SafeDisc 4.6 screwing up PATA hdds?

[DarkStar782]

Ok, I consider myself a relatively advanced user but this problem has me completely stumped!

My main computer consists of 2*120gb SATA drives on a hardware RAID-0 array for a C: drive, and then a software JBOD array consisting of 1 400gb drive, 1 250gb drive, and 1 200gb drive, totaling 850gb.

This 2nd drive is just used for storage of downloaded stuff etc, and mainly consists of CD images, so performances doesnt really matter, but its usefull to be able to extend the volume, hence JBOD.

The 400gb and the 250gb are on the primary IDE channel, the 200gb is the slave to a Sony DVD-RW drive (like I said I dont care about performance for these drives!) The DVD drive is usually disconnected (power cable) due to starforce etc.

Recently however, I've been having some wierd problems.

When I run some games, for example Need For Speed Most Wanted, Civilisation 4, The Sims 2 Nightlife, for the first 30 mins or so of playing the computer will freeze every minute or so for 5 seconds or so. Once it has stopped doing this, the JBOD array (drive f will have dissapeared from My Computer, and the Disk Management tool will display one of the component drives as missing, (but never the same one twice in a row, leading me to believe its not the drives), and there is no way of getting the drive back other than rebooting.

As I have said, its a different one of the 3 drives that vanishes every time, and it reappears fine after a reboot, and scandisk shows no errors. As soon as the disk vanishes so does the freezing every minute or so.

I'm at a complete loss to explain this. The only thing I can think of is some kind of CP issue. Starforce drivers are on the system, as well as sfcure (tho this isnt running with the games in question that seem to cause it) and SecuROM 7, along with the latest alcohol 120 build and Daemon-Tools v4. However all the games that cause the problem are SafeDisk 4.6 games.

For once, google has been no help whatsoever to me. Its not just one game, it seems to be *any* SafeDisk 4.6 game.

The JBOD array is just done with Windows XP (set them as dynamic disks and span them) so the drives are listed separately as normal IDE devices in device manager.

I used to always mount games straight from the JBOD drive, but since this has been happening I have tried:

a) copying images to the RAID-0 (c drive
b) using mini-images on the c: drive
c) using gamejack to run games without any image.

I'm Stumped :s

[Grumpy]

do these problems happen when running the games from the original discs using no cracks at all?

[DarkStar782]

Hm, I'll try reconnecting the DVD drive and get back to you

[DABhand]

Originally Posted by DarkStar782

This 2nd drive is just used for storage of downloaded stuff etc, and mainly consists of CD images, so performances doesnt really matter, but its usefull to be able to extend the volume, hence JBOD.

Downloaded cd images?

[DarkStar782]

No, downloaded porn mostly :P CD images I have ripped from my disks. (except for a .iso image of my modem drivers which i downloaded from their site, legally :P) If you must know I do also have about 300gb of TV shows I have downloaded in there, but thats a legal gray area due to the fact that I can legally record whatever I want from tv and let my neighbour watch it.

I wasnt asking for help with anything I have downloaded and random accusations dont help.

It was still happening with originals on The Sims 2 Nightlife and NFS:MW so I got bored of testing and reinstalled windows, and it seems to be ok now. I'll keep monitoring it and try and see what program sets it off again as I reinstall stuff.