high except for a notebook. What processor are you using. And since one drive works it is not related but I would be nervous about that. Sure it is not Fahrenheit?

[oooooo]

thx thai ways

no we are talking centigrades here. the cpu is a 2.8 AMD which should well withstand temperatures of up to 90-100 centigrades without overheating shutdown (clocked at 2.09 gig)

running at 67-69 degrees. now i dont really see a problem with heat here

cheers

Edited March 16, 2007 by oooooo

[Tywais]

thx thai ways

no we are talking centigrades here. the cpu is a 2.8 AMD which should well withstand temperatures of up to 90-100 centigrades without cooling shutdown (clocked at 2.09 gig)

running at 67-69 degrees now i dont really see a problem with heat here

cheers

Just wanted to be sure which model. My dual core 3800X max temperature is 65 degrees, but yours is OK.

http://www.heatsink-guide.com/content.php?...t=maxtemp.shtml

[penguin]

Not being able to install Windows sounds like too many bad sectors on the hard disk to me, if so maybe time to buy a new hard disk. Most hard disk makers have software on their websites to enable you to check the health of the disk, Speed fan can also do the same or you can run checkdisk. If you have another stick of RAM try running with that as could also be faulty RAM.

cpu overheating does not seem to be an issue as it runs at between 67-69 centigrades.

If that temperature is at idle then l wouldn't be happy, even if it is rated to 90c. Have you checked in BIOS to see if there is a temperature limit set?

Maybe it can well withstand temperatures of up to 90-100 centigrades but continually running at 67c is not ideal, AMD usually run cooler than Intel for example. If your cpu is running at 67c continually it sounds as if the whole computer might be running hot and that isn't doing the hard disk any favors either. I'm not sure from what you've said but are you overclocking, if so what sort of cooling do you have, is the room air conditioned?

[cdnvic]

The Athlon x2's always run hotter than normal.