Is this a hard drive crash?

[web at 3dresearch.com]

At 11:03 AM 3/29/2007, you wrote:
>Janos Dohanics wrote:
>
>>I also ran the Seagate drive utility which found no problems with the
>>drive. When the same kind of crash happened again, I thought the problem
>>may be the IDE controller, I have replaced the motherboard.
>>Now it crashed again with the new motherboard - and I don't know what
>>should I do next: should I just replace an apparently good hard drive?
>
>If you know the drive is good (e.g. by testing it in another machine), the 
>first thing you should replace is the power supply. Weird drive behavior 
>is often a sign of weak PSUs.

FWIW, I tested the power supply with an inexpensive power supply tester; it 
checked out. I guess I should replace it, nonetheless...

>>Also, if this is just a hard drive crash, shouldn't  the system keep
>>going?
>
>So, you're saying that if a drive starts giving invalid or 
>noninterpretable communications back to the IDE controller, causing the 
>controller to wedge, which possibly brings down the PCI bus on which it's 
>connecte, tied to the front side bus and the CPU, the OS should just 
>continue? On what?

I guess you make a good point: the fact that the system wedges, points to 
something other than the drive. Still, it's always the same drive that quits...

Janos Dohanics