zzzzara@my-deja.com wrote:
> Rod Speed wrote:
>> zzzzara@my-deja.com wrote:
>>
>>> 4. SMART utilities fail to get SMART info from the drive
>>
>> smartctl from a knoppix CD should be able to see it.
>>
>> Unlikely that the drive is a problem tho since you
>> got the same problem with two different drives.
>
> Sorry if I wasn't clear, the problem has only been on my SATA drive. I
> wanted to rule out software issues so booted from the PATA drive and
> then ran a chkdsk on the SATA drive. The PATA drive has always worked
> fine.
>
>>> So, am I right to assume it looks like a really
>>> strange hardware problem with the VIA controller?
>>
>> Did you check the motherboard for bad caps ?
>
> None I can see.
>
>>
>> Does it still spontaneously reboot ? How often ?
>>
>> What's in the event log ?
>
> haven't had a chance to boot up from the Promise controller, but shall
> do so this evening.
>
> I'd had random reboots for a couple of weeks. Discovered yesterday I
> could trigger them consistently if I did something that scanned every
> file on the disk (virus scan, backup). When I realised my daily
> backups were no longer working I ran the chkdsk and discovered there
> was something odd going on.
>
>>
>> Did it ever work properly ?
>
> worked fine for the last 18 months, although I don't think I ever ran
> a chkdsk. I suppose it's possible there's something odd about one
> sector on the hard disk which throws the VIA controller but not the
> Promise controller,

Unlikely. Its more likely that the via controller doesnt
like the sata drive and the promise is happy with it.

> and data has only gotten into this sector in the last few weeks.

That shouldnt produce a spontaneous reboot or lockup chkdsk or the diag.

The via controller not liking the sata drive could well produce
those effects but its hard to see that that would have worked
fine for 18 months and now is producing those effects.

Have you got the sata drive jumpered for sata1 ?
That motherboard needs that.