# Sata HDD disappears?



## Gilletter (Apr 20, 2011)

Hi all I'm having a problem with one of my SATA HDD disappearing at random times. I've already changed out the cable thinking that might be the problem, but it's doing the same thing with the new cable. Has anyone experienced this before, or does anyone have a clue on how to stop it from happening?


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## scaminatrix (Apr 20, 2011)

Hmmm... maybe a power-saving feature in Windows is causing it...
Is it definitely at random times, or could it be happening a certain amount of time after the rig's turned on?
What software have you got installed on your rig? Any 3rd party power-saving/HDD tools?


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## micropage7 (Apr 20, 2011)

sata or e-sata?
first check the sata power, does it run well?
what about change it, i mean plug it on other sata port, does it work?


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## cheesy999 (Apr 20, 2011)

Gilletter said:


> Hi all I'm having a problem with one of my SATA HDD disappearing at random times. I've already changed out the cable thinking that might be the problem, but it's doing the same thing with the new cable. Has anyone experienced this before, or does anyone have a clue on how to stop it from happening?



i got this on a old mobo where the gfx card rested on top of the sata port, the cable eventually twisted and started to fall apart, so it may well be your cable - it wouldn't hurt to try another one their about £1 each adn their given away free with most mobo's and hard drives

swap the cables over to another drive and see if the hard drive that fades away is a diffrent one


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## lilhasselhoffer (Apr 20, 2011)

I second Scaminatrix.  There is a well known problem with windows putting larger hard drives to sleep, then not being able to wake them up.

Microsoft has released a patch, assuming you want to e-mail them and ask for it.  I am at work, but I will try to post a link to the download later tonight.  I ran through a similar problem with a 2 tb hard drive, and that was the only thing that fixed the issue.


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## Gilletter (Apr 21, 2011)

scaminatrix said:


> Hmmm... maybe a power-saving feature in Windows is causing it...
> Is it definitely at random times, or could it be happening a certain amount of time after the rig's turned on?
> What software have you got installed on your rig? Any 3rd party power-saving/HDD tools?



as far as 3rd party - nothing... It just started happening over hte last 2-3 weeks. Nothing has changed, it just started doing it all on its own...



micropage7 said:


> sata or e-sata?
> first check the sata power, does it run well?
> what about change it, i mean plug it on other sata port, does it work?



sata, sata cable is new (tried that first)



cheesy999 said:


> i got this on a old mobo where the gfx card rested on top of the sata port, the cable eventually twisted and started to fall apart, so it may well be your cable - it wouldn't hurt to try another one their about £1 each adn their given away free with most mobo's and hard drives
> 
> swap the cables over to another drive and see if the hard drive that fades away is a diffrent one



see above



lilhasselhoffer said:


> I second Scaminatrix.  There is a well known problem with windows putting larger hard drives to sleep, then not being able to wake them up.
> 
> Microsoft has released a patch, assuming you want to e-mail them and ask for it.  I am at work, but I will try to post a link to the download later tonight.  I ran through a similar problem with a 2 tb hard drive, and that was the only thing that fixed the issue.



Well my 1tb hd doesn't go to "sleep" it's a 250 gb hd that is doing it... I would appreciate the link, that might help out... but not sure, I do have 2 sata hdd and 1 sata dvd drive and the only thing that disappears is the 250gb hd...


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## scaminatrix (Apr 21, 2011)

And the only thing that gets it back is restarting the PC?


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## Gilletter (Apr 23, 2011)

yeah restart and it comes back


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## scaminatrix (Apr 23, 2011)

Then I'd say to check your Event Logs. Windows should show something in there.

Also, install CrystalDiskInfo and then monitor the temps. Could be overheating or something similar, so see what CrystalDiskInfo says about the state of your HDD. 
I just had a problem with my backup drive: Every time I tried to copy over one certain file, Windows would freeze and I had to force a restart. Tried copying it over with Mini-XP, same thing. All other files were fine, it was just this one file. It had bad sector/s, I cleaned them and now all is well.
Maybe there's a bad sector on your drive, and it's causing your problem when it's indexing itself? That might be why it happens at random times. There's a chance that if Windows tries to index a file that's in a bad sector, it may cause the drive to dismount. I'm not 100% sure, as I'm just a theorist  But yea, IMO CrystalDiskInfo is your first port of call.


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## Gilletter (May 9, 2011)

nothing I see in event logs points to why the disk would demount.... I've tried different cables, different port... still randomly doing it... disks are set to never sleep as well... any other ideas? The disk also shows everything ok in SMART and through crystaldiskinfo...


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## Widjaja (May 9, 2011)

Try it as a slave in another computer if you have one.
Keep it running, see if it cuts out, then you are certain despite there being no signs of hardware failure in whatever program you are using, that there is something wrong with the drive itself.


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## adanecito (Sep 4, 2014)

Gilletter said:


> Hi all I'm having a problem with one of my SATA HDD disappearing at random times. I've already changed out the cable thinking that might be the problem, but it's doing the same thing with the new cable. Has anyone experienced this before, or does anyone have a clue on how to stop it from happening?



Did you resolve this? If so how did you solve it? I am having the same problem.
Thanks!


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## FreedomEclipse (Sep 4, 2014)

adanecito said:


> Did you resolve this? If so how did you solve it? I am having the same problem.
> Thanks!



make sure that you have the most upto date bios & drivers for your board otherwise just straight out replace the drive with a new one. I had a samsung drive do the same thing to me a few years back and the only option was to replace it.


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