HDDs vanish from Win 8, only to reappear on re-boot

Hi,
I have been dealing with an issue for awhile now. Since I installed Win 8 Pro 64 bit. Coming from Win 7 Home 64 bit. Sorry for the long post.
I have searched other forums, tweaked my machine, read plenty of guides and everything else I could throw at this problem. I have been building and repairing PCs for over 15 years and an avid Windows user. But this is the first time I have experienced this and I admit I am totally stumped. I will begin with my specs.

Specs:

Intel i7 2600 chip (no overclocking)
Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Rev 1.0 Motherboard
1 Samsung 256gb 830 SSD (C Drive where Windows 8 resides)
1 Western Digital Black, each 1 TB with 2 partitions.
1 Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB with 2 partitions.
1 Seagate Baracuda 1TB drive, partitioned
4 G-Skill ram sticks, 2gb each DDR3 with a total of 8gb
1 Rosewill Xtreme Series RX750-D-B 750W Continuous @40°C ,80 PLUS Certified, ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V (About 5 years old now)
1 nVidia GTX 275 Video card
1 Xonar Essence STX Audio Card (Asus)
1 Zalman CNPS9500A LED Cpu fan
1 Samsung CD/DVD Burner SH-222 (SATA)
CoolerMaster CMSTORM Enforcer Case w/3 more case fans.
Windows 8 Pro 64 Bit (upgraded from Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit)

Here's the problem:

When I run a program that is intensive, such as a game, some of my HDDs will vanish. I cannot see the discs in Disc Management, or Device Manager. I try rescan DISCS in Disc Management or attempt a check hardware change in Device Manager to get them back, to no avail. I have to re-boot my system in order to see the discs again. They do show up in bios. The drives that vanish are the HDDs. I never experienced my C Drive doing this, nor any BSOD or freezes. The PC still runs, just some of the HDDs vanish which is random, never the same one all the time. Sometimes 1 vanishes, other times 2 will.

Steps I took to try and fix this issue:

- Bios is updated
- Turned off all unnecessary settings in Bios such as internal audio
- Made sure Bios was set to ACHI
- Windows 8 is fully updated
- Firmware on my Samsung 830 is updated
- nVidia Card driver is updated
- Xonar sound card driver is updated
- Intel Rapid Technology installed with the latest version from the Intel site.
- Samsung Magician updated and installed then uninstalled by me
- All settings for the drives I believe, are correct.
- Power settings in Windows 8 is set to max FOR all drives, with all sleep and hibernation settings deactivated, including doing it through CMD
- Changed SATA cables and reseated them
- Made sure all SATA 3 drives are connected to the SATA 3 ports as well as all SATA 2 drives to the SATA 2 ports
- Checked heat readings for my system. All seems stable at load at 32 degrees
- Ran CHKDSC on all drives, which checked out OK. Even ran Western Digital's Diagnostic tool, checked out OK.
- Defragged all drives and Optimized the SSD with Trim
- I tried disabling some drives, including the DVD/CD drive and ran my system and this issue still persists.
- Reformatted SSD C drive and reinstalled Windows 8, problem still exists

I have not reformatted my HDDs since I had Windows 7. Those HDDs are for back up, music files, Games and Work files.

I checked my Event logs and here is what I get once a disc vanishes (I don't crash, no BSOD or freezes either):

(sorry for the xml)

Critical 5/19/2013 11:06:59 AM Kernel-Power 41 (63)

This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power" Guid="{331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}" />
<EventID>41</EventID>
<Version>3</Version>
<Level>1</Level>
<Task>63</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000002</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-05-19T18:06:59.233548900Z" />
<EventRecordID>1368</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="8" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Bobbdobbs23</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="BugcheckCode">0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter1">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter2">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter3">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter4">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="SleepInProgress">0</Data>
<Data Name="PowerButtonTimestamp">0</Data>
<Data Name="BootAppStatus">0</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

After reading many many forums on this issue (seems to affect a lot of Windows 8 users), I'm not sure what to do. I've been trying so many steps to address this but now I am at a lost so this is why I am asking for help here.

Thank you for your time and help.

Can you send us a screencap of your disk management?

If your drives are set to dynamic that may be your issue.

Does it do this consistantly? can you pretty much make it happen on demand within a reasonalbe amount of time?

Brooklyn567 said:

Can you send us a screencap of your disk management?

If your drives are set to dynamic that may be your issue.

Does it do this consistantly? can you pretty much make it happen on demand within a reasonalbe amount of time?

Click to expand...

Thank you Brooklyn for replying. My discs are all set to basic in management. It does this consistently especially if I run a game or graphics programs like Photoshop. No matter what, they all disappear only to leave the c drive (SSD). Today I swapped more cables, even took out some hard drives and the dvd burner, it still happens. I keep getting power errors in the event viewer as well, the kernel power error 41. I would try to post a screenshot but when I try that the drives disappear as well so maybe I have to try it with a MS paint program.

The only thing missing in your checklist is a physical check on the power cables to your drive.

Are they daisychained off one connector or are they straight runs to the power supply?

The more you use the HDD the hotter it gets and the more power it draws, so if you have a weak power connection it will come and go depending on heat and or load..

Those molex connectors are made cheaper every year, sometimes its a battle just for the pins to not wobble while youre trying to connect them...

Lets try the simple stuff first...

Thanks again for replying Brooklyn. Yes the power supply has 2 cords with 3 SATA power connectors on each one. I had one daisy chained to 3 HDDs and the other cord connected to my SSD and DVD Burner. I tried swapping the power connectors and re connecting them in different configurations based on your advice and it seems one of the cords works fine but the other is suspect as when it is connected it causes the problem. I am beginning to think this PSU is at fault as it is 4 rails and maybe one is failing.

You can either replace the P/S or get splitters for your sata power cable. Apparently one of them isnt gripping well, or its being pulled too tight.. You can get them locking so they dont pull out unless you squeeze the tops.