[HRNemesis]

I have built quite a few systems and have never encountered this before.

I have an ASUS a8n-sli deluxe motherboard, 2 older 80 gig wd sata hard drives, 2 new 320 gig wd sata hard drives, amd 64 3200 venice processor, 6600gt msi video card, 2 gig corsair value ram, antec 5xx truepower psu, no raid drives.

When I got new hard drives I simply added them to my current install in sata slots 3 and 4. Worked fine for a few weeks. Was looking at the irs website and had to leave for a couple of hours. Came back to find the clock in system tray had stopped 2 hours previously, the hard drive light on solid, ctrl/alt/delete didnt do anything so I pushed reset button.

When hard drive detection came up it took forever and was missing a drive, #3. Since it was only a data drive it should have booted, right?

Swaped things around and was able to get them all to work by swapping sata cables 1 & 2 with 3 & 4 and now everything works fine. Boots with all drives reconized. I am not complaining but this does not seem logical as it shouldn't matter where they are as far as I know. If I put them back where they started problem returns, if I disconnect 3 & 4 boots again.

What is it about SATA drives that I am missing?

Secondary question. This might all have started with loose cables as my sata power cables from my psu seem to come loose easily. They don't seem to lock in in any way and aren't tight. Anyone else have this problem? If so any solutions?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

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Some drives don't react very well to being quizzed about their brand, size and parameters after the system freezes up. Its more than likely an issue with those SATA ports on that board and the brands of HD you're using. Compatibility issues still occasionally exist but they are on the whole the exception rather the rule - many years ago it used to be the rule that you had to get stuff certified to work with other stuff if you wanted to use it.

As to SATA cables - newer ones have actual latches on them to hold them in more securely. Older ones didn't so were prone to working loose on occasion.

[Neil Jones]

Some drives don't react very well to being quizzed about their brand, size and parameters after the system freezes up. Its more than likely an issue with those SATA ports on that board and the brands of HD you're using. Compatibility issues still occasionally exist but they are on the whole the exception rather the rule - many years ago it used to be the rule that you had to get stuff certified to work with other stuff if you wanted to use it.

As to SATA cables - newer ones have actual latches on them to hold them in more securely. Older ones didn't so were prone to working loose on occasion.