Drive keeps disappearing

WantoN · 12 Feb 2019 at 02:17

I have a strange issue where my documents drive (D: ) has disappeared, twice now.

Originally I assumed it was a dodgy sata cable, so I disconnected a less useful drive (my music library T: ) and connected the sata cable from that to my D: drive. Drive re-appeared, all was well.

When I was in the case weeks later I connected the loose cable to the music drive just to check; it worked. All drives showed up correctly for several weeks with no issue.

Today, D: disappeared again. I know it’s not the cable, as I’ve swapped it. I don’t think it’s the power cable as some other drives are on the daisy chain and it’s only D: that has dissapeared.

So, specs and setup are:

Drives

C: System - 500gb m.2 SSD on Mobo
D: Documents - 500gb 2.5” SSD Sata
E: Media & Backups - 5tb 2.5” Sata
G: Games - 1tb Nvme m2 on PCI-e card
I: Music - 256gb SSD Sata
A: Archive - 5tb External Drive

System

ASUS Maximus X Formula
8700K @ 4.7Ghz
16gb DDR4 Predator 3600Mhz
GTX1080 G1 2140Mhz(ish)
Corsair Hx800i PSU
Aquatuning M.2 SSD Adapter
7x USB 3.0 PCI Expansion Card
Meshify C
Custom Loop

So I’m stuck really. Not sure what to test or what the issue could be. If it was PCI-E allocation surely the drive would never show. If it was power delivery surely the other drives should show problems?

Is the SSD on its way out? It’s the oldest one I have, though I remember doing a health check on it a while back and it came back as ‘good’.

Swapping around sata ports is a massive pain as the case is cramped and the res is mounted directly in front of the ports.

Really need some help on this one.

Vexr · 12 Feb 2019 at 04:54

Does restarting the PC cause it to show up again?

I have a 4TB mechanical HDD that used to disappear intermittently. Rebooting tended to make it show up again.

I note that since moving from an AM3+ mobo to an AM4 one, I've noticed it's stopped doing its disappearing act (still using the same SATA cable/power cable).

WantoN · 12 Feb 2019 at 18:31

Vexr said:
Does restarting the PC cause it to show up again?

I have a 4TB mechanical HDD that used to disappear intermittently. Rebooting tended to make it show up again.

I note that since moving from an AM3+ mobo to an AM4 one, I've noticed it's stopped doing its disappearing act (still using the same SATA cable/power cable).

Thanks for replying mate. No, multiple reboots doesn’t help.

Phil87 · 12 Feb 2019 at 19:21

I had a similar problem with an old hard drive that I just replaced. After putting the new one in and connecting the old one outside the case using a SATA extension it worked at first, then I wanted to move it back in the case while transfering all the files over, but after doing that the old drive stopped appearing on the post screen and caused Windows to get stuck while booting up.

The fix was to connect the old drive with a SATA to USB adapter and that allowed me to transfer all the files over. Maybe that's worth a try if you're thinking of replacing the old drive.

WantoN · 13 Feb 2019 at 23:30

Thankfully I’ve got a robust backup scheme, fingers crossed I won’t actually lose anything.

The drive is visible again after several restarts. I think it’s either my motherboard or vibrations from the DDC affecting an already dodgy connection (never again!).

It’s frustrating as it’s completely unpredictable and the drive holds all my libraries; documents, desktop, local saves etc. I end up having to browse backup repositories for any documents I need, and I lose all my taskbar shortcuts and the quick access folders on my desktop.

Troubleshooting To Do:

Clone to a spare to disprove a faulty drive
Try a separate power cable
Maybe try a bios update (I’d rather not)
Check SATA port connections
Replace appropriate SATA cables

The last two I’ll have to do when I get round to swapping in the D5.

If I can’t resolve it I may end up pulling the whole loop out, fitting a stock cooler and running my 980 until I fix the issue. (Sod putting the stock cooler back on the 1080).

I’ll keep an eye out and update the thread accordingly; if I do find the solution I’ll post it, in case it helps someone else.

If anyone has any suggestions I really would appreciate any input.