Hard Drive Disappears?

N

nanco

Geek Trainee
Recently I added a third HDD to my PC. I have one HDD with my OS and programs on, another with various media on it, and this latest one that I use for audio.

I have the OS HDD running off IDE 1 master and the audio HDD (the one I am having trouble with) running off IDE 1 slave. The other media HDD is SATA.

I have no warning messages or anything when this happens, but quite simply the HDD disappears from My Computer. I have a shortcut to it elsewhere which also tells me that the drive/network connection is unavailable.

I then check Device Manager (still no HDD), but scan HDD's for hardware changes. I am presented with a blue screen of death shortly after. However, upon reboot the HDD is back! (If I reboot without checking for hardware changes, it fails to appear).

This has happened twice now, but I have no idea why.

What could be causing this? If it happens again, I'll check to see if the HDD is read in POST.
 
Hard Drive Disappears???

nanco said:
This has happened twice now, but I have no idea why.
Click to expand...

i think you need to install the SATA drivers, if SATA controller is integrated into mobo, you'll need to download drivers from your mobo manufacturers website
 
Hard Drive Disappears???

donkey42 said:
i think you need to install the SATA drivers, if SATA controller is integrated into mobo, you'll need to download drivers from your mobo manufacturers website
Click to expand...

But theres nothing wrong with my SATA HDD, its the IDE HDD that I set as slave to my OS boot HDD that I am having trouble with.
 
Hard Drive Disappears???

nanco said:
But theres nothing wrong with my SATA HDD, its the IDE HDD that I set as slave to my OS boot HDD that I am having trouble with.
Click to expand...
sorry, have you tried
  • different IDE cable
  • adjusting HDD power connector (molex)
  • setting master and slave as C/SEL (cable select)
  • disconnecting & reconnecting HDD
thats all i can think of (off the top of my head)
 
Hard Drive Disappears???

I'll try those next time it disappears, but right now its working fine. I'm not too sure what causes it to disappear from My Computer/Device Manager though (its happened twice in the past couple of days). I've had this HDD installed for a few weeks now and have not encountered any problems up until now.

The data is intact though, so I doubt there are any problems with the actual drive.
 
Hard Drive Disappears???

nanco said:
I'll try those next time it disappears, but right now its working fine. I'm not too sure what causes it to disappear from My Computer/Device Manager though (its happened twice in the past couple of days). I've had this HDD installed for a few weeks now and have not encountered any problems up until now.

The data is intact though, so I doubt there are any problems with the actual drive.
Click to expand...
could be an intermitant problem with the IDE cable, possibly get one as a spare, if you dont have one
 
This is the third time it has happened now:

Upon rebooting my PC, the HDD appeared in POST. When Windows loaded, I checked in My Computer and Device Manager and it wasnt there.

Once again, I went into Device Manager, highlighted IDE Controllers, then clicked Check For Hardware Changes. I got the blue screen of death again with the following problem shown on the picture below. Upon reboot, the HDD was still not there in Windows (but still showed up in POST).

BSOD.jpg


I'm puzzled. My other two HDD's are fine!
 
well you've got a good problem there, boot download antivirus & spyware then reboot to safe mode run AV & spyware and run scandisk, reboot and you HDD should be detected by XP, failing that post event viewer results here

Edit::doh: [ot]results of event viewer:doh:, i meant contents of event viewer[/ot]:doh:
 
If your compuer starts again then go to Run and type chkdsk c:/(Type what ever drive is going bad) and see if you get errors...
 
Karanislove said:
If your compuer starts again then go to Run and type chkdsk c:/(Type what ever drive is going bad) and see if you get errors...
Click to expand...

There are no errors at all when the drive appears in Windows. When the drive isnt there, chkdsk doesnt run (it simply flashes on and off for about a second).

Regardless of whether it appears in Windows or not, it always appears at POST.

Do you think perhaps a format and reinstall of Windows might help? It seems to be something software related as opposed to hardware.
 
nanco said:
Do you think perhaps a format and reinstall of Windows might help?
Click to expand...
well that would have being how i would have fixed it (before coming to HWF) but i didn't know much then, compared to some guys on HWF (i still know very little)
 
thoonie said:
Have you tried changing the power connector?
Click to expand...

To be honest, I havent yet. Next time I get chance, I'll see if swapping power connectors around helps.

Then again, would it be read in BIOS or at POST with no power going to it at all?
 
This just keeps getting better!

I am now prompted by Windows to format this drive when I try to access it. After about a week of it disappearing and reappearing, it now seems that all the data I had on it has been lost (no biggie, its all backed up anyway).

I've not chosen to format it, but have it disabled for the time being. The next time I get chance to open up my PC case, I'll just take the thing out. After all, it is quite an old HDD (it has been in my first proper PC that I bought back in 1999).

Is this a basic symptom of a dying HDD? My other HDD's are still working flawlessly.
 
....Then again, I turned my PC on this morning and all the data is intact (?)

What is going on here? After all these years of being used in my other system, is this HDD finally faulty?

Could anyone please help me out here, perhaps give me a list/link of faulty drive symptoms. Cheers!
 
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