Hard disk CLICKING and CRASHING system!!

[Mandrake]

Strangest thing!

I have two IDE drives as master and slave on same ribbon controller. The primary drive repeatedly clicks and whirs loudly during boot up, crashing the system before Windows has even loaded - but ONLY when the slave drive is connected!

When I disconnect the slave drive, the primary disk behaves itself and boots windows normally in silence!!!

I assume my primary drive is in the process of dying, but why does it malfunction only when the slave drive is connected? Could it be a power supply issue?

My system:

Athlon XP2600
300W PSU
1GIG RAM
Nforce 2 board
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Hammerfall PCI sound card
2 x 120GB IDE DRIVES

Thanks
Mandrake

 

[JMMD]

Are you sure it's not the slave drive causing the crash and making noises?

 

[Mandrake]

Thanks for the quick reply

I seem to have solved it!. I tried replaced the IDE cable with a spare and both drives seem fine now. Live and learn!

Thanks again
Mandrake