HDD Missing

Posted by: tahir

HDD Missing - 14/09/2016 18:34

My main PC is a HP, maybe 2008ish? It's on Win 10 with 3 internal SATA HDDs:

Seagate ST3500630AS (Boot)
Seagate ST31000340AS (Disk 1)
Samsung HD103UJ (Disk 2)


Disk 1 has gone missing, it's no longer visible in This PC or Storage Manager, but shows up in BIOS (hence model numbers above).

I've tried swapping SATA sockets on Disk 1 & 2 but no change.

If it's visible to BIOS then surely Windows should see it too, maybe with a corrupt or missing volume?

What can I do to diagnose/recover? I don't have an external USB enclosure to test the drive off another PC, should I get one?
Posted by: tahir

Re: HDD Missing - 14/09/2016 18:41

SeaTools (run from Windows) has found Boot and Disk 2
Posted by: tfabris

Re: HDD Missing - 14/09/2016 20:57

Does Windows Disk Manager see it?

(Start/Run COMPMGMT.MSC, Storage, Disk Management)

Does windows Device Manager see it?

(Start/Run DEVMGMT.MSC, Disk Drives)

If neither see it, then I believe this indicates a hardware problem with the disk, the cable, or the SATA socket/controller.

There can also be some BIOS settings that might make the disk disappear, and certain kinds of hardware issues can cause the BIOS to change settings too.
Posted by: tahir

Re: HDD Missing - 15/09/2016 09:26

Doesn't appear in Disk Manager or Device Manager. My first thought was BIOS but no settings in there. I'll try a different cable, already tried a different socket.

I thought if the disk had failed completely then it wouldn't appear in BIOS either.
Posted by: tahir

Re: HDD Missing - 15/09/2016 15:26

Definitely the HDD, just stuck a replacement in and it worked straight away on the same port/cable. Just need to see if I can recover any data off the old one now, just my last few months podcast downloads.