partition E dissapears sometime

[stereo]

I have a problem with my E partition. Sometime dissapears
I have 2 x Western Digital 6400 AAKS. The first one is for OS ( 50 gb ) and D partition,and the second one is E partition. No RAID..
Sometime the partition E just dissapears. If i restart my computer,is back.
Do you know what could be ?? Hardware / software problems ??
There is no virus / trojan/malware ...or something.
Please tell me how can i fix that.
Thanks.

 

[TVeblen]

What it sounds like is that actually it's your second SATA hard drive that is disappearing. That's the one with the E: partition, right?

That condition can happen when you have a incorrect or corrupted SATA driver for the OS, or the Drive Configuration mode in your BIOS has been changed.

But it can also be as simple as plugging the second (E) drive into SATA ports 3 or 4 on the motherboard. Some motherboards are touchy when it comes to data drives - those that do not have a active partition. You might as well give that a try first. Can't hurt, might help.

 

[stereo]

What it sounds like is that actually it's your second SATA hard drive that is disappearing. That's the one with the E: partition, right?

That condition can happen when you have a incorrect or corrupted SATA driver for the OS, or the Drive Configuration mode in your BIOS has been changed.

But it can also be as simple as plugging the second (E) drive into SATA ports 3 or 4 on the motherboard. Some motherboards are touchy when it comes to data drives - those that do not have a active partition. You might as well give that a try first. Can't hurt, might help.

Yes,that's the one with E partition,right.
If there is a incorrect or corrupted SATA driver for the OS,how can i fix that?
How can i find out ?
I'm telling you the way i installed my Windows 7
Like i said, i have 2 HDD. One is only for storage / backup stuff....
When i installed the OS,i thought, it's better to unplug / remove the SATA cable for the HDD with all the files..stuff...just to make sure i don't delete something.

Well,i installed the OS,everything was fine.After i done the job,i turned off the computer,i pluged back the SATA cable for the HDD with all the files / backups ...
I changed the letters from DVD RW....because it was like that :
C ( OS ) and D the second partition ( from the same first hdd ) and letter E was allocated to the DVD RW. So,after i pluged again the second HDD,the letter was F,but i changed the letters ( dvd rw and second HDD )
Now i have :
OS ( C ) and another partition - D - that's one harddisk
and E the second HDD - one single partition
and F the dvd rw
I did a hdd scan. No bad, no errors,nothing.
Like you said, i think there is a cable problem.
If a change the SATA cable slot, on the Mobo..will i have the same orders - letters ?

 

[TVeblen]

You did the right thing installing. I always only have the hard drive that the OS is going to be installed on connected, no problem there.

And there should not be any issue (concerning your problem) changing the drive letters.

All your drive letters will remain as is after you plug the drive into a different slot. Be sure to shut down the computer before doing this. And while you have the case open, check to see that the OS drive is plugged into the SATA #1 slot (shouldn't matter, but might as well).

Try that first, if it does not work then we can look at the SATA driver issue.

 

[stereo]

Ok,i changed the SATA slot on the mobo.
But i forgot to mention something,it could help
When i did the WEI test,i received an error messaage (it was running the hdd )
There was something like " an error with the driver....couldn't be found"and something about assessment,or something like that.
After that,i checked in Google,and i did the chkdsk with command prompt,as administrator.
No errors,nothing. Then i tried again the WEI. No errors,test went ok.
I think there is a software problem,not SATA slot, cables ,etc.
How can i check the sata drivers ?

 

[TVeblen]

The SATA drivers for W7 are installed automatically during install based upon the SATA settings in your BIOS at the time of the install.

Did you change any BIOS settings after you installed the OS?

You should fill out your system specs too. The brand and model of motherboard would be very helpful for us to answer your question.

 

[TVeblen]

Also, did you install the most current chipset drivers for your motherboard after installing W7?

 

[stereo]

Also, did you install the most current chipset drivers for your motherboard after installing W7?

My specs :
Intel7 920 @ 2,66 Ghz / Gigabyte GA EX58-UD5 / 3 GB DDR3 Corsair / 2 x WD 6400 AAKS /
PNY GTX 285 / dvd rw Asus / PS Corsair 650 W / SoundBlaster X-fi Xtreme Gamer ...
I tried one hour ago to install this :
GA-EX58-UD5 (rev. 1.0) - GIGABYTE
ONLY the chipset ( Intel INF installation ) because i have already LAN,Sound,etc
What about the last one,down ? SATA2 RAID driver ? I didn't install this one.
RAID...i don't need.
So,like i said before,tried one hour ago to install the chipset.
I received some errors.
" C / Program files / Inf Update /
I couldn't event create a new folder. Only errors. But i backed up my OS partition,and i was only able to recovery it with the bootable cd.
Now i'm back again,but i'm affraid to install again the chipset
What about the SATA2 RAID driver ,on the link ? Should i install it ?
Do i need it,for SATA ..if i don't have RAID ??

 

[TVeblen]

No, you don't need RAID drivers unless you are going to set up RAID.

To clarify: you downloaded the chipset drivers from Gigabyte, then double clicked on that .exe file, you let the installer run, and then you got errors?

And afterward you could not use Windows Explorer to create folders?

And that means that you did not install the chipset drivers after you installed W7, correct?

And again: did you make any changes to your BIOS settings after you installed W7?

(Please don't make any changes right now! Lets see if we can figure out what is going on first.)

 

[stereo]

No, you don't need RAID drivers unless you are going to set up RAID.

To clarify: you downloaded the chipset drivers from Gigabyte, then double clicked on that .exe file, you let the installer run, and then you got errors?

And afterward you could not use Windows Explorer to create folders?

And that means that you did not install the chipset drivers after you installed W7, correct?

And again: did you make any changes to your BIOS settings after you installed W7?

(Please don't make any changes right now! Lets see if we can figure out what is going on first.)

No,i didn't make any changes in BIOS,after i installed W7.
Yes,there was alot of errors after i installed the chipset drivers from Gigabyte,but i recovered with Acronis,now is working ok,but no chipset drivers.
Are the chipset drivers very important ?The E partition didn't dissapeared anymore,but could happent again,i guess.
PS : after i installed W7,i downloaded the latest video / sound drivers,and the tv card driver-application,too. LAN was working without installing any driver.

 

[TVeblen]

If the second SATA disk is not disappearing anymore, I would leave well enough alone. Just keep your eye on it.

If you want, or if it happens again, some other things to check:

• Go into your BIOS and check and to see that both drives are recognized in BIOS.
• In BIOS, note the SATA controller mode. Is it set on ACHI, or IDE mode? (Don't change anything, just note it).
• Open Device Manager > Disk Drives. Both HDDs should show Here.
• Open Computer Management > Disk Management. Both HDDs should show Here. Both drives should be marked "Online".
• While in Disk Management, Right click on the second drive, choose "Properties" > go to the "Policies" tab > and check: "better performance" and "enable write caching" if not selected already.
• Run the Windows Experience Index. (This will test the drives and sometimes resets things if they've changed)

Worst case you could be dealing with a bad Sata cable, a failing hard drive, or a failing Sata controller/motherboard. But that's worst case. Just keep an eye on things for now.