PC is P*SSING me off!

Eddzz!!

Eddzz!!

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Been having nightmare issues recently with my system... More often than not now my PC boots and only detects the drive with Windows 7 (64-bit) installed. It won't detect my second drive, my data drive (which has the majority of my programs and files saved to...)

Anyone ever experienced anything similar? Right now my only solution is to restart the computer and that sometimes needs doing two or three time before it will detect the second drive's presence!! :mad:
 
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Eddzz!! said:
Been having nightmare issues recently with my system... More often than not now my PC boots and only detects the drive with Windows 7 (64-bit) installed. It won't detect my second drive, my data drive (which has the majority of my programs and files saved to...)

Anyone ever experienced anything similar? Right now my only solution is to restart the computer and that sometimes needs doing two or three time before it will detect the second drive's presence!! :mad:
Click to expand...

I had that problem with my old system became very moody with me turns out my second hard drive had died :'( So I went and spoilt my self on a new tower system as with various commitments I did not have time to do another custom build PC.
 
The drive seems to work perfectly fine when the BIOS actually detects that it's there... May start backing up just in case!
 
Eddzz!! said:
The drive seems to work perfectly fine when the BIOS actually detects that it's there... May start backing up just in case!
Click to expand...

I would, pronto. Have you turned on SMART in the bios to see if the drive is failing?
 
Back up, NOW.

Update all your motherboard drivers, re check all cabling, run diagnostics. Try different SATA ports.

If that doesn't resolve it, replace the drive.
 
mid_gen said:
Back up, NOW.

Update all your motherboard drivers, re check all cabling, run diagnostics. Try different SATA ports.

If that doesn't resolve it, replace the drive.
Click to expand...
:plus1:
 
Eddzz!! said:
The drive seems to work perfectly fine when the BIOS actually detects that it's there... May start backing up just in case!
Click to expand...

You mean you haven't been doing any way? :bang:
 
i would back up to be safe. it could be that the drive is slow to come ready which could be caused through bad sectors so would run some drive checks
 
I presume the Drive is connected by USB, try Booting with it disconnected and then plug back in. Or remove plug and fit it to another USB Socket
 
Pookeyhead said:
You mean you haven't been doing any way? :bang:
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neil_g said:
Also what he said.
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I take a general backup every few weeks and a Lightroom backup every time a new addition is made. But really, thanks for the input. Do let me know when you'd like to share some more of your wisdom. :suspect:

ancient_mariner said:
I would, pronto. Have you turned on SMART in the bios to see if the drive is failing?
Click to expand...

Tried this morning. I enabled SMART in the BIOS and ran some tests using a program called Everest. Didn't seem to show anything worrying... Then again I'm no expert on these things. I'm really at a loss. After I restart the machine the drive shows fine in the BIOS and in Windows and works as it should. I updated my BIOS yesterday thinking that could be the issue, but still no good results. In Disk Management the drive is 'healthy' and not causing Windows any issues... :help:
 
Eddzz!! said:
Been having nightmare issues recently with my system... More often than not now my PC boots and only detects the drive with Windows 7 (64-bit) installed. It won't detect my second drive, my data drive (which has the majority of my programs and files saved to...)

Anyone ever experienced anything similar? Right now my only solution is to restart the computer and that sometimes needs doing two or three time before it will detect the second drive's presence!! :mad:
Click to expand...

Is the system and data drive connected in the same way to the motherboard?
Can you swap them over to see if the issue follows the drive or stays with the connection - at least then you rule out the motherboard being the fault, then you can just backup and put in a new drive !
 
MWHCVT said:
Have you run a virus scan recently? It could be you've picked up something, I've had all sorts over the years that have done all sorts of random crap to my computers
Click to expand...

My system seems to be clear of viruses. If it were a virus it would have to be very deep rooted to prevent the BIOS from detecting the drive.

kennysarmy said:
Is the system and data drive connected in the same way to the motherboard?
Can you swap them over to see if the issue follows the drive or stays with the connection - at least then you rule out the motherboard being the fault, then you can just backup and put in a new drive !
Click to expand...

They're both connected to the motherboard via SATA. I could try a different SATA port/cable to see if that has an affect. Other than that I'm wondering if power management could be the issue. Perhaps the drive isn't getting enough juice to spin up? I am only running a 500W power supply, though it is an OCZ and should be managing the power load just fine.
 
Eddzz!! said:
I take a general backup every few weeks and a Lightroom backup every time a new addition is made. But really, thanks for the input. Do let me know when you'd like to share some more of your wisdom. :suspect:
Click to expand...
easy there tiger, feel free to research any of the other threads where we've advised many many people on backing up.
 
neil_g said:
unless youve recently added something like a beefy GPU i wouldnt expect it to be power.

my money is on faulty sata connection and/or failing drive.
Click to expand...

I've recently added a GTX 770 to my system, but this problem existed with my previous GPU installed (AMD 6950 2GB)

[EDIT] If it is a power issue, it is funny that it exclusively effects my hard drive and no other component...
 
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I had this exact problem on my HP - after about a month the hard drive died completely , so i'd concur with neil that its probably a dying hard drive
 
big soft moose said:
I had this exact problem on my HP - after about a month the hard drive died completely , so i'd concur with neil that its probably a dying hard drive
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Well that's very odd, because I've had this issue since I built the computer over a year ago... Like I've said, the drive works absolutely fine when it spins up!
 
Try disconnecting CD/DVD/Floppy drives, and USB devices (apart from keyboard/mouse) including anything plugged into USB headers on the motherboard.

I once had a similar problem where a HD would be picked up by windows but did in the BIOS and it's turned out to be a DVD drive.

So once everything is disconnected power on if it works OK a few times in a row, add things back until it doesn't.

J
 
Eddzz!! said:
... Like I've said, the drive works absolutely fine when it spins up!
Click to expand...

Have you got access to another PC? Trying the drive in a second machine (for a few days) would tell you whether it's ok or not.
 
vdubster said:
Try disconnecting CD/DVD/Floppy drives, and USB devices (apart from keyboard/mouse) including anything plugged into USB headers on the motherboard.

I once had a similar problem where a HD would be picked up by windows but did in the BIOS and it's turned out to be a DVD drive.

So once everything is disconnected power on if it works OK a few times in a row, add things back until it doesn't.

J
Click to expand...

This. I've removed all USB devices before and seemed to work for a while... I've never thought of disconnecting the DVD drive - will try this.
 
Thinking back, I've had somewhat similar problems in the past with poor SATA connections, although with my system if the drives are recognised they stay recognised. Last time it happened (>12 months ago) I disconnected, then reconnected all SATA cables and it's been fine apart from an occasionally temperamental DVD drive ever since. That's on a mid-range Asus mobo with 3 linux distros across 2 HDDs and a couple of SATA DVD drives for good measure.
 
Someone has just told me that this kind of intermittent failure with hardware is known as "cold boot failure"... When the hardware gets cold in won't always boot first time and will require another power on to get going. First time I've heard of that! :cuckoo:
 
Eddzz!! said:
Someone has just told me that this kind of intermittent failure with hardware is known as "cold boot failure"... When the hardware gets cold in won't always boot first time and will require another power on to get going. First time I've heard of that! :cuckoo:
Click to expand...
normally a cold boot issue means the machine wont boot/post (i.e. not getting to windows).

im still putting money on a connection issue or issue with the drive. sata cables are far too brittle and easy to break in my opinion, first port of call is new/different sata cable.
 
neil_g said:
normally a cold boot issue means the machine wont boot/post (i.e. not getting to windows).

im still putting money on a connection issue or issue with the drive. sata cables are far too brittle and easy to break in my opinion, first port of call is new/different sata cable.
Click to expand...

Will try that!
 
tbh standard diagnostics in the bios would tell you much the same
 
what is the chipset on the motherboard ?

this might be worth a read
http://blogs.intel.com/technology/2011/01/chipset_design_flaw/

i have a motherboard ( early generation asus p8p67 pro ) that was behaving very similar to what you describe with one of the SSD drives ( OCZ 128 gig ) i have attached to the sata ports it would just disappear from the drive list and would take a power down and re boot for the bios to recognize it again
i cured the problem by swapping position of a couple of drives on the sata ports and that cured the problem

because of the design flaw within the chipset i am only able to use 4 out of the 8 onboard sata ports at any one time
iv'e known about the problem for some time but keep promising myself i will change the motherboard the thing is apart from that the pc works flawlessly and havn't really had the incentive to

it'l pack in tommorow now iv'e mentioned it :(
 
Eddzz!! said:
I take a general backup every few weeks and a Lightroom backup every time a new addition is made. But really, thanks for the input. Do let me know when you'd like to share some more of your wisdom. :suspect:
Click to expand...

You said "May start backing up just in case".... which implies you are not backed up. Don't get all arsy because someone advises you to back up. It's important.
 
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