Missing Data Drives randomly (help)

[403Phaze]

Hey all,

I have been experiencing some issues on and off, which is usually fixed by a quick reboot of windows, but today for example, one of my drives disappeared off my rig completely and I tried the following steps (which usually works)

1. Disk Partition -> Re-scan Disks/ Refresh = Didn't work
2. Device Manager -> Disk drop down / Right click disks -> Update Drives = all were updated

To trouble shoot my issue

1. Turned off rig and unplugged every drive except for my SDD ( C: )
2. rebooted and turned and entered BIOS -> made sure IDE / S.M.A.R.T was set to enable
3. Computer Management -> Hot plugged each HDD individually until they showed up

Now Ladies and Gents we are all caught up

My Rig
Mobo = Sabertooth P67 Rev B
OS = Windows 8.1

and my Startech Latching cables are less then 2 years old bought from Memory Express

Thanks for the read

UPDATE: turns out the HDD is failing? or possibly my motherboard input is going bad, I keep getting HDD beeps when its under load (playing games), I am going to run a diagnostic on the HDD and update from there

(unsure where I should have posted this topic)

 

[RolandJS]

I hope you have been making backups before this situation hit.

 

[TechnoMage]

Two things:
If a HD is showing signs of age and possible failure, back up all your data, ASAP, and then begin the process of getting an SSD as a replacement. Then clone your HD to the new SSD.

Secondly, know that SATA data cables do go bad. I can't explain how or why....they just do. So that's why I keep several NEW data cables on hand, as replacements.

Using various OS's, I've experienced times when an external drive is not detected by the OS.
Rebooting the PC with that external drive connected, allows the motherboard to SEE the external drive, and so the OS will too.

Happy Trails, Mates,
TechnoMage