Ultra Bay hard drive S-L-O-W-S T40 for 10 minutes on boot

[SteveDC]

On my T40 2372-94U Win XP Pro, for two years I have used an 80 GB HD for my main drive, and two separate 80 GB drives for the Ultra Bay as a second drive for data. No problems until now.

Now, when I boot with a second drive inserted, the green "Drive-In-Use" light at the bottom of the screen stays lit for 10- 15 minutes and the computer slows to uselessness until the light goes out. It seems the small round green LED on the UltraBay for the second hard drive sometimes matches the Drive-In-Use light but not always.

Booting with only the main HD (with no second drive inserted) is fine. But when I insert the second hard drive it starts doing the Drive-In-Use business again for about 10 minutes, and the whole computer slows to uselessness during that time.

The two hard drives are about half full so I don't think that is the problem. They are both Hitachi drives but different RPMs. Anyway, I have the problem on both.

I took a look at the task manager for a clue. Shows "System Idle Process" at about 95-98 percent whether Drive-In-Use light is on or not.

USB hard drives do not have the same problem.

Drivers from the IBM/Lenovo site are current.

I defragged and CHKDSK/F everything. Norton Antivirus and Spy Sweeper in use and current. Zone Alarms Pro in use and current. So, I don't think it is infected.

Thank you for considering this issue!

[GomJabbar]

Sounds like your one hard drive is failing to me. Try running Hitachi Drive Fitness Test.

[LtTPfan]

What happens if you put a CD or DVD into the Ultrabay instead of a hard drive?

[smugiri]

USB hard drives do not have the same problem.

If you have a USB enclosure, I would suggest putting your 80gb drives into there and trying them out. If they work OK, then you narrow down the problem to the Ultrabay hardware or the Ultraby HD caddy. If they do not work in the USB drive then you narrow down the problem to the drives themselves.

[SteveDC]

I will try the Hard Drive Fitness test. I've done that before.

I did not think it was either Ultra Bay hard drive because they both started behaving the same way at the same time. Also, I use a separate Ultra Bay caddy for each drive. But, I will run the Fitness test anyway.

Regarding the CD-RW/DVD drive I have, when I use that, it is OK.

Thank you for your prompt tips!

[GomJabbar]

You can go to Device Manager and verify that both drives are running in DMA mode. Check under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers > Primary IDE channel (main hard drive) and Secondary IDE channel (ultrabay drive). Neither drive should be running in PIO mode.