Hi everyone... It's my first time here, and I really do need some help... I have a Maxtor HD (30.7 GB) which was (perhaps is still)going pretty well on my P4 1.60 that I have since March 2002. All of a sudden, something like 2 months ago, end of January 2003, on cold boots, the computer ramdomly couldn't boot, with the following message: "Non-System Disk...Hard drive failure", or something pretty close to that. I checked the box on top of it, and the BIOS didn't detect my hard drive: "Primary Master: None". The CD-Rom was detected, though. I simply turned the computer back on again and everything was fine. It happened to me 3 times within 3 weeks, each time at random. It never did that on a "Restart", only on "Cold Boot", after a night of sleep. The computer sometimes acted strangely then. All of a sudden, after Windows started, and before the Desktop appeared, my Norton Anti-Virus 2002 was corrupted and the window told me to reinstall the Anti-Virus...which I did and everything went back to normal. I also noticed some strange 0 kb files on my computer, perhaps 4 or 5, named with very strange characters I had never seen before. I had no virus, my anti-virus being updated on a regular basis. Sometimes later, I reformatted Windows, which I do every year, and reinstalled Windows ME. Everything went fine with the installation. When I tried to install Norton Anti-Virus 2002, it had a problem when I tried to restart it in order to complete its installation. It seemed like it didn't install well. I uninstalled it and installed it back again. Everything was fine that time. Now, when I click on "My Computer" icon, it takes quite some time before drive A, C, and D appear, as well as the Control Panel (Still in the My Computer Icon). It also froze 1 or 2 times. It also froze some times when I tried to make a Search, clicking on Start/Search/Files and Folders. And also, I sometimes have BSOD, but rarely. Most of the times, the computer just "Freezes"... And since I reinstalled ME, I have a file named with, again, VERY strange characters, which is, naturally, a 0 kb file. I heard the writing of these files are often a sign of coming hard disk failure. And since I have no virus, and that the computer didn't recognize the hard disk 3 times, I suspect a soon-to-come hard disk failure. But the problem is: I tried the Maxtor diagnostic test several times and it says that the hard disk passed ALL of the tests, and that EVERYTHING is fine! I also have NO bad sector on the hard disk!!! What would you suggest me??? The hard drive is still on guarantee, but they can't so anything since it doesn't make noise, and all of the diagnostic tests are OK. Worst of all, it's a random problem. Could it be the RAM? The Motherboard? The IDE Wire? Oh! One important detail, I think: The CD-Writer I had (Since I changed it today) on that computer was a HP and it didn't pass the CD-Speed Test, having something like 6% of errors. Maybe, because I installed everything from there, it may be the cause of a possible Windows installation (Could it be?)...But even though it could be...How come, BEFORE I reinstalled everything, the BIOS couldn't detect me hard drive 3 times within 3 weeks??? Any help, even minor, would be very appreciated!!! Thanks in advance!!!

Been there, done that. I chased that problem for weeks before finally figuring it out with a little help from Maxtor support. It is almost certainly the drive. If you contact Maxtor support they will confirm this. The diagnostic shows no errors because it is looking for physical errors on the drive itself. It cannot detect mechanical errors which is what is happening. It will eventually slow down to the point of total failure. NOTE- most drives only have a 1 year warranty as opposed to 3 (like it used to be). Jimi_l

Thanks for your advice, Jimi... I've just sent an E-Mail to the Maxtor Support and will be waiting for their answer...

yep hurry up and save anything important if your scanning your harddrive and the scan is running correctly then so is your harddrive at that time, but your problems will reacure replace hd