- Jun 24, 2004
- 15,628
- 5
- 81
I've had an intermittent issue for a long time but it happens infrequently enough that I've worked around it. Every once in a while, one of my hard drives will disappear from Windows and even the BIOS. I get a blue screen if it happens while I'm using the PC, but usually it happens during boot, which prevents the PC from booting if the boot drive disappears.
When it first happened I thought it was a different hard drive that is no longer connected, but I have since bought an SSD and it still happens. I think it's my SATA ports. If I shut down and connect the cables to different ports, the problem sometimes goes away, at least temporarily.
Last night, my computer bluescreened and upon restarting, the storage drive was no longer there. When I switched the cables, only the storage drive showed up and the boot drive had disappeared. So it seems clear that the problem is specific to the SATA ports and not the hard drives. The weird thing is I haven't been able to figure out if there are any SATA ports that are always good. No matter how many times I switch things around, even if I'm good for a while, the problem returns.
My hardware is this:
Biostar TA790GX motherboard (has 6xSATA II ports)
Samsung 830 SSD 128 GB
Western Digital Black 640 GB
Phenom II X3, 6 GB of DDR2, standard SATA DVD burner, if that's relevant
I feel like I've basically figured out the problem and now I want to fix it. I think a new motherboard would fix it. Otherwise I could get a SATA card. So my real question is, what is the better course of action? SATA cards are cheap but most seem to get mixed reviews, with reviewers saying that they aren't compatible with some chipsets. A new motherboard would almost certainly fix the problem, but it's a little more expensive, especially if I get an AM3 one and have to buy new RAM as well.
What should I do? Go to buy/sell and see if anyone has an AM2+ or AM3 mobo for sale? Or get a SATA card? Thanks!
When it first happened I thought it was a different hard drive that is no longer connected, but I have since bought an SSD and it still happens. I think it's my SATA ports. If I shut down and connect the cables to different ports, the problem sometimes goes away, at least temporarily.
Last night, my computer bluescreened and upon restarting, the storage drive was no longer there. When I switched the cables, only the storage drive showed up and the boot drive had disappeared. So it seems clear that the problem is specific to the SATA ports and not the hard drives. The weird thing is I haven't been able to figure out if there are any SATA ports that are always good. No matter how many times I switch things around, even if I'm good for a while, the problem returns.
My hardware is this:
Biostar TA790GX motherboard (has 6xSATA II ports)
Samsung 830 SSD 128 GB
Western Digital Black 640 GB
Phenom II X3, 6 GB of DDR2, standard SATA DVD burner, if that's relevant
I feel like I've basically figured out the problem and now I want to fix it. I think a new motherboard would fix it. Otherwise I could get a SATA card. So my real question is, what is the better course of action? SATA cards are cheap but most seem to get mixed reviews, with reviewers saying that they aren't compatible with some chipsets. A new motherboard would almost certainly fix the problem, but it's a little more expensive, especially if I get an AM3 one and have to buy new RAM as well.
What should I do? Go to buy/sell and see if anyone has an AM2+ or AM3 mobo for sale? Or get a SATA card? Thanks!