Dell Dimension XPS 410 with Seagate hard drive problem

[Lasher]

Windows Vista Ultimate SP2, 32 bit
Intel Core2 CPU 6700 @2.66GHz, 2 GB RAM

1TB RAID-0(Striped) array Firmware Revision 1.0 with two Seagate ST3500630AS 500 GB hard drives, firmware revision 3.ADG

Problem: Two physical discs configured as ports 0 and 1. Port 1 Status at startup = [font color = red]Error Occurred(0)[/font]. Startup otherwise looks OK.

This has been going on for a long time.

[Dead_Parrot]

1. If it's been going on for a long time...

...and it's running OK, you're probably safe: Chances are it's just a hiccup in the controller, although I'd recommend keeping a good backup schedule (Which you should be doing anyway with raid 0)

What might be worth doing is checking the SMART data and making sure your drive aren't about to go pop: If needed, speedfan has a do-dah for reading SMART data, and will translate it into English for you via the website. A caveat for speedfan: Don't go pressing any buttons to see what they do - if you don't know, don't press it.

[Lasher]

4. You mean I should set up a backup schedule for my files, right?

I could probably do that on a flash drive. I think I'd need an external hard drive to do a complete PC backup. I've never done either, but System Restore has come in handy a time or two.

I'll check out the SMART data tomorrow.

Thanks.

[Lasher]

8. OK, I've downloaded Speedfan 4.43.

The download process made me paranoid. The download manager wanted to include all kinds of crap, plus change my browser home page and default search engine. Six other programs installed besides Speedfan. One application called FlipToast is particularly annoying.

Running Speedfan, here is what the top field in the Readings tab says:

Win9x:NO 64Bit:NO GiveIO:YES SpeedFan:YES
I/O properly initialized
Linked ISA BUS at $0290
Linked Intel 82801HB ICH8 SMBUS at $ECE0
Found nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX
Linked nVidiaI2C0 SMBUS at $3D403E3F
Linked nVidiaI2C1 SMBUS at $3D403637
Linked nVidiaI2C2 SMBUS at $3D405051
Scanning ISA BUS at $0290...
SuperIO Chip=SCH5514
Scanning Intel SMBus at $ECE0...
Scanning I2CNVidia SMBus at $3D403E3F...
ADT7473 (ID=$73) found on SMBus at $2E
Scanning I2CNVidia SMBus at $3D403637...
Scanning I2CNVidia SMBus at $3D405051...
Found Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6700 @ 2.66GHz
End of detection

Under the S.M.A.R.T tab there is nothing in the Hard disk field and no information displayed anywhere else there.

Just ran Malwarebytes, 8 occurrences of malicious software discovered. These include 7zip_setup.exe, SpeedFan.exe, and several occurrences of the Trojan I Want This.crx

Executing System Restore to un-do whatever this download has done.

[lastlib]

2. You might also check your BIOS settings and make sure it's recognizing the drive properly.

[Lasher]

3. How do I check my BIOS settings?

[lastlib]

5. It varies from machine to machine....

... On boot-up, look for a screen to tell you how to got into system settings. It may be the F1 key, or F2, or F10 key--hold it down for a couple seconds, and it should take you into system settings. There should be a setting in there for hard drives. Again, the particulars vary, but you should be able to see if the machine is recognizing the second device.

Another possibility (and I'm not real familiar w/ Vista) is to check in Start>Programs, see if you have an Admin tools or System Info app, or an Event Log. Any of those might tell you more about what the specific error is, and give you more of a lead on how to fix. Without seeing your machine directly, I can't say exactly what to look for, but these tools may help.

Another (remote) possibility: is the second drive set as a slave drive? The only way to tell is to go inside the machine, and look at the jumper on the second drive--you may have to disconnect it completely, but see if the jumper is in the slave position. If it's set wrong (master or....) then it wouldn't have worked correctly from day one. If it has ever worked right, then this isn't the problem.

[hobbit709]

6. Dells are usually F2

[Lasher]

7. Thank you, this is another thing I'll check tomorrow.

I'll do better when I'm fresh.