cant install win 7, hdds making noise

[General Maximus]

Now here is one to get you thinking because it is baffling me big time. I bought a new custom built pc last week which is basically the following:

MSI Z97 G45 mb
16gb ram
i7 4770k
2 x 1TB hdd raid 1
GeForce GTX770
X-Viper 1050w psu

It arrived last Friday and everything has been running nearly silent all week and as smooth as a baby's bum. In the past I have always had used raid 0 but i cried when a hdd failed which is why I had this one setup as raid 1. It has been eating away at me all week though because for what it is worth, everything gets 7.9 on the windows experience index apart from the hdds which got 5.9. Sooooooo, instead of going back to raid 0 I thought I thought i would setup raid 10. I ordered two identical hdds (so all 4 were the same) which arrived today and thought i would get up everything setup no problemo.

I installed the two new hdds and built the array no probs but right off the bat windows 7 (pro) was sluggish and the system restarted just as it was expanding files. I tried again and this time I heard one of the hdds powering on and off. I assumed it was one of the new hdds which was causing the system to become unstable so I took it in turn disconnecting both new hdds trying to work out which one it was. Turns out both of them were doing it so I disconnected both thinking I would go back to the original two drives.

Buuuuut, even they started doing it as soon as the win 7 installation starts. I even took it in turn disconnecting each of them so I was only running one hdd at a time and they all do the same, you can hear the hdds powering on and off every 10 seconds and after the installation gets from anything from 0-11% the system will restart.

Anyone got any ideas on what could be the problem? I am assuming it is either power or mb. It is a hell of a coincidence that it only started doing it when I made a new array and/or tried installaing a new OS. I didn't do anything dodgy when I put the new drives in, putting the new sata cables in and connecting the power cables was straight forward enough.

If it was a power issue (not that it is with a 1kw psu) you would have thought disconnecting the new drives would fix the problem but whatever is wrong it is doing it with even one drive running.

Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated. I am going to give tech support a ring tomorrow for what it is worth and see if they can shed any light on it. I can see it having to go back though

[qasdfdsaq]

...And what exactly are the hard drives and how are they connected?

Also if all you're concerned with is getting a Windows Experience Index score of higher than 5.9 you are wasting your money. It is impossible with hard drives, because Microsoft has specifically capped the score for hard drives at... 5.9. It won't allow you to get a higher score without an SSD.

sounds like PSU to me. Just cuz its 1kw does not mean all the rails are working

[General Maximus]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

...And what exactly are the hard drives and how are they connected?

Also if all you're concerned with is getting a Windows Experience Index score of higher than 5.9

it's not, it was just winding me up that they were the weakest link. If they were already setup in raid 0 I wouldn't have thought anything of it but as it was raid 1 I knew there was room for improvement. I knew everything was running perfectly because I ran the hardest tests in 3dmark and for the first time every everything ran as smooth as a baby's bum.

All 4 hdds are Seagate ST1000DM003 and they are connected with brand new sata cables directly to the mb. Everything is brand new.

---------- Post added at 21:55 ---------- Previous post was at 21:38 ----------

Hugh it is your ssd proping your score up. The score is based on the lowest scoring category and my cpu, graphics card and ram are all 7.9 but my overall score is 5.9 because that is what my hdds score. You score higher because you have got ssd's. The only reason i didnt got for them is because I saw Qas, Igini and someone else moaning about that a couple of weeks ago.

[Qtx]

Other than the PSU the other thing that springs to mind is the sata controller going screwey. Is it possible something in the bios changed in relation to disks after you put the others in and needs changing back?

[General Maximus]

nope, I checked that

[qasdfdsaq]

Seagate drives are widely known for doing this, they are *very* sensitive to even the slightest power fluctuations. This "feature" causes the drive to immediately shut down when that happens, and it also happens a lot more often when multiple drives are connected to the same power supply.

The problem is somewhat compounded by your choice of ridiculously overspecced power supply. It's quite well known that Haswell CPUs make drastically fluctuating demands on the power supply and quite a lot of popular power supplies are too powerful and cannot regulate voltages accurately at the extremely low levels Haswell uses when idle. Given power supplies are overall worse performing and less efficient when used at extremely low load, it's not surprising that voltage regulation also takes a hit. You should probably look at replacing it with a Harwell-certified PSU, granted you don't necessarily need one but when you've combined it with extremely sensitive hard drives, it's the one thing I would look at first.

Given the current components in your machine a 400-450W power supply would be the most efficient, though 600-650w could be just about acceptable plus give you a bit of expandability for overclocking, etc. But even a 600w supply will be running at barely 5% load most of the time.

[General Maximus]

does that mean the drives are permanently screwed now or will they work properly again if i get another psu?

[qasdfdsaq]

They will work, they will just bug out on any but the most accurate of power rails. Any splitters, backplanes/hotswap trays, and modular cables can also make things worse unless everything is seated 100% securely. It's something that's been ****ing me off about Seagate drives for nearly ten years now. Even the "Designed for NAS" drives start bugging out on anything more than a 4-bay NAS.

I would recommend, just to try things out, turning off CPU power saving features, using the onboard graphics, and connecting just one drive, using the shortest & closest SATA power connector on the supply.

[General Maximus]

sounds great. It ****es me off as well. It is one thing me making that mistake if i was building my own pc but i would expect an "award winning pc manufacturer" to know better. Thanks for the info.

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

They will work, they will just bug out on any but the most accurate of power rails. Any splitters, backplanes/hotswap trays, and modular cables can also make things worse unless everything is seated 100% securely. It's something that's been ****ing me off about Seagate drives for nearly ten years now. Even the "Designed for NAS" drives start bugging out on anything more than a 4-bay NAS.

I would recommend, just to try things out, turning off CPU power saving features, using the onboard graphics, and connecting just one drive, using the shortest & closest SATA power connector on the supply.

this has not been my experience with Seagate drives I run 3

[qasdfdsaq]

That's sorta what you pay the extra for with "Award winning PC manufacturers" - the testing, certification and guaranteeing of everything working together. Big waste of money for enthusiasts IMO but I can understand why business who just cannot afford the hassle do it.

(Incidentally IIRC most "Award winning PC manufactuers" rarely put more than 2 drives into a system without a hefty £100+ backplane)

---------- Post added at 11:33 ---------- Previous post was at 11:33 ----------

Originally Posted by tizmeinnit

this has not been my experience with Seagate drives I run 3

I run 160.

[General Maximus]

i have been running 3 drives all week no probs (two for raid 1 for OS and apps and a third for videos and other files) but when I went to add the additional two for raid 10 yesterday it threw a spaz fit

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

That's sorta what you pay the extra for with "Award winning PC manufacturers" - the testing, certification and guaranteeing of everything working together. Big waste of money for enthusiasts IMO but I can understand why business who just cannot afford the hassle do it.

(Incidentally IIRC most "Award winning PC manufactuers" rarely put more than 2 drives into a system without a hefty £100+ backplane)

---------- Post added at 11:33 ---------- Previous post was at 11:33 ----------


I run 160.

why in gods name do you run 160 drives that you know to be problematic? you know the definition of insanity?

[qasdfdsaq]

They are not problematic in the environment I run them in.

Even if they were, one phone call to Dell and they are obliged to fix it within 4 hours.