Windows 7 & SATA issues?

[ilya]

So every once in a while I get a BSOD or HDD freeze. (responsive mouse, frozen desktop) BSODs pop up with a different error code every time.

When I check Windows event viewer I find thousands of iaStor errors as well as other seemingly HDD related error logs. It's like the sata AHCI controller is dropping out every 10 seconds for less than half a second. Sometimes the drive freezes as well, the HDD activity light stays on, no blinking, but no seek noise. Other times I get a BSOD, I'm not sure if it's because of speedstep, Aero, or the HDD issues. I'm pretty sure I have some HDD issues though. (check attached pic, drive drops out intermittently at constant intervals) Sometimes I get a BSOD when I'm using Aero, sometimes I get a BSOD closing apps, (which triggers speedstep on this proc) other times it seems to be HDD related.

I haven't been able to recreate any of the issues in Linux so far, but I need more time to confirm this.
Already tried a few different BIOS versions, as well as a clean reinstall of the AHCI drivers. Also tried the sata1/2 jumpers on my drive. (it's a 1tb wd black sata3 6gbs)
Did some quick memtests, as well as resetting to stock configs as well, temps are definitely not the issue.
I'm about to reinstall Windows on another drive to make sure it's definitely not the drive.

Do you think this is just Windows unable to use the AHCI drivers properly? Or is there more to the problem?

System specs are listed in the dropdown btw.

[_dangtx_]

if you tried another sata cable,port, and the latest hdtune which is 4.6 AND gives it the green, it could be windows. could.

[KaptCrunch]

intel AHCI drivers have done that with updated drivers on x58 chipset had to reformat due to same issues

[ilya]

Originally Posted by KaptCrunch

intel AHCI drivers have done that with updated drivers on x58 chipset had to reformat due to same issues

Turns out it was Windows 7 not liking Intel AHCI drivers. I'm on a H55 chipset though.

I just did a fresh install on another drive, put the current drive in another system, no issues now.

[Perineum]

Bad SATA cable does odd stuff. Those Kingwin swappable drive bays are great, but you can't use the stock SATA cables as they keep failing.