Solved Drive G: intermittently disappears

[Britton30]

The drive with the active OS on it needs to be plugged into SATA_0 or SATA_1, whichever your board has. They should also be set to AHCI mode in your BIOS.

 

[jumanji]

OK, you must have gone to sleep.

When you wake up, apart from answering the query in my previous post #20, you neeed to give the following information.

1. Please confirm that all the drives shown in your last screenshot (in post#19) are internal drives and there is no external drive connected to any USB port.. ( If you keep connecting external drives and post screenshots with it, I may have to give up in frustration.)

2. Now you have two 4TB drives E and F and three 2TB drives G,H and I. According to your problem posted one 2TB drive was going on and off. Is it still behaving like that or is your problem resolved?

3. If it is still behaving erratically, which one is it? Is it G or H or I?

4. Leave only that problem drive connected, disconnect all other secondary drives - except the system drive - and post a screenshot of Windows Disk Management and also My Computer. ( And again no external drives)

We shall investigate the extra Ghost CDROM drive as we go further.( As for Disk numbering that is not a serious problem and so we shall put it in the backburner till Britton30 comes on it.)

And a final but none the less important query.

Was any of the drive taken out off any external drive casing and connected as an internal drive? If yes which one is it? ( Normally a WD external HDD with Smartware backup software on it can create a virtual CD)

I am also taking a break and see you after you wake up from your deep slumber.

 

[TVeblen]

It is very hard to tell, sxcd1, if you are following the instructions and what you have done. You need to respond to our inquiries with direct answers to get the best help.

I notice you still have not removed the Active flag from Disk 0 - the 2TBWD, Drive (I).

 

[Sxcd1]

OK, I have noted.

Do you have any programs like Daemon Tools, Alcohol and the like which create a virtual CD rom drive?

If so get into the settings and disable creation of virtual CDROM drives.

That was it so all is well at this point. Will see if any problems occur going foward. Thanks for the help and explanations.

 

[jumanji]

That is good to know.

So, I take it that doing a drive clean up and releasing the drive letters and registry entries pertaining to the non-present drives, has resolved the problem of that one drive going intermittent.

I was really perturbed with that one CDROM drive that stole one drive letter that prevented you from assigning sequential drive letters to the internal HDD drives. Knowing fully well that it could come either from a virtual drive software and worse still from a WD external HDD with Smartware ( that cannot by any normal means be done away with) made me anxious. Reason why I was harsh about connecting an external drive while you are in the process of cleanup.

Ok now that you have conceded that it was indeed coming from a virtual drive software, here is how to give it a permanent drive letter.

Enable your virtual CDROM drive.

Mount an ISO on it.

Now go to Disk Management. You can see your Virtual drive with the automatically assigned drive letter.

Change the drive letter to one of the last few alphaphets. ( I had given it the drive letter X with the physical drives given Y and Z as in post #.18. Without anything mounted on it, the VCD will not show up in Windows Disk Management and so you cannot assign a specific drive letter to it.)



If you are plugging in and plugging out innumerable external drives and frequently - which seems to be true in your case - sooner or later you will again get into the problem of some drives not showing up due to drive letter confusion. So perform the drive Clean up periodically to flush out the non-present devices locking the drive letters in the registry.

As for as rearranging the disk numbers like Disk 0 , disk 1 etc.,, I really do not know whether it really matters, though it will look nice that way. I shall as I said earlier leave it to Britton30 to elaborate and guide you on it. ( I am not plain competent )

Whether you should remove the active flags in non-system drives? As I said in post #8, theoretically as long as you are booting right it should be OK. But we always want to remain safe. Isn't it? From a practical standpoint, if you are not a multi OS operator as TVeblen pointed out and know your way, it is safer that you remove it from non-system drives.

If your problems have really been resolved, you may mark this thread as solved that would benefit others.

Have a nice day.

 

[Sxcd1]

Drive G disappeared while using the computer after I installed the USB HDDs and memory card reader. My best guess is it's the Samsung USB 3 drive connected to the Orico PCI card. So I disconnected it and rebooted drive

 

[jumanji]

Ok. Check if after plugging out the SAMSUNG USB3 drive the G drive does not disappear.( Monitor for a long time)

Also check what happens when you connect the Samsung drive to one of the USB2 ports on your computer.

Honestly, I couldn't reason out a connection between the Samsung external drive and one particular WD internal drive out of so many..

EDIT: In view of the unpredictable behaviour of drive G , I would advise that you forthwith backup all contents in it to another drive. If it is not the power cable/data cable or port fault which you can easily check by interchanging, some component in the G drive may be failing intermittently now, but can fail totally anytime. That's what I can intuitively reason.

 

[Sxcd1]

I did run the WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics on Drive G: short and long and it passed.

 

[jumanji]

OK. Now do this:

In the current positions, determine from Windows Disk Management which drive disappears when the Samsung USB 3 external drive is connected to the add-on card port. Is it 2TBWD2 or WD 1Gig SAT? (both are 2TB non-active drives)

Interchange 2TBWD2 and WD 1Gig SAT. Connect your Samsung External to USB3 port on the add-on card as before. Now determine from Windows Disk Management which drive disappears. Is it 2TBWD2 or WD 1Gig SAT?

If it is the same drive label that disappears, back it up ASAP.

I am retiring for the day.

 

[zap9x]

.... i suggest u should take the whole PC to a WD reseller or retailer or where u bought the HDD to test for any problems

 

[Sxcd1]

OK. Now do this:

In the current positions, determine from Windows Disk Management which drive disappears when the Samsung USB 3 external drive is connected to the add-on card port. Is it 2TBWD2 or WD 1Gig SAT? (both are 2TB non-active drives)

Interchange 2TBWD2 and WD 1Gig SAT. Connect your Samsung External to USB3 port on the add-on card as before. Now determine from Windows Disk Management which drive disappears. Is it 2TBWD2 or WD 1Gig SAT?

If it is the same drive label that disappears, back it up ASAP.

I am retiring for the day.

First off I guess reading emails sent to my phone when someone replies has caused me to miss multiple posts to the thread. I apologize to everyone who is posting here.

1) I removed the active flag on Drive I: (old drive U: before reordering drive letters), I didn't realize that there was another drive other than the old Win 7 (used to be L that had an active flag which I removed from the computer.
2) Bios has been in AHCI mode all along
3) The drive in question has been G: WD1GIGSAT now on disk 2
4) I have not had a problem with G: disappearing since unplugging my Samsung ext HDD on PCI USB 3.0 card
5) The reason the my SSD Boot drive is not on SATA_0 is because it's on GSATA3_6/7 (SATA 6Gb/s Connectors, Controlled by Marvell 9128). The other SATA controllers are 3Gb/s connectors. I don't know if it matters.
6) Drive G: is already backed up.
7) Should I just let the system run with the ext drives connected to see if any drives disappear as maybe removing the active flag from drive I: fixed the problem?

 

[TVeblen]

I would say yes. Pay close attention to cause and effect - I do this and then that happens (or doesn't happen). And keep copious notes.

"I have not had a problem with G: disappearing since unplugging my Samsung ext HDD on PCI USB 3.0 card"
I suspect that the problem may lie with this add on card. But you will need to pay close attention to whether the problem occurs before you access this card again.

"The reason the my SSD Boot drive is not on SATA_0 is because it's on GSATA3_6/7 (SATA 6Gb/s Connectors, Controlled by Marvell 9128). The other SATA controllers are 3Gb/s connectors. I don't know if it matters."
Yes it does. It explains why the drive will not show up as Disk 0. The native SATA ports will always be Disks 0-5, the add on Marvel controller will always be Disks 6 & 7.

 

[Sxcd1]

Will I have a speed decrease if I switch it to a SATA 3Gb/s connector? If you think I should switch it to SATA_0 could you explain why. Thanks

 

[TVeblen]

Yes, your transfer speed for the SSD will decrease on SATA 3Gb from SATA 6Gb.
No, I don't think it is important what port the SSD is on. I would keep it on the 6Gb port unless some problem came up with booting. Since it boots fine - no problem.

The SATA specification requires that all SATA ports are recognized equally by the system. The system scans all ports looking for an Active partition and will execute the boot files it finds there.
This is unlike the old IDE system where the location of the drive on the interface was paramount.

A case can be made that a drive connected to port 0 will boot faster than a drive connected to port 5, and faster still than being connected to a secondary SATA controller, because the system scans the ports in order, but we are talking milliseconds of difference here. Technically correct but practically insignificant.

According to the SATA specification it should make no difference which port the boot drive is connected to.

 

[jumanji]

Sxcd1,

You are in good knowledgeable hands. I shall stay on the sidelines now and learn something from TV.

 

[Britton30]

Dang, I can't remember why the C drive should be disk 0, but I think the main reason is the OS looks at disk 0 first for a boot manager. Also that should be one of the 2-4 SATA headers using the native SATA controller, which is faster. That is a SATA III Intel port will run faster than a SATAIII Marvell or Amedia port.

 

[essenbe]

Britton30 is correct on all counts. Sata Port 0 is always the native Sata controller and will usually give better speeds than add on controllers. It is pretty much a well know fact that Marvel ports have issues with SSDs. Most motherboard manuals I have read (yes I do read those things, well most of them) State to connect your boot drive to port 0-3 for better performance. I don't know this for a fact, but I have been told that Windows prefers to boot from port 0. So, I always put my OS drive on Port 0. It helps keep things straight, especially when you have several drives of the same make and model.

 

[TVeblen]

Well it is always possible that I have misinterpreted the articles that I have read and would welcome any technical (non-anecdotal) info to correct any misinformation.

I still hold that every SATA port operates at the same (design standard) speed - 3Gb/sec-6Gb/sec. The difference and possible problem would only be in the speed of recognition or in being recognized at all.

As always when dealing with PC systems is that many of the problems we see are system dependent. Not all motherboards are created equal. So there is always a risk in applying general rules to specific systems.

The OP's question is if it is better to run the SSD on the 6Gb Marvel controller or on the 3Gb Intel controller.

I say that he will get better performance (speed) from the SSD on the 6Gb controller.
If the system does not have any problems booting the SSD from the Marvel controller then that is the best configuration for this system. This may not be true for someone else's system.

Of course if Drive G is disappearing whenever the SSD is on the Marvel controller then that is an "any problem" and changes everything.

One note for y'all: I did read once that the Marvel controller "does not pass on the TRIM commands".
Now this was an anecdote stated by one person in a forum. I tried to find confirmation of this from any reputable source but was unsuccessful. So that was mentally filed under possible but not probable. But that would be an important issue if anyone has any proof.

 

[TVeblen]

Some info on the subject of Windows and SATA drive order for anyone interested:
Disk drive numbers may not correspond to the SATA channel numbers when you install Windows on a computer that has multiple SATA or RAID disks

 

[jumanji]

Yes TV, in one of the earlier posts I had mentioned that I had seen the issue being raised by Britton30 in an old thread and this is that thread. http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/195718-os-disk-not-disk-0-a.html

When I went through that thread, may be a fortnight ago, I had also gone through the Microsoft Support thread which was referenced therein and brought out here again by you.

However, my memory being what it is I did not want to deal with it. I always forget what does not interest me.