HDD continualy losing contact with OS…

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… Just wondered if anyone has any idea why this would happen.

System:- i7 970 : Asus Rampage 3 M/B : 480gtx ; HD50 cooling plus fans : 2 x sata 6gb/s HDDs (C & F) and 2 x sata 3gb/s HDDs (G & H ) : W7 64 : 1200W power source.

Drives listed as C; F; G; H; The H drive continually gets lost, have physically changed the unit and indeed re used the original unit, following a format on another machine.

H drive is initially recognised in Disc manager and works fine. At some point in time, usually within 48hrs, it will become invisible to the system.

OK, so it isn’t a life threatening occurance and the rest of the kit works flawlessly and in reallity I can manage well enough without a 4th HDD. But that said it is a huge irritation. Mostly because I can see no logical reason for it to happen.

So come on guys and gals, any of you have experience of the above? Or maybe some notion as to the cause?

Thanks, from a very confused dude in the UK. Arnie.

...if it ain't broke, don't fix it...

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I would check the SATA port on the mainboard by switching drives and looking for similar behavior.
I’ve had faulty SATA ports on motherboards before and this seems similar, especially if the drive is known
good in another computer.

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… Just wondered if anyone has any idea why this would happen.

System:- i7 970 : Asus Rampage 3 M/B : 480gtx ; HD50 cooling plus fans : 2 x sata 6gb/s HDDs (C & F) and 2 x sata 3gb/s HDDs (G & H ) : W7 64 : 1200W power source.

Drives listed as C; F; G; H; The H drive continually gets lost, have physically changed the unit and indeed re used the original unit, following a format on another machine.

H drive is initially recognised in Disc manager and works fine. At some point in time, usually within 48hrs, it will become invisible to the system.

OK, so it isn’t a life threatening occurance and the rest of the kit works flawlessly and in reallity I can manage well enough without a 4th HDD. But that said it is a huge irritation. Mostly because I can see no logical reason for it to happen.

So come on guys and gals, any of you have experience of the above? Or maybe some notion as to the cause?

Thanks, from a very confused dude in the UK. Arnie.

Arnie, Welcome to the Lounge.

You say you reformated the H drive in another PC, have you set it as a logical drive (perhaps this is a dumb question since you sound very knowledgable, but sometimes the simplest fixes work best) Any chance you could have a cabling issue, or perhaps a heat issue on the MB controller for this drive? Perhaps a SATA MB problem. Just shootin in the dark at this point.

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Thanks for the speedy replies. Much food for thought there…Ports, Cables etc.

Looks like my weekend will be taken up with a disassembly and circuit tests….wife permitting.

Cheers, Arnie.

...if it ain't broke, don't fix it...

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Have you run any diagnostics against the drive? Perhaps it is failing or close to it. If you have at least one Seagate drive you can use SeaTools which runs various drive diagnostics.

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Hello Peter…all drives are new, as is the whole system and alas WD. But thanks anyway. Arnie.

...if it ain't broke, don't fix it...

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I guess the next thing I would try is to replace HD 2 with the suspect HD 4 and see if the failure remains in the 4 spot or follows the HD to the 2 spot. This would let you know if the problem is a bad drive (I have seen new drives fail) or something ext to the HD. This is a trouble shooting technique I used for years in the Aerospace industry. You have to be able to start narrowing down the failure. Hope this helps.

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Already tried that avenue, Ted. Looks like a faulty Port on the MB as it only occurs when the drive is under heavy use…ie Defragging. There by generating quite a high temp. Which in turn stresses the Port/circuit/solder joints etc.

Have tested all cables for current flow, no problems there.

Will Take the MB out over the W/E and return it for exchange at the place of purchase next week sometime.

Thanks all for your input and ideas. Cheers, Arnie.

...if it ain't broke, don't fix it...

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i was about to ask about the PSU wattage, as having 4 sata drives, optical drives and a 480 GFX card, i thought of power issues, but with a 1200W supply, i would hope not, although the 480 at full ability will almost eat half of that.

if your board was not in warranty, i would suggest fitting a PCIe SATA controller card and offload the backup drives onto that.

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Hi Iain, that sounds a good idea anyway, regardless. MB is under warranty, so shall get it exchanged next week…OCuk are very good with matters like that.

The drives are actually 2 x 600GB velociraptors and 2 x 1TB caviar blacks. one of the caviars being the problem. Think I may get myself a PCIe SATA controller as you suggested while I am there. The more I think about it the more sense it makes. Thanks for the idea. Arnie.

...if it ain't broke, don't fix it...

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