Magical Disappearing & Reappearing HDD

[Accessless]

Well title sums it up really. My computer will randomly start to run odd (increased HDD activity, decreased performance). It usually ends up with a hard reset and upon reboot the drive is magically gone! Of course the drive is still physically in the bay but the motherboard will not register it until the power is switched off and back on again.

No recent hardware changes
No recent Software changes (that would affect the HDD)
No Viruses
No Problems/defects detected in the drive
Definitely nothing to do with the sata systems on the motherboard (as the secondary drive always remains unaffected.

The problem is intermittent sometimes occurring twice a week, other times only once every month or so. I'm out of ideas anyone else like to take a pot shot?

The Drive is a Maxtor 6V00E0 189Gb SATA HDD. The drive has just failed the SeaTools Long DST test [edit] & the short DST [edit]. Whatever that means.

[patio]

The Drive is a Maxtor 6V00E0 189Gb SATA HDD. The drive has just failed the SeaTools Long DST test [edit] & the short DST [edit]. Whatever that means.

I'd start backing up immediately...this means the drive is about to fail.
You may have a month you may have a day.

[BC_Programmer]

After backing up but before giving up on the drive- it could be the power supply, as well; I had a similar problem myself with a new hard drive that kept dissappearing from the machine- event log errors abound, delayed write failed, etc. Then the computer would get really confused since the pagefile was on the now inaccessible drive.

Not sure what exactly happened, but I guess it managed to recover by creating a new one on the system drive.

and then every single running application crashed. I managed to solve the problem by removing some items from the computer- thus less power consumption (the PSU was a real lunker).

[Accessless]

The Drive is a Maxtor 6V00E0 189Gb SATA HDD. The drive has just failed the SeaTools Long DST test [edit] & the short DST [edit]. Whatever that means.

I'd start backing up immediately...this means the drive is about to fail.
You may have a month you may have a day.

Its been doing this for months, but as the problem is so infrequent I've never bothered to fix it. So if it was close to melt down I think it would have gone by now.

On a side note, I think that drive has the damaged connector lead (just some damage to the clip) but the pc is very stationary. Would a loose/wonky lead cause these sort of problems?

[Accessless]

After backing up but before giving up on the drive- it could be the power supply, as well; I had a similar problem myself with a new hard drive that kept dissappearing from the machine- event log errors abound, delayed write failed, etc. Then the computer would get really confused since the pagefile was on the now inaccessible drive.

Not sure what exactly happened, but I guess it managed to recover by creating a new one on the system drive.

and then every single running application crashed. I managed to solve the problem by removing some items from the computer- thus less power consumption (the PSU was a real lunker).

Thought of that but then the other drive (1Tb) remains unaffected. Although I could try and use a different power connector.

Anyone know of a better HDD testing tool other than SeaTools that just tells you that your drive failed with no explanation if that's a problem or not?

[patio]

Replace the wonky lead for sure...
With one of those it may cause intermittent data transfers which would lead a drive fitness test to indicate that the drive is failing...
But in my experience there is no rhyme or reason  that explains the timeline of a HDD failure...when they go they go.

[Accessless]

Replace the wonky lead for sure...
With one of those it may cause intermittent data transfers which would lead a drive fitness test to indicate that the drive is failing...
But in my experience there is no rhyme or reason  that explains the timeline of a HDD failure...when they go they go.

That's my problem, in my experience the drive should be unusable by now but for some reason it just chugs along. There's no way that I'll change it just because of a few hiccups every now and then. Now all I have to deal with is the missing cables. Y'know when you have thousands of something and when you need them you can never find them? That's my SATA cable collection...

[patio]

Well if you insist on using something that chugs along with a faulty cable then no amount of diagnostics or testing are going to change those variables...

[Accessless]

They Will be changed the second that I find my replacements... that have been misplaced. As well as a change of power connector.

[patio]

Is it the SATA plug or the power connecter plug that's Wonky ? ?

[Accessless]

The SATA but it wont hurt to use another power connector.

[patio]

I can mail you a few...i've got a bunch.

[Accessless]

I can mail you a few...i've got a bunch.

All the way to the UK? I'm sure I left them in a friends house by accident after a machine rebuild so its just a matter of moving my behind and finding them.

[patio]

Your assuming i'm not in the UK.....

[Accessless]

Your assuming i'm not in the UK.....

At the time I was assuming from what the website said about your time zone, but then realised that its got mine completely wrong.

I could hold Mail = Post against you
Dune is an American film (although that means nothing)
You are an evil Intel user (although yet again means nothing)