HDD / SDD not being recognized

[Seraphim]

Hello,

Since July this summer, my pc has occasionally been getting blue screens that would turn into my 120 GB SSD not being recognized (as bootable) until i completely turned off my pc and took out the power plug.
I didnt feel like this was a big problem (yet) so I let it rest.

Though a few weeks ago it started happening every day and after some research I was starting to suspect my 2TB HDD as for example I would only and exclusively get those blue screens while playing games that were on the 2TB HDD.

Even more recently though, the problem got severe. I had already ordered a replacement HDD and was planning to use it the very next blue screen. Well.. that very next blue screen resulted in not a single hard drive being recognized, including my new HDD. Even when it detected my SSD it would tell me that it wasnt bootable. I tried a lot with the cabling and switching things around but nothing worked so I put everything back as it originally was and went to bed.

The next day everything worked fine again as if there never was a problem.
I immediately backed up my important stuff and did a clean windows install on my SSD.
This went fine until I got into windows and noticed that it made a partition (G) from my HDD with a size of 100mb with nothing in it. Me and my -everything has to be clean- mind, immediately went and removed that partition. This caused my entire pc to freeze and crash and on the next boot my HDD was once again not recognized anymore. I decided to go with it and assumed that my HDD is actually broken or very corrupted.
Installed 2 games on my SSD and played them, worked fine. Then went to bed and the next day, you guessed it: my HDD is back with everything on it.

What is going on?

 

[EarthDog]

Please create system specs please... no idea what you are working with... though it sounds like p67 errata...

The 100mb partition is normal with a windows install. Deleting it can cause issues.

Have you done any troubleshooting outside of powering off? Swapped cables? Ports? Put that new hdd in????

 

[Seraphim]

I will work on more information in a bit.

I will also update on what i actually did to troubleshoot.

Troubleshooting process:

Turn pc off and on -> Problem persisted, immediate blue screen.
turn pc off and unplug power -> Problem solved, everything worked fine again until next bluescreen.

After the problem got severe and resetting power on my pc wasnt effective anymore I tried the following:

(during these tests booting would give random pop ups such as: No bootable hard drive found; Selected hard drive is not bootable, install bootable media or select a bootable hard drive; Selected hard drive is corrupt)

Plug out and in cables on SSD and HDD -> Did not work
Switch cables around -> Did not work
Plug in new HDD -> Did not work (After this i plugged my old HDD back in)
Remove RAM -> Did not work
Hard Reset BIOS -> Did not work
Go to bed and let my pc rest for the night -> Worked, pc turned back on and both Hard Drives were visible and working.
Run USB windows 10 setup boot -> Worked sometimes -> SSD and HDD were visible in the windows setup menu.
Format SSD and reinstall windows on SSD -> Worked

At this point I found the G partition that was made from my HDD, which I removed that caused my pc to crash and my HDD to be undetectable again.
My SSD still worked and booted Windows so I decided to just let it rest there and installed and played some games on SSD.

Sleep and let my pc rest -> Worked. HDD was visible again with all the data on it.


That's the summary of my troubleshooting. I highly expect the error to return with either leaving me unable to boot windows at all or just unable to access my HDD.

 

[R00kie]

Any idea what the blue screen actually says?

 

[Jetster]

Do not do a clean install with any drives connected other than the system drive. Windows will throw that boot sector on the other drive

Take everything out of the case and bench test it on a wood board

Update the BIOS and reset it

Inspect or change your SATA cables

Do a legacy install

Try it like that with one drive and see if it works now

If no BSOD then add your second drive and load some games

 

[Seraphim]

Any idea what the blue screen actually says?

Initial blue screen will say something regarding \SYSTEM\somethinghere ERROR

After reboot bluescreen will say one or more drives are corrupted.


"Update the BIOS and reset it"
I am afraid of updating BIOS since it can be risky.


"Inspect or change your SATA cables"
They seem to be okay, cant be sure though.

 

[R00kie]

I am afraid of updating BIOS since it can be risky.

You do it through the Bios itself, theres less risks anything not booting.

 

[Jetster]

You also need to check the smart data on those drives

 

[EarthDog]

"Update the BIOS and reset it"
I am afraid of updating BIOS since it can be risky.

Grow a pair.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Sounds like you need a new PSU

 

[Jetster]

I think it just corrupted. Some people start messing with stuff and it just goes south. (iv'e done it) Could be the PSU but its too soon to say although I wouldn't rule it out

 

[Seraphim]

Smart test passed healthy.
Will look at updating BIOS now..
Any explanation to how PSU could be the cause?

 

[Jetster]

Smart test passed healthy.
Will look at updating BIOS now..
Any explanation to how PSU could be the cause?

Dirty power can cause all kinds of symptoms. But that PSU is pretty solid. Hows your electrical grid?

 

[Seraphim]

Hows your electrical grid?

Grounded and stable.
(Electricity grids in the Netherlands are generally reliable)



BIOS is of latest version already.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Smart test passed healthy.
Will look at updating BIOS now..
Any explanation to how PSU could be the cause?

Because your psu might have developed a dry joint , so so many because's just because.

 

[Seraphim]

Gonna put this update here because it could help towards the solution.
After opening my HDD in file explorer and trying to go into a folder my File explorer froze and upon reopening the file explorer it has a lot of trouble loading in anything at all. (image below)

When navigating in my SSD, everything works perfectly fine and fast, but on "This PC' It keeps loading for at least 5 minutes before even showing blank shortcuts to my existing partitions.
My HDD is completely unavailable in this condition.

 

[Seraphim]

UPDATE:

I ordered a new PSU (the Corsair RM650X) and implemented it.
Ever since implementing it, the problem has not occurred again.
I cannot confirm the problem won't return, but I want to thank you guys for your help in solving this!

 

[eidairaman1]

In this situation I would replace the data cables too

 

[Seraphim]

In this situation I would replace the data cables too

I looked at them but they seem to be in a perfectly healthy condition.

 

[eidairaman1]

I looked at them but they seem to be in a perfectly healthy condition.

Well that's not always the case, just because they physically ok doesnt mean they are electrically ok...

this also covers the bases.

Sata cables are less than a psu but good on the psu being garbage...