Drives disappearing in windows 7

[killster1]

Updating this thread stilll need help ;/

seemed like everything was working fine once again after installing intel drivers 9.6 but then today once again , i get "location is not available") The drive is under device manager and listed in computer management

Windows 7 ultimate with updates to april?

I am going to swap the sata cable right now to see what that does, and just leave that sata cable out. If that doesnt fix i will switch ram, i upped the rams voltage and it seemed like the problem went away (even tho memtested fine overnight at the regular volts) If that doesnt work maybe i should up the southbridge voltage? I guess i havnt tried enough stuff but sux seems like should work at stock settings if 0 overclock. *i wouldnt mind overclocking this cpu to 3+ ghz once this is fixed)*


this is my 4 year olds pc

antec 1200
DFI x48 tr2plus b
xigimatic DTH
q6600 @ stock
8gb ram ocz pc 9200 running at ddr2 800
4890 crossfire
750hx
5x1tb
1x80gb x25-m
1xDvd burner

0: try scrubbing memorized drive letters in diskpart. If the drive isn't there, check to see if it's in 'Device Manager.' It probably won't. If not click on Action:Scan for hardware changes. Let us know.?? im not sure if i want to do this as i dont know what it will do etc.
1: bad cables?
2: bad controller on mobo?
3: bad ram? or ram needs more volts? (i dont see it being a ram problem but i have bad luck i guess) tested ram overnight passed fine
4: southbridge needs more volts?

again sorry for my lame questions bad spelling and punctuation!

Glad i didnt have anything overclocked or id think it was that.

 

[RebateMonger]

I'd start with the disk maker's diagnostics and an overnight memory test. That's always a good and easy start when problems occur.

 

[killster1]

ive tested the ram overnight (while back on diff mobo) and id say it was the hd but two diff hds just disappear in windows 7? i tried to find teh windows 7 64bit x48 chipset drivers and could not even find any, im tempted to try vista 64bit drivers from dfi website ;/

So you think bad ram could cause this problem even tho nothing else has problem? ill run memtest overnight again but doubt it will turn anything up

intel site says the drivers for windows 7 are for the 3 series or 3500 (i dont even know what that means!) Thanks alot intel

 

[Qbah]

Was happening to me too. I'm running my controller in AHCI mode and the drives would disappear and only show up after a reset. What I did was to install the Intel matrix storage drivers (they're called differently now) and the problem went immediately away. Never happened since.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Probably the SATA cable/controller power-management issue. Part of the SATA spec allows the link state to be put into power-management mode, but some devices don't support this properly.

There's a registry edit for the MS drivers to disable this feature, and I think the Intel MSM drivers were update to disable this feature by default.

Google "sata link power management". Sorry, I couldn't find the MS KB article on the registry edit.

 

[killster1]

tried alot diff drivers etc.

 

[Qbah]

3-series: X38, P35, G31, G33 etc
4-series: X48, P45, G43?, etc
5-series: X58, P55, H57, etc

You get the idea It's <letter><series><number>. The letter determines market segment: X-enthusiast ('eXtreme'), P-mainstream ('Performance'), G-with integrated Graphics, H-something else, maybe Home use or HTPC or something . The last number determines, how feature rich the chipset is - for example P45 and P43, P43 offering fewer things than P45. That's just my logical take on the numbering scheme, don't think there are documents describing it

EDIT: You have a 4-series chipset (X48), so you should install these

 

[killster1]

still bunk

 

[killster1]

shoot, dvd drive disappeared yesterday and now today the 640gb disappeared again.. i swapped cables around tho and still bad very odd.. maybe i still need more drivers? better drivers? windows 7 update? im going to reinstall when i get around to it on a ssd i hate updating windows but i guess i will if i have to. also dont look forward to reinstalling the 30 games i have installed ;/

Any ideas? specific drivers? all new cables? (tho i pretty much rule out cables unless i have multiple bad cables)

after ssd reinstall problem still continuing

 

[razel]

Next time one disappears, can you try checking to see if it's still in Storageisk Management in Computer Management? If you see the drive, but no letter is attached you can try scrubbing memorized drive letters in diskpart. If the drive isn't there, check to see if it's in 'Device Manager.' It probably won't. If not click on Action:Scan for hardware changes. Let us know.

If you want to know how to scrub in diskpart. Launch Diskpart in cmd, then type 'automount scrub'.

 

[killster1]

what does scrubing the drives do? i just had issue with another 1tb drive in the box that froze up when i tried to open it. seems like i have bad hard drive luck, Very frustrating. I know All the drives cant be bad and seemed like it did same thing with other motherboard. recommended drivers to use? thought windows 7 would have good stock drivers but after problem kept up i installed chipset drivers seemed to work for a while and now back to drives disappearing

ok drive had letter still.. tried it for fun still same.

 

[Makaveli]

Was happening to me too. I'm running my controller in AHCI mode and the drives would disappear and only show up after a reset. What I did was to install the Intel matrix storage drivers (they're called differently now) and the problem went immediately away. Never happened since.

I've seen this before and that is the fix.

Install the new intel drivers should go away!

 

[killster1]

still wont work hmm