Hi all, This has been happening for a while now so I thought I'd ask the experts. I have a 30 GB Maxtor (primary) hard drive and a 180 Gb IBM (secondary) hard drive connected through an IDE ATA 100/133 controller. Every once in a while, the 30 gb will just stop working (even while the PC is running). At this point, if the PC is running, Win2k will take a memory dump. Then, when the computer starts to boot up, I get a primary hard drive failure right during BIOS diagnosis along with 2 beeps in case I didnt read the message. To make the PC working again, I open up the case, disconnect the primary hard drive's IDE cable and reconnect it. This makes it work. There is no pattern to this behavior. Sometimes the PC will run for a few days before this happens, somteimes it happens more frequently. Also, I didnt realize that this was a hard drive problem (thought Windows got corrupted) until I noticed that whenever this happens, I dont hear the whirring of the hard-drive fan. So when the PC boots up relatively quietly, I get ready to open up my case. Another noteworthy event was when I enabled the "CPU Level 1 cache" in BIOS. This seemed to cause the crashes more often. However, I dont know if it really is related. I reverted back that BIOS setting. It's starting to really get to me now. I am ready to reformat/reinstall if that's what it will take but I don't think that is necessary. Any ideas on what is really going on? Appreciate your help.

You MAY have a bad data cable, so I would try swapping the one on the primary drive and see if the issue is resolved. However,the drive and controller could be overheating,(you mentioned the "hard drive fan" do you mean the CPU or PSU Fan?) or the primary drive could be dying.If it is a cooling problem, the drive could cool down long enough when you open the case and replug the cable. If the fan is not spinning, that is the top priority, you need to replace it ASAP,it could be the cause of the rest of this behavior.

You should also ENABLE Level 1 cache, otherwise, the processor could be malfunctioning or running extremely slow,write back cache is vital to proper CPU function.

I don't know if this would have any bearing on your problem but the 180GB HD requires a 48 bit LBA compliant BIOS and OS. If the HDrive shows by proper MODEL in the POST screens at startup then your BIOS is good. Win2000 requires SP3 or better in order to be 48 bit LBA compliant. If this is an issue with your system I can't say this is causing your problem but should be addressed anyway. I apoligise if I have misread your original post. You indicate the 180 GB drive is connected to an IDE ATA 100/133 controller. If this is a PCI based IDE controller card then that solves the BIOS problem but not the SP3 issue.

Lobster boy, You're right, what I meant to say was that when the system crashes and gets brought back up, the hard drive is not powered up (it is not running). That's why there is a hard drive error on boot up. And I didnt' mean CPU Level 1 Cache. But there is an option called "System BIOS Cacheable". That is the setting I had enabled, but then I desabled it because there seemed to be more crashes. Sorry for the confusion!

Hard drive FANs are conected directly to the +12V line and they will spin even if the hard drive shuts down. If the FAN stops, then there isn't any power thru that 12V line so the hard drive isn't powerd anymore thus resulting in your problem. Change the cable that powers that hard drive. It's nice to be important but it's more important to be nice...

It could be the power cable to the hard drive. Try another one if you have a spare. This problem is really prevalent with those 'Y' power cables. The pins in the connectors get spread and loose contact intermittenly.