Secondary 2TB Hard Drive Keeps disappearing

[PrinceMyshkin]

I am at a loss trying to figure out what's going on with my system. I originally believed the cause was my SSD (120GB Vertex 3) but after replacing it with a 128GB 840 Pro, similar issues remain.

Occasionally, when booting into Windows (both 7 and 8 showed the same issue), my SSD will operate fine (as it should since its the OS drive) but my second drive, a Seagate Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001 will become inaccessible. This drive holds all my data including My Documents/Downloads/Music/etc. To resolve this, I have to do completely power down my system (sometimes Windows shut down doesn't work and I have to flip the switch on the PSU). I have to switch off the PSU, unplug the power cord from the PSU and then wait a few minutes. After a few minutes, I then plug everything back in. Once I do that, both drives work fine and I can access files on the 2TB drive.

Any Ideas? I've tried a different SATA port, different cable, same result. The only conclusion I have left is that 2TB drives take a while to spin-up (based on a Google search) and that may cause problems. I ran the Seagate Tools software and the drive checks out fine.


System Specs:
Athlon II x4 620
Asus M4A785-M (only SATA2 ports)
4 sticks of 1GB DDR2 (sadly they're mixed, 2 of Crucial DDR2800 and 2 sticks of different brands at different speeds).
Geforce GT240
128GB Samsung 840 Pro (Boot/System Drive running Windows 8)
2TB Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001
2 Sata DVD burners
OCZ 600 Watt PSU

Thanks

 

[Puppies04]

I don't mean to doubt you but when you say you have tried different S-ATA cables did you make sure they were decent ones? The fact that this happens occasionally points towards there being a loose or bad connection. Also make sure the HDD is properly secured and not moving around in the case.

 

[PrinceMyshkin]

I'm not sure but I believe the cables were picked up from Monoprice (not sure if that says much) and I think I even switched the SSD and HDD cables at one point. HDD is properly secured.

I'll give it another shot with a new cable. At this point I'm willing to try anything. Nothing worse than working on a document and all of a sudden the drive just becomes inaccessible when you try to save it.

Thanks!

 

[Puppies04]

I'm not sure but I believe the cables were picked up from Monoprice (not sure if that says much) and I think I even switched the SSD and HDD cables at one point. HDD is properly secured.

I'll give it another shot with a new cable. At this point I'm willing to try anything. Nothing worse than working on a document and all of a sudden the drive just becomes inaccessible when you try to save it.

Thanks!

Keep in mind you could also have a loose connection on the power cable, try another S-ATA power plug from your PC if you have one available.

 

[Steltek]

This type of problem could also be an indication that your data drive is developing a fault and may be about to fail. I'd suggest downloading Seatools from the Seagate website and running a full diagnostic on the drive just to be sure.

EDIT: Should have read the original post more closely, as it appears you have done this.

 

[Bubbaleone]

I am at a loss trying to figure out what's going on with my system. I originally believed the cause was my SSD (120GB Vertex 3) but after replacing it with a 128GB 840 Pro, similar issues remain.

Occasionally, when booting into Windows (both 7 and 8 showed the same issue), my SSD will operate fine (as it should since its the OS drive) but my second drive, a Seagate Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001 will become inaccessible. This drive holds all my data including My Documents/Downloads/Music/etc. To resolve this, I have to do completely power down my system (sometimes Windows shut down doesn't work and I have to flip the switch on the PSU). I have to switch off the PSU, unplug the power cord from the PSU and then wait a few minutes......

Although your particular CPU has been supported since BIOS version 0304, Asus has released twelve BIOS revisions since then: 0307 on 8/25/2009, 0405, 0406, 0503, 0506, 0601, 0604, 0702, 0803, 0906, 1006, and 1101 on 12/7/2012. I'd suggest flashing the latest revision, as this and all previous versions have addressed system stability issues as well as adding support for modern large capacity HDDs.

The second issue is your memory configuration. I did a quick search and found a set of two used DDR2 800 1GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer LED BL12864AL804 on ebay. Those are listed on the M4A785-M Memory Qualified Vendors List and the guy's got them posted as "buy it now" for fifteen bucks for the set, with free shipping.

You've got a good solid board, decent hardware, and IMHO I think that running four sticks of Crucial DDR2 800 RAM, and then updating the BIOS would certainly eliminate all the "unknowns", if not the problem altogether.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The second issue is your memory configuration. I did a quick search and found a set of two used DDR2 800 1GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer LED BL12864AL804 on ebay. Those are listed on the M4A785-M Memory Qualified Vendors List and the guy's got them posted as "buy it now" for fifteen bucks for the set, with free shipping.

You've got a good solid board, decent hardware, and IMHO I think that running four sticks of Crucial DDR2 800 RAM, and then updating the BIOS would certainly eliminate all the "unknowns", if not the problem altogether.

Ballistix (and Ballistix Tracer) DDR2 RAM has a really bad rep, and for good reason. I had a set go bad on me too. I wouldn't wish that RAM on anyone.

 

[PrinceMyshkin]

After unsuccessfully trying another Sata port and cable, I contacted Seagate tech support and they suggested to try running SeaTools for DOS to see if it can diagnose the issue. The tech mentioned that sometimes SeaTools for Windows may not be accurate.

I decided to skip all that (SeaTools for DOS) and simply RMA the drive. I submitted the form yesterday for the Advanced Replacement (replacement drive will be shipped to me first).

@Bubbaleone - I had updated the bios to the latest version but the issue still remains. After kicking myself for not getting more DDR2 sticks when DDR2 was cheap, I've decided that if my RAM/mobo turned out to be the culprit, I'll simply holdout for a bit longer and replace the mobo/cpu/ with something more recent that uses DDR3.

@Puppies04 - I didn't think about the power cable, this is a modular PSU and I think the SSD and HD are sharing the same line, cant hurt to at least give the HD its own line now and continue that once the replacement arrives.

Thanks everyone for the tips, before posting this thread I thought I covered all the possible causes but it looks like I didn't (sata power port, RAM).

 

[hoorah]

After unsuccessfully trying another Sata port and cable, I contacted Seagate tech support and they suggested to try running SeaTools for DOS to see if it can diagnose the issue. The tech mentioned that sometimes SeaTools for Windows may not be accurate.

I had a seagate drive in a server that starting popping up error messages about the bad sector count increasing in the SMART data. Pulled the drive from the server and wanted to RMA it. Seagate said they wouldn't RMA without a fault code from SeaTools. Ran Seatools for windows and the drive showed as 'good'.

So I dedicded to possibly use the drive as non-critical temporary media storage. Not long after I started getting corrupted data and files that wouldn't read from the drive.

Seatools still tested the drive as 'good', but by then, it was too late to RMA it.

Now, I wonder why Seatools would say a drive is 'good' when it really isnt? Hmm......I wonder......

 

[PrinceMyshkin]

hoorah - I wondered the same myself and emailed Seagate before I started the RMA process. I also googled to see if anyone had similar experiences with these drives as well as SeaTools' accuracy. The general impression was while its ok, HDTune (which I have not used) is more reliable in accessing the health of a drive. One user in particular had his drive show up as good under SeaTools but HDTune indicated that it was failing. I should add that when I submitted the online RMA form it didn't ask me a for a reason for the RMA or for an error code from SeaTools.

This is what Seagate Tech Support responded with. Possibly I misunderstood what they were saying about SeaTools for Windows but I doubt it.

....
-snip-
I'm sorry to hear you are having intermittent issues with your Barracuda drive. I would like to recommend using SeaTools for DOS when testing internal drives. These tests are specifically for internal hard drives and might show different results than the Windows version of the test.

If you feel the drive is not reliable and would like to replace it, we can certainly assist with the return process. Please review the shipping options provided below and let me know how you would like your order processed. If you have any additional questions, please let me know.

-snip-
......

 

[Charlie98]

I'm having sort of the same problem with a Seagate portable HDD... CrystalDisk is saying it's having problems, SeaTools says it's fine. I'll have to try HDTune...