Primary Hard Disk Failure, Press F1 to Resume

[copaceticjon]

When booting up my computer, directly after auto-detecting SATA devices, my computer regularly gives me an error that alternately reads "Primary Hard Disk Failure, Press F1 to Resume..." or "Secondary Hard Disk Failure, Press F1 to Resume..." Sometimes the word "Slave" or "Master" are there after the words "Primary" or "Secondary" in there as well. While the content of the message varies, the result is usually the same: The startup process lags after auto-detecting the drives, then gives me this error.

I have three SATA hard drives and a DVD drive plugged in to my mb via SATA. When no HDD are detached, but I have boot media in the DVD drive, the computer starts up quickly and normally, with no errors. When any or all of the HDDs are plugged in, I receive the above error. I borrowed a HDD from my roommate, plugged it in, attempted to boot up and still received the error. None of the HDD are bad, and it would be a pretty big coincidence for all four I've tested to fail at once.

What could the problem be?

 

[copaceticjon]

UPDATE:

When I plug in just one or two of the HDD + the DVD drive, the computer boots fine. When I plug in three HDD + DVD drive, failure! Do I perhaps need to upgrade my power supply?

 

[Route44]

Answered before I knew you gave an update. Give us your system specs including make and model of power supply as well as purported wattage supplied.

If you can access those hard drives back up all essential information that you cannot afford to lose NOW. Secondly, how old are the hard drives, how old is the motherboard, and how long was this system stable before these errors started to occur?

Are the SATA cables securely attached? Also, SATA cables have been known to fail.

 

[copaceticjon]

Asus-built Computer
American Megatrends Motherboard
Intel dual-core 2.60 processor
6 gb memory
Power Supply:

Hitachi 640gb HDD
WesternDigital 1tb HDD
WD Caviar 80gb HDD
WD Caviar 500gb HDD

System was bought in 2009, drives are all from 2009, except 1tb drive, which is from 2010. Not exactly new, but they do function. I've used every SATA cable on every drive, and they click when they're all the way in, they all appear to be functioning. The system was stable with three internal HDD + DVD drive since august 2014, but was only used for a couple of those months, while spending some time in storage.

 

[Tmagic650]

Yes, for 4 hard drives, that power supply may be failing now. Try installing a new 650 watt supply

 

[Route44]

Agreed; my thoughts exactly.

 

[DelJo63]

IMO, HDD power is trivial. I would be concerned for legacy vs secure boot layouts.

 

[Killshot Gaming]

Having similar issue but I have a 600w power supply and I have one SSD and one HDD