Solved HDD LED on front of PC always on after 2nd drive disappears?

[ProbleMatic]

So, I'll be using my pc like normal, and randomly my 2nd HDD will just drop off, and I'm not sure why. When it does, my PC's HDD LED is always on... I don't get it. I don't think the hard drive is bad nor do I think the cables are bad, what should I do? Should I try a cable switch? Should I clean the connections? I'm lost. I ran a HDD diagnostic and the test passed recently. This is what the HDD activity light looks like:



It just stays always on like I said. If I reboot that solves the problem, but that's only a temporary fix.
The drive is Western Digital 1TB Caviar Green drive, and the model is wdc_wd10eads-00m2b0. I've had the drive for quite awhile, and it hasn't really given me any problems until recently.

Setting 'turn off the hard drives after' setting in power options to 'Never' doesn't solve the problem either.

 

[Indianatone]

Download Download Hard Disk Sentinel Post a screen shot of the findings. This can be the sata cables, the sata socket on the motherboard or even the hard drive.

 

[ProbleMatic]

Downloaded the trial version, will reboot and then scan, then will post an update with a screenshot.

 

[ProbleMatic]

Well.. it's displaying good hdd health, except for this:



My main drive isn't displaying any sort of message like that.

Also I did some cable switching after shut down, and then booted back up once I switched.

 

[ProbleMatic]

Ran a random seek test, it appears that it's ok. Here's a snip of that:

 

[ProbleMatic]

The 2378 number has not gone up. Also it appears the total start/stop count on my main drive is less than the bigger one. The main drive only has a start/stop count of 192 while the problem drive had a 5,060 count. Does that mean anything?

Main drive:


Problem one:


Here's a screenshot of the S.M.A.R.T tab of the problem drive:

 

[AddRAM]

Make sure you have hard drive set to never sleep in the power options, yes it matters.

I use HDS and I got that exact message on 1 of my 1 TB drives, guess what, that hard drive has been in a cardboard box for over a year, no longer used

Hard Disk Sentinal is a good program.

1 TB drives are cheap, just replace it.

 

[ProbleMatic]

It is set to never sleep in power options. Also AddRam, what 1TB drive would you recommend if I were to replace it? I mean I guess I could but I'd have to transfer the data over to the new drive if that's the case, and there's a lot of data to transfer over.

 

[GokAy]

For what purpose you want the new drive?
Backup - WD Green
Speed/Silence - WD Blue
Long Warranty/Speed - WD Black

SSD would be best but I guess you need the space for data?

 

[AddRAM]

Well, you don`t want to loose your data do you ?

I recommend a Seagate Barracuda or a Western Digital Blue for storage.

 

[ProbleMatic]

Nope I don't. Also hdd type isn't important as long as I know there won't be any issues, I guess I could always go green again, or blue, since you said blue has speed. I'm computer savvy, but when it comes to hardware I don't know a whole lot.

 

[ProbleMatic]

Did a quick error scan, it's all green:



I dunno. Used HD Tune.

 

[jumanji]

It could be some dirty data on your drive that is responsible for this, I would guess.

Backup all data to another drive. Zero wipe the problem disk with HDD Lowlevel Format tool HDDGURU: HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool(Download Windows Executable (works without installation): version 4.4 ) and then format your drive. Check whether your problem is resolved.

( You can zero wipe with diskpart cleanall too but exercise care that you don't perform it on a wrong drive - most people do and then come here saying I accidentally did it on a wrong drive and lost all my data. Help . Remove all other external drives to avoid such accidents.)

 

[ProbleMatic]

Ok jumanji. Well, so far, after switching the cables around, my 2nd disk has been fine thus far, haven't had the 2nd hdd drop out yet. I'll keep that in mind though in the event that this happens again.

 

[Indianatone]

If you have any doubt get another SATA cable and throw away the cable that was between the drive and motherboard. It can be be the hard drive also that is just going to sleep when it is not supposed too. Cheapest to replace is the cable, go for that first after that it is either the motherboard socket or the drive.

 

[ProbleMatic]

Ok, well thanks all for the helpful info. I'm closing the thread, if I should require further help I'll make a new topic