Strange Intermittent reassignment of Hardrives

Hello,
Using W7 Ultimate 64-bit. This has happened in the past, stopped or was not noticed until yesterday. I have as physical Disk 0 a 500 GB WD. As Disk 1 I have a 1 TB WD. Initially I noted that with Windows Backup that the restore did not work because the drives became reassigned. Computer booted but couldn't find the file as the drives were swapped. Yesterday I was running Paragon to do system image and I noticed it again. The D0 became D1 and D1 became D0.
As I am afraid that this will cause me not to be able to restore from my last Paragon Backup, what should I do? What area is causing the problem? The OS, the Backup program? The Bios when ever I look shows the correct order.
Any assistance is appreciated.
glennc

Check all the cables.

Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
HD Diagnostic

Hello theog,
Does this count? I downloaded from the WD site the WinDlg.zip and ran the WinDlg.exe. Both drives show that they passed the SMART test and I ran a quick test on the 2nd drive and it passed again. But to my confusion it identified the drives as:



I built the computer and put the 500 GB SATA cable into the motherboard disk 0. Later when I added the 1000 GB drive I plugged into the next socket marked disk 1.
What next oh learned Sir?
glennc

Can you post a screen shot Disk management?

theog said:

Can you post a screen shot Disk management?

theog,
I'm not exactly sure what you want a picture of. I put these up till you can be more simple :).
This is self-evident



This is a list of Paragon Full Disk Backups- system area, MBR, data, all the same of the 500 GB drive to my 1000 GB drive, which is partitioned into to partitions. Notice that the Source Object (Basic Hard Drive Number changes) intermittently. I have done no repartitioning or adding any harddrives. It just changes apparently by it's own will.




I'll will attempt to supply you with any info that is explained how to (sorry) that I can. Thanks quite a lot!
glennc

He's asking for a screen shot from windows disk management using your snipping tool.

Disk 0, 1 ... is a Windows assignment
Sata port 0, 1, ... is a physical assignment
There is a one to one relationship and generally it is sata 0 to disk 0 etc. But not always - see here

The disk drive numbers may not correspond as expected to the SATA channel numbers when you set up Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows 7 on a computer that has multiple SATA or RAID disks

After installation this relationship tends to be fixed.

When you boot from windows (eg. a rescue disk), drives letters can be anything since the boot disk doesn't know what your prior assignment with windows was.

I don't use Paragon but if you forget about prior assignments can you browse and find your images? If you can you haven't got a problem.

mjf said:

He's asking for a screen shot from windows disk management using your snipping tool.

Disk 0, 1 ... is a Windows assignment
Sata port 0, 1, ... is a physical assignment
There is a one to one relationship and generally it is sata 0 to disk 0 etc. But not always - see here

The disk drive numbers may not correspond as expected to the SATA channel numbers when you set up Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows 7 on a computer that has multiple SATA or RAID disks

After installation this relationship tends to be fixed.

When you boot from windows (eg. a rescue disk), drives letters can be anything since the boot disk doesn't know what your prior assignment with windows was.

I don't use Paragon but if you forget about prior assignments can you browse and find your images? If you can you haven't got a problem.

Howdy mjf,
Thanks for your assistance. I read the link to the MS Page. Does that mean it may change anytime at all or that only certain events may or may not cause it to change. I started out using MS Backup for System Image. When I went to restore from the image using the Windows restore CD the drives became changed and MS Backup couldn't find the image file as it wasn't on the same drive anymore. I know which drive is which, but it seems, unless I am missing something, that this is a stupid thing to have happen in W7. To restore a system image which from experience of trying system restore points that didn't work properly and trying to repair W7 from the Repair Disk which also didn't work, it is the only way I know how to make sure to get back to an already tested and updated, safe place!!
I immediately started using Macrium Free and it happened with that program, but I could manage to get it running. I tried and purchased Paragon which I thought would be more complete and reliable and had the ability to do intermittent backups. Know as you see in the Paragon Snippet, that the drive letter changes several times in the different backups. I also figured out how to get to the disk management page, so below is a view.
Does this mean I am stuck with this IMO vagrant behaviour forever? Thanks again for your help!!



glennc

glennc said:

Hello,
Using W7 Ultimate 64-bit. This has happened in the past, stopped or was not noticed until yesterday. I have as physical Disk 0 a 500 GB WD. As Disk 1 I have a 1 TB WD. Initially I noted that with Windows Backup that the restore did not work because the drives became reassigned. Computer booted but couldn't find the file as the drives were swapped. Yesterday I was running Paragon to do system image and I noticed it again. The D0 became D1 and D1 became D0.
As I am afraid that this will cause me not to be able to restore from my last Paragon Backup, what should I do? What area is causing the problem? The OS, the Backup program? The Bios when ever I look shows the correct order.
Any assistance is appreciated.
glennc

1) Your physical Disk 0 is a 1 TB WD.
2) Your physical Disk 1 is a 500 GB WD.

This can only change, if you have change the cables round.

It's a windows bug.

Very rare.

The solution is to use backup software that can cope with it.

Paragon make excellent products , but as far as I know - they don't deal with this issue automatically.

However, you should be able to select the restore target manually with Paragon.

If you use windows system image GUI - you are out of luck ( as you found out )

I think Macrium is the only one that deals with it automatically.

theog said:

glennc said:

Hello,
Using W7 Ultimate 64-bit. This has happened in the past, stopped or was not noticed until yesterday. I have as physical Disk 0 a 500 GB WD. As Disk 1 I have a 1 TB WD. Initially I noted that with Windows Backup that the restore did not work because the drives became reassigned. Computer booted but couldn't find the file as the drives were swapped. Yesterday I was running Paragon to do system image and I noticed it again. The D0 became D1 and D1 became D0.
As I am afraid that this will cause me not to be able to restore from my last Paragon Backup, what should I do? What area is causing the problem? The OS, the Backup program? The Bios when ever I look shows the correct order.
Any assistance is appreciated.
glennc

1) Your physical Disk 0 is a 1 TB WD.
2) Your physical Disk 1 is a 500 GB WD.

This can only change, if you have change the cables round.

Hey theog,
My physical disk is the 500 GB WD. It was installed as the only drive and plugged into SATA 0. Later I bought the 1 TB WD and installed it in the next available SATA port which was 1. Sometimes it shows up correct and sometimes it doesn't.
Pain in the posterior. Oh well....... Thanks Sir
glennc