My issue is that my HDD will randomly stop working while in Windows. It isn't like a full disconnect, after it happens the drive still shows up in My Computer but will have no storage information under it like usual. Once I reboot the computer it is working again and might be fine for several days or do it immediately depending on what I'm doing.
For example the other day it would keep happening while playing a PS2 emulator. I know most people would say the drive is the problem but it is happening to multiple drives. There are no smart errors and I even put it in a different PC and ran the short and extended test on one that kept doing it and it passed. I bought a 4GB drive a few weeks ago and it is now doing it to that one so it 100 percent is not the drives.
Since drives that appeared to be failing worked perfectly in a different PC I was worried that it might be some weird motherboard problem. But first I tried to new install of Windows 10. My current install is on my M.2 drive but I wasn't going to just wipe that one out so I did the new install on an SSD I had laying around.
I haven't done real extensive testing but so far it seems like the problem is gone. I was just in my old Windows install and tried to unzip a file that was on the new 4TB drive and it did the weird disconnect thing. In the new install it unzipped quickly with no issue. I also ran the PS2 emulator for awhile with no issue. I ran Crystaldiskmark in the new install and it worked fine.
So it is annoying I have to go with a new install of Windows but I am glad that the problem isn't hardware related. Honestly I needed to do a new install anyways. Still though I wonder just what the hell the problem could be with that other install? Asking in tech support reddits is no help as I'll just get generic "nah sounds like your drive is bad" and other worthless answers. I'd like to figure it out just so I'd know.
I just remembered I'd mentioned this problem before here
viewtopic.php?p=69535#p69535
I thought I had the problem figured out but that didn't seem to help anything. I see there are ways to have Windows re-install just the system files. Idk if that would help or not. It is a really annoying problem.
My Unfixable Hard Drive Problem!!!!
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Dr. Zoidberg
- Site Admin
- Posts: 25510
- Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 2:33 am
Re: My Unfixable Hard Drive Problem!!!!
It could just have been a "Windows is shit" problem. Some driver issue/clash.
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Calavera
- Posts: 1839
- Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2016 2:41 am
Re: My Unfixable Hard Drive Problem!!!!
I never did get this figured out. My solution was to just remove one of the drives. So right now I only have two mechanical HDDs installed. A 3TB Seagate Barracuda and a 2TB Toshiba. It would make more sense to pull the 2TB Toshiba and put in the 4TB one I'm not using but I don't feel like going through the hassle. In addition to the two mechanical drives I also have a 1TB NVM, 120GB Sandisk SSD and a 128GB Lexar SSD.
Every once in awhile I'll still have the issue where a drive disconnects but it is very rare compared to how it was. When I pulled the 4TB I put in the two SSDs. The problem doesn't seem to ever happen with SSDs just mechanical HDDs. I thought maybe it was an issue with the power supply but I've had no other problems and the system works fine even if the GPU and CPU are under 100 percent load.
I've just accepted that I won't be able to run more than 2 HDDs for whatever reason. Honestly I don't really need that much space. Even with the 3TB and 2TB drives I have installed now I've got 2TB free space and even then there is A LOT of crap that I'll never use that I should delete. On the 4TB I removed I had a lot of PC games on it. Most that I never even played. If I really needed another drive I could replace my 2TB mechanical drive with a 2TB SSD and put the 4TB back in.
I'd kind of like to replace my 2TB and 3TB mechanical drives with one 4TB SSD but they are about $200 which is a bit more than I'm willing to spend at the moment. What would be nice is to pull all the drives except my 1TB NVM and replace them with an 8TB SSD, and I could do it for ONLY $630!
https://www.newegg.com/samsung-8tb-870- ... ce-options
If I was actually going to do that I'd go with 2 4TB SSDs since it would be $83.79 cheaper. But like I said I've got so much crap I need to delete now it's crazy. I know from my Goodwill thread you all probably think I'm a hoarder. With that stuff I'd sell any of it but I think I really am a digital hoarder. When I look through stuff to delete there will be stuff I haven't used in many years but I'll be like we'll I better keep that. LOL
Every once in awhile I'll still have the issue where a drive disconnects but it is very rare compared to how it was. When I pulled the 4TB I put in the two SSDs. The problem doesn't seem to ever happen with SSDs just mechanical HDDs. I thought maybe it was an issue with the power supply but I've had no other problems and the system works fine even if the GPU and CPU are under 100 percent load.
I've just accepted that I won't be able to run more than 2 HDDs for whatever reason. Honestly I don't really need that much space. Even with the 3TB and 2TB drives I have installed now I've got 2TB free space and even then there is A LOT of crap that I'll never use that I should delete. On the 4TB I removed I had a lot of PC games on it. Most that I never even played. If I really needed another drive I could replace my 2TB mechanical drive with a 2TB SSD and put the 4TB back in.
I'd kind of like to replace my 2TB and 3TB mechanical drives with one 4TB SSD but they are about $200 which is a bit more than I'm willing to spend at the moment. What would be nice is to pull all the drives except my 1TB NVM and replace them with an 8TB SSD, and I could do it for ONLY $630!
https://www.newegg.com/samsung-8tb-870- ... ce-options
If I was actually going to do that I'd go with 2 4TB SSDs since it would be $83.79 cheaper. But like I said I've got so much crap I need to delete now it's crazy. I know from my Goodwill thread you all probably think I'm a hoarder. With that stuff I'd sell any of it but I think I really am a digital hoarder. When I look through stuff to delete there will be stuff I haven't used in many years but I'll be like we'll I better keep that. LOL
