Repeated hard drive failure XPS 9000/435T

abrocadabro

Have you cleaned the inside of the chassis and the air intakes located in the front panel of any dust buildup recently?

Bev.

Do you have to remove the heat sink, clean both surfaces, and apply fresh thermal paste (eg, Arctic Silver)?

Install something like (free) speedfan (www.almico.com) and monitor temps of the hard drives, ambient air, and GPU. NOTE: You may not be able to monitor CPU temps unless your model has those sensors enabled, which isn't typical for Dell PCs.

I did replace the heat sink, clean and apply Arctic Silver, thanks.  I have Core Temp to monitor temp.  Is Almico better? 

I have done so every few months.  It does get dusty in there!

They probably both read the same sensors, so if Core Temp is working for you, I see no reason to change. 

You just unlucky with hard drives?? :emotion-3:

3 hard drives. Yes, I agree with Roh, that's heavy bad luck. Basically, the only parts that wear out by physical contact is the hard drive. Hmm. Sounds like it's 'on' 24/7. Is there any other hardware added? Is it plugged into the wall or to a UPS unit? Are the hard drives reputable brands (not budget jobs)?  A certain 'M' brand isn't so good and one Seagate Barracuda model produced a few years back had a coating on the disc (for longevity) gummed on the read/write head. Is everything else  o.k.? No black screens, periodic crashes. Does the electricity in your area run stable (no power spiking or drops and brownouts)?

How many watts/amps is your psu? Does it's fan ramp up often? No loose SATA or power connects. I'd say over 450watts 32amps on 12v (and more for additional hardware) is safe. Before adding anything to a computer system, power should be the first check before an upgrade. Question is, "Am I able to handle the upgrade I want to install?"

I owned a Dell Studio XPS435mt and it's pretty close the same thing. I've replaced all the hardware except for the motherboard and cpu. Dell had no further upgrades to the bios after 2009 so it sort of limits how far it can go, what it can do and how long it can last. The i7 920 cpu and X58 chipset had monster potential and probably still does. With no bios upgrades, voltages get taxed by new or more powerful hardware additions resulting in heat, added ware and crashes, etc..

Check to see if your model XPS has the latest bios drivers. Hope this helps.

I was thinking about your computer today, Abrocadabro.

I was talking to a friend who is a network engineer and three years ago, was a certified Dell reseller, said it may be a bad controller on the motherboard. If you lost 2 or 3 hard drives and the loss of all data at the same time,  the controller which writes to the hard drives could be at fault. A hardware test would seem most appropriate to show faults in the system.

If one or both hard drives work and only the data's gone, then it's the draw back of the Raid 0 configuration, In Raid 0, if one hard drive goes bad, the other(s) do, too.

There is a hardware test accessible in the bios program (tapping the F2 key on start up). The tabs should lead you to there.  It will allow you test the components and motherboard. (I might not be helping at this point).

The fan ramping may be the psu trying to deliver more power; a sign it's getting tired (going out) or the board is requiring more power to sustain minimum current (going out). That, too can spell doom for a hard drive. Low current flow can cause crashes.

I know this doesn't come as good news, you might looking at a new computer. Sorry I couldn't be more help. 

I have Seagates.  No black screens or crashes.  No electricity issues.  I have an external hard drive connected but nothing else major.  As suggested, I guess it could be a motherboard or power supply issue.  I will continue to work on it, but thanks for your help.

Thanks for the practical advice.  I will look into those possibilities.

Hi ABROCADABRO

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. I did look up the Seagate Barracuda models with firmware verson SD 15 which where bad. The Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS (1TB), Barracuda ES.2 SATA HDD and the Maxtor DiamondMax 22. Their support phone number is (800) 732-4283, and you can try discsupport@seagate.com or www.seagate.com/support-140110-b/

Hope this helps