DIsappearing Hard Disk

[joddle]

I am running a Dell optiplex 755 under XP pro SP3 and when I got it it had a single 500gb HD. I needed some form of data security so added a brand new 500gb drive in the spare bay which all seemed to work fine for several weeks. One day however I turned on the PC and the second drive appeared not to be there - I rebooted and checked the bios which confirmed the disk was present but it did not later appear on "my computer" nor in the disk management area either. I turned the pc off again - switched off the sata socket on the bios and rebooted. Then closed down again and reset the bios to on for the drive and hey presto it was back. This has happened several times now and a few times I have also tried removing the disk and putting it in a caddy and it always then seems fine.

 

I am considering rebuilding the PC as I have too much junk on it but wanted to use the second drive to install a RAID1 system but am now worried about the "disappearing" HD - Any clues as to what may be going on anyone? Is this a disk fault or something else?

 

When it is running and I use Baleric it reports the HDs are "healthy".

[Dalo Harkin]

Check the ribbon and jumpers (if IDE or SCSI) and the ports on the MOBO, just check its all secure.

Failing that could be literally anything from the MOBO to the PSU.

[joddle]

Check the ribbon and jumpers (if IDE or SCSI) and the ports on the MOBO, just check its all secure.

Failing that could be literally anything from the MOBO to the PSU.

 

I was wondering about the ribbon lead - it is much more frail than the other one and not a proper right Angle termination at the HD as it should be and I noticed that it does not have such a secure grip so I suppose that might be responsible - I will try a new SATA lead as soon as I can get one but non of the shops here seem to stock them long enough - I need 70cms - also is it worth tryng a different SATA socket?

[BeeCeeBee]

I am a little confused. (Not unusual) Ribbon cables are IDE and SATA has a much thinner (Usually Red but not always) cable with a small L shaped end. You speak of SATA but seem to be describing IDE. Maybe Dalo will understand but I am, as I said, confused as to your configuration.

[Dalo Harkin]

I suppose a ribbon is more of a description for an IDE lead

I'm guessing he has SATA as only SATA cables have right angled connectors, you dont need to use right angled connectors (I don't)

order the SATA cables from ebay or somewhere, there are loads available sizes,colours etc.

 

If your MOBO has more than one SATA port it should have come with a SATA cable for each port :)

[joddle]

I suppose a ribbon is more of a description for an IDE lead

I'm guessing he has SATA as only SATA cables have right angled connectors, you dont need to use right angled connectors (I don't)

order the SATA cables from ebay or somewhere, there are loads available sizes,colours etc.

 

If your MOBO has more than one SATA port it should have come with a SATA cable for each port :)

 

 

Thanks guys - it is SATA - its my description of a ribbon cable that is off - i only used that as the cable is flat and thin rather then round in section.

 

Will try and get another cable ASAP but my local shop does not have 70cm ones which is what I need. Ebay may well be the solution...

The PC has four SATA ports but the only cables are those fixed to the existing HDs and the DVD deck.

[Dalo Harkin]

Just try the one from the DVD for now..........

 

then at least you can be certain it is the cable before going buying another (they are only cheap I know and handy to have) but if your like me you will buy 2 just incase :) and before you know it you have boxes and boxes of cables/cards/opticals/ that will never see the light of day again :D

[joddle]

Just when I thought all was going well another issue - I bought a new HD but the PC wont see it - see next thread for details - anyway this project is now on hold until I get the HD issue sorted so it may be a week or so before I can return to this particular issue. Meanwhile I have obtained a new sata cable albeit a bit short but it can be routed OK so hopefully we will see if it makes a difference however as the problem is rare as rocking horse poo I could be in for quite a wait to be sure it is actually fixed.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi I have had a look and answered the other post, if you did as you said tried the new drive in a caddy on other computers and it wasn't recognised it does look to be suspect. As for SATA against SATA2 I am not sure about compatibility, Dalo will know more, but even so it should still have been seen on other computers while in a separate caddy and I hope plugged into a USB port.

As for the issue on this thread and the suspect cable, hopefully that is all it is, but time will tell.

Nev.

[joddle]

The new disk had now been returned to the seller and I have received a refund so thats sorted - however the original problem of the other disk which keeps disappearing remains - in fact over the past few days it "disappeared" twice and when I rebooted the system said there was a problem with the disk and did a dskchk and found loads or errors so it seems that disk may also be faulty. so 2 new disk are now ready to be reinstalled - not in RIAD but as two volumes - in order to do that should I set the bios to legacy mode or leave it on automatic?

[joddle]

I hate computers!!! - I have now got my new hard disk and resinstalled the OS and drivers. All fine so far- then I added another new hard disk and guess what? that started "dissapearing" also - so it was not a HD fault after all and so must either be something on the SATA port or the SATA cable. I have connected the drive with a new cable to the spare SATA port and it is working fine but now I get a strange high very pitched noise from the PC at intermittent times. If I disconnect the sata cable but leave the power cable on the noise dissapears. What could it be? I have yet to connect the new disk to the old SATA port as my cable is not long enough but will try that again soon. Does it matter to leave our one port in the sequence - ie my new 1TB main disk is on SATA0, my DVD on STATA1 and my second new disk (500gb) on SATA3.

[Dalo Harkin]

No it makes no difference what devices are on which SATA channels UNLESS, you have say 4 or 6 ports and 2 of them are designed for RAID, but even then RAID needs configuring and it should just run them as standard SATA ports until configured.

When you say that it is a high pitch noise, I would say that the HDD is suspect, its normally a clicking but a whine can indicate an arm that is getting stuck or even scratching the surface of the platter (especially as it stops when the DATA cable is disconnected)

With issues like this I am afraid that it is trouble shooting, remove the optical from the equation and see if it improves, it could be that the PSU is underpowered but again that is unlikely unless its say 200-300Watt

[joddle]

Many thanks - changed the sata cable and reverted to the old sata port and everything fine now! Odd but its ok so I'll leave well alone!!