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Windows 7: Hard drive disappears randomly
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26 Nov 2009
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#1 | |
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Hard drive disappears randomly
I have an IDE hard drive as my secondary drive used for backups or misc files. I also have an external. But for some reaosn on Windows 7 x64 the IDE (labelled as D  randomly vanishes. BIOS sees it fine allt he time. Any ideas or suggestions aside from replacing it as it is still good. | My System Specs |
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26 Nov 2009
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#2 | |
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If it vanishes mysteriously, chances are it's not still good. | | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number self built
OS 7600.20510 x86
CPU P4 550 3.4 GHz HT running at 3.5 GHz
Motherboard MSI PM8M3-V (MS-7211 v1.x) Micro-ATX mainboard
Memory OCZ 2 GB(2x1GB) DDR400mHz running @ 414 mHz
Graphics Card HIS Radeon HD 3850 IceQ 3 Turbo HDMI Dual DL-DVI AGP
Sound Card MOTU Traveler firewire studio interface 192 kHz 24 bit
Monitor(s) Displays 22" widescreen Acer X223W LCD, 17" Compaq P75 CRT
Screen Resolution 1680x1050 and 1280x1024
Keyboard Logitch Classical Keyboard 200
Mouse Logitech Mediaplay cordless
PSU 350W generic
Case Cybertronpc, it glows blue
Cooling stock cpu fan, Ice-Q 3 gpu and system, many case fans
Hard Drives SATA I x2 WD, 400 GB and 120 GB, SATA 2 WD Caviar Black 1 TB
Internet Speed 1792/448 kbits/sec
Other Info SATA II PCI fake RAID adapter, 1 GB Readyboost, original ATI Remote Wonder (even works with WMC perfectly), Logitech Rumblepad 2 game controller x2
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26 Nov 2009
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#3 | |
W7 x64 3rd Rock from the Sun |
OP, in (control panel) advanced power settings disable hard drive sleep, or increase the delay. This is almost certainly the cause of what you're experiencing - I doubt there's anything at all wrong with your drive...  | | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number Custom built machine
OS W7 x64
CPU Intel Q9300 2.5Ghz Quad LGA775 (Would like Q9650)
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-EP45T-UD3R (F6 Bios)
Memory 4Gb OCZ Gold 1,333Mhz
Graphics Card Palit HD4850 O/C Sonic 512Mb DDR3, Dual DViD's
Sound Card Azalia to twin Samson 50w Studio Monitors
Monitor(s) Displays Twin Dell (E-IPS) U2311H 23.6" Screens
Screen Resolution 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz
Keyboard Cherry PS/2 custom model
Mouse Lenovo USB laser "Thinkpad" Mouse
PSU OCZ 600w
Case Lian-Li PC8 acoustifoamed' aluminium tower
Cooling Scythe 140mm Zipang
Hard Drives Crucial M4 SSD, archives on twin Western Digital Caviar Black WD2002FAEX, 2TB, 7200rpm HDD's, Samsung Ritemaster CD/DVD Burner...
Internet Speed ADSL2+ @14Mbps downstream & Cat6 Gigabit Ethernet
Antivirus NOD32
Browser Opera
Other Info Silicon Dust HD Homerun Dual FTA (Ethernet) TV Tuners, Dray Tek Vigor 2850Vn router and 8x HP Gigabit Switch. Lian-Li CR26 Card Reader, Canon MF4430 iSensys laser printer/scanner.
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26 Nov 2009
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#4 | |
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Does just placing 0 int he minutes box effectivly disable hard drive sleep? | | My System Specs | | |
26 Nov 2009
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#5 | |
Windows 7 Ultimate x86-64 |
Is it connected properly to the controller, and any other IDE devices? I'd replace it with SATA II or SATA III (unlikely unless you have a new motherboard) drive and cable. | | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number Sony Vaio Z46GDU
OS Windows 7 Ultimate x86-64
CPU P9700@2.8GHz 1066MHz FSB
Motherboard Sony branded
Memory 6GB DDR3 1066MHz
Graphics Card 9300M GS 256MB Dedicated (Speed) + Intel4500MHD (Stamina)
Sound Card Realtek HD Audio
Monitor(s) Displays 13.1' WXGA
Screen Resolution 1600x900
Hard Drives 320GB 7200RPM w/ 16MB cache
Internet Speed 1MB/s
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26 Nov 2009
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#6 | |
W7 x64 3rd Rock from the Sun |
I just entered a very large number, eg: 999 minutes... working on the basis this represents the time since the last disk read operation it doesn't mean the drive will spin down to dormant after 999 minutes - but will only spin down that long after it was last accessed.
Sure, try zero. That may very well keep it permanently spinning, I just used a large sum because it covered my day to day requirements.
This setting should make no difference to whether the drive is IDE or SATA. | | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number Custom built machine
OS W7 x64
CPU Intel Q9300 2.5Ghz Quad LGA775 (Would like Q9650)
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-EP45T-UD3R (F6 Bios)
Memory 4Gb OCZ Gold 1,333Mhz
Graphics Card Palit HD4850 O/C Sonic 512Mb DDR3, Dual DViD's
Sound Card Azalia to twin Samson 50w Studio Monitors
Monitor(s) Displays Twin Dell (E-IPS) U2311H 23.6" Screens
Screen Resolution 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz
Keyboard Cherry PS/2 custom model
Mouse Lenovo USB laser "Thinkpad" Mouse
PSU OCZ 600w
Case Lian-Li PC8 acoustifoamed' aluminium tower
Cooling Scythe 140mm Zipang
Hard Drives Crucial M4 SSD, archives on twin Western Digital Caviar Black WD2002FAEX, 2TB, 7200rpm HDD's, Samsung Ritemaster CD/DVD Burner...
Internet Speed ADSL2+ @14Mbps downstream & Cat6 Gigabit Ethernet
Antivirus NOD32
Browser Opera
Other Info Silicon Dust HD Homerun Dual FTA (Ethernet) TV Tuners, Dray Tek Vigor 2850Vn router and 8x HP Gigabit Switch. Lian-Li CR26 Card Reader, Canon MF4430 iSensys laser printer/scanner.
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14 Oct 2010
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#7 | |
Linux, Windows 7, Windows XP, Solaris, UNIX |
Quote: Originally Posted by Qdos  OP, in (control panel) advanced power settings disable hard drive sleep, or increase the delay. This is almost certainly the cause of what you're experiencing - I doubt there's anything at all wrong with your drive... Well, what if you WANT it to sleep to save power/extend the drive's life. Then how do you force it to be seen in the "Disk Management" CP applet?
Usually my drives are there, and they wakeup when I access them. But sometimes they disappear entirely and I won't see them again unless I reboot.
Obviously, this is extremely frustrating - I don't understand why Action -> Rescan Disks doesn't find them??? | | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number I make my own PCs
OS Linux, Windows 7, Windows XP, Solaris, UNIX
CPU Core 2 Duo
Motherboard Gigabyte
Memory 2 - 4 GB typically, DDR2
Graphics Card ATi 4670 (Had more pwrful one, prefer this quiet & cool)
Sound Card SoundBlaster Audigy 4, mAudio various, and integrated
Monitor(s) Displays 2x Sceptre 20" widescreen
PSU Antec Earthwatts Active PFC 700, various other ones...
Case Antec 300
Cooling Various quiet fans such as Vantec "Stealth"
Hard Drives 3x Seagate 1.5TB, 3x Seagate 500GB, WD Raptor, various smaller old Seagate drives. Used to have a bunch of WD drives, but so many failed - they are garbage (except for the Raptor, which seems solid).
Hard drive disappears randomly problems? All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:55 AM. |  |
Secondary Hard Drive Disappears 
