Master Hard Disk/Drive?

[WIS]

Meep! Everytime I start up my computer, my Master Hard Disk/Drive sometimes fails! Sometimes It says Master Hard Drived Failed or something like that, sometimes it just makes this annoying beeping sound and my computer freezes! O.x

And oh, I'm using Windows ME... Help?

[everconfused]

Eeeeek! Well first of all, IMHO having had that OS, WinME is the biggest joke microsoft ever played on any of us. I never had so many problems, crashes, blue screen of death, etc. as I did using that. All I wanted was to go back in time to Win95 after about a week of ME.

Anyway, this doesn't really sound like it's the OS, to me it sounds like your hard drive's going - they will do that (been there, lost everything, spend $$ on new hd, etc. - and the computer at the time was about 6 months old!) or something truly insidious has gotten into your computer.

Without being there and seeing/hearing what's happening, I'd say it was the hard drive itself.

[WIS]

Bleurg, I've been with the Swamp Creature I call Windows ME for nearly two years now. >.> *rocks back and forth*

If it is the hard drive's problem, I suppose its inevitable, I've had this hard drive for a looooooooooooooooooooooooong time.

[Black_Panther]

sounds like your HD is on the verge of failing,my old system sometimes i would boot up and it would say i wouldn't have a HD insert system disk blah blah and that was with win98,but the computer was old and been thru some bad things like electric issues thunderstorms and such so it might just be your HD i guess you can try getting a new cheap one and see if the issue goes away or just buy a new system to avoid the headache of reinstalling stuff

[unclekyky]

i fail to see how a new system would make it so you don't have to reinstall everyting ...

do u have any other computers to test the HD in? maybe you would want to take a look inside (power off of course) and see if any cables are loose.

[Black_Panther]

i fail to see how a new system would make it so you don't have to reinstall everyting ...

do u have any other computers to test the HD in? maybe you would want to take a look inside (power off of course) and see if any cables are loose.

new systems come with preinstalled stuff ,unless of course you build your own then thats a different story

[Rachel]

something i learnt last year when i thought i'd broken my pooter is that the seemingly random beepings actually mean stuff, its like computer morse code. for example mine was a long beep and 2 short beeps and that meant it was a video card problem.

anyway, if your computer is making a code of beeps when it beeps you might be able to look up what that code of beeps means.

[Tranx]

Try getting down and blowing some dust out of your system. That's always fun and sometimes it might uncover that your drive wasn't properly plugged in to one of the drive input things.

[WIS]

something i learnt last year when i thought i'd broken my pooter is that the seemingly random beepings actually mean stuff, its like computer morse code. for example mine was a long beep and 2 short beeps and that meant it was a video card problem.

anyway, if your computer is making a code of beeps when it beeps you might be able to look up what that code of beeps means.

Good advice, I looked up the beeps and I think it means that my CPU is overheating.

[sparkygoesforth]

Ooh... if your CPU is overheating check the cooling fan is working properly. The cheap brushless DC fans that you normally get with CPU heatsinks are notoriously unreliable. When my computer did a similar thing (it used to just grind to a halt after a few hours) I found the fan was going around at about 10rpm and making a nasty rattling noise. A new one cured the problem!

But it shouldn't be overheating when you've just switched it on - it takes time to warm up. Maybe your fault is elsewhere? Check that the CPU, memory and all plugs/cards (especially the ones going to the hard disk) are seated properly in their sockets (with the power off - and make sure to touch a piece of grounded metalwork first e.g. a radiator, to discharge any static electricity you may have built up before touching things inside the computer). I'll second superguy13 - blowing the dust out of your system can help, especially if a lot of dust is laying on the hard drive PCB it can sometimes cause problems.

[unclekyky]

a CPU can over heat within a few seconds if there is no fan. my CPU jumps to about 27C and stays there with a minute and a half (after being off all night).

also check your comp for shorts (metal touching the mobo)