[gloco]

Hi All,
 
        I figured I post this issue here in hopes of resolving this problem.  Frankly, I'm not finding a solid answer to my issue.  
 
Mobo: Asus P6X58D-E
I have four HDD's .  One of them is a SSD which is imaged with Win 7 64 bit.   I have three SATA HDD's, two of them are 3gb and one of them is a 6gb.  
 
Issue:  One of my 3gb HDD's vanishes while the pc is in use then comes back then vanishes.  I imagine this is a driver issue.  I tried replugging the drive into another sata port with no success.  I have the latest marvell driver installed from Asus' website.  The drives run in IDE Mode (I know that sucks due to not using the full speed and all that).  So from here, I have no clue how to fix this problem.  I imagine it has something to do with the AHCI Driver stuff.  I tried installing Intel's Matrix Storage Manager, but I keep getting a error stating "This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing this software."   When I view Storage Controllers under Device Manager I only see a Marvell 91xx SATA 6gb controller.  My bios is up to date (flashed it right after imaging) and all my other drivers are up to date.  So what I'm am missing here? 
 
TIA!
 
 

 

[Gatepc]

Check and see if your motherboards bio's is up to date. Sounds like a motherboard problem more then a driver problem could be either though I suppose. If there is an update available for your bios update it and it might fix your problem.

 

[gloco]

Quote:

Check and see if your motherboards bio's is up to date. Sounds like a motherboard problem more then a driver problem could be either though I suppose. If there is an update available for your bios update it and it might fix your problem.

Thanks.  I'll check it again just to be redundant.  I know I updated it to 0502, the latest version, but I'll double check that.  Funny thing is, I just got home and a box popped up informing me the G Drive (the missing drive) was found....
 
edit:  yup, its the latest version.

 

[Gatepc]

The only other thing it can be then is driver problems, and if you have the newest drivers from the motherboard's company then theres not much you can do but hope that they release better working drivers soon or possibly try older versions of the driver.

 

[BASGTA]

Is the motherboard or the faulty drive new? Could it be faulty SATA ports on the motherboard?

 

[Roller]

Why exactly are you running your hdds on IDE?

 

[gloco]

Quote:

Why exactly are you running your hdds on IDE?

Beyond me.  I selected AHCI...BSOD!  Back to IDE....it works.  When I imaged the drive I didn't know I needed to install any AHCI drivers, I figured they were included in the OS.  Not sure how to get around this now.  I suspect this may be a part of the problem.


Quote:

Is the motherboard or the faulty drive new? Could it be faulty SATA ports on the motherboard?

I switched the drive to another sata port....same thing.  Funny thing is that the drive is still showing up, but if it does what its been doing for the past two weeks, it will do the whole disappear/reappear thing.
 

 

[Roller]

Quote:

Beyond me.  I selected AHCI...BSOD!  Back to IDE....it works.  When I imaged the drive I didn't know I needed to install any AHCI drivers, I figured they were included in the OS.  Not sure how to get around this now.  I suspect this may be a part of the problem.

I know that switching between IDE and AHCI makes you unable to boot, I'm just asking why did you had IDE set up when you were installing your system.
 
The best thing you should do is to backup all data on the system drive, change IDE to AHCI, format the system drive and install a clean OS.

 

[gloco]

Alright.  I got an update.  I finally got around to re-imaging the SSD and made sure to select AHCI in the bios before reimaging.  Now, the blank HDD (seagate#1) that would not come up comes up, but now one of the drives with data on it will not show up (seagate#2).  I've installed and updated all the drivers and still, no luck.  It doesn't even come up in the bios.  It's two identical seagate HDD's and they basically switched places now.  What gives?! 

 

[Roller]

Wait, it being missing outside Windows is worrying. I was going to suggest a specific MS fix tool for SATA hdds installed as IDE, as well as changing hdd power policies, but that is looking more like some faulty hardware. But for now, try reseating the memory modules, and if that doesn't fix it, run Memtest86+ for 18-24h.

 

[gloco]

Yeah, nevermind.  I picked up an external cabling solution and guess what?  The HDD is dead.  Yup, dead.  Lo and behold, I went online afterards and found hundreds of reviews from people reporting that this drive dies...often.   It's a seagate 7200.12.  I got one more in my desktop, looks like that pos needs to come out too.  Time to purchase some new (and reliable HDD's).   Thanks for the post, Roller.

 

[Roller]

Quote:

Yeah, nevermind.  I picked up an external cabling solution and guess what?  The HDD is dead.  Yup, dead.  Lo and behold, I went online afterards and found hundreds of reviews from people reporting that this drive dies...often.   It's a seagate 7200.12.  I got one more in my desktop, looks like that pos needs to come out too.  Time to purchase some new (and reliable HDD's).   Thanks for the post, Roller.

Sorry to hear about your drive. I hope you didn't have valuable data on it, or at least you have backups somewhere.
 
Right now, the HDD market could be a lot better, specially as there are less and less brands due to major acquisitions. Virtually all SSDs have a very short lifespan and mechanical drives has other issues due to the nature of its construction. Perhaps the best thing is to bet strong on redundancy.

 

[gloco]

Yeah, I think I'm gonna grab two HDD's and set them up in RAID.   I did have a backup of my data, so it's okay.  Sucks that these two Seagates turned out to have issues.
 
Quote:

Sorry to hear about your drive. I hope you didn't have valuable data on it, or at least you have backups somewhere.
 
Right now, the HDD market could be a lot better, specially as there are less and less brands due to major acquisitions. Virtually all SSDs have a very short lifespan and mechanical drives has other issues due to the nature of its construction. Perhaps the best thing is to bet strong on redundancy.

 

 

[sridhar3]

Quote:

Right now, the HDD market could be a lot better, specially as there are less and less brands due to major acquisitions. Virtually all SSDs have a very short lifespan and mechanical drives has other issues due to the nature of its construction. Perhaps the best thing is to bet strong on redundancy.

 
I realized this a few years ago when I had a catastrophic hard drive crash.  My 2TB Seagate FreeAgent Extreme died on me and I lost a lot of stuff.  My solution? Buy a 2TB enterprise hard drive.  Sure it cost me significantly more, but it's got a lot higher MTBF and it's designed for extensive wear and tear.  If that drive fails, there'll be hell to pay.
 
Also, Gloco, don't forget that a RAID isn't just the your 2+ drives, but the RAID controller as well.  I'd stay away from cheap RAID boxes because the controller might be a POS, and if the controller fails, you lose all your data regardless of level of redundancy.  I've heard this has been a problem with the Drobo line.  If you can afford it, I'd go Synology or Qnap for a NAS box.