From: Grant on
On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:49:02 -0400, Yousuf Khan <bbbl67(a)spammenot.yahoo.com> wrote:

>calypso(a)fly.srk.fer.hr.invalid wrote:
>> Yousuf Khan <bbbl67(a)yahoo.com> kenjka:
>>> Something strange just happened recently, under Windows 7, although I
>>> have seen it happen under Windows XP before too. A hard drive that's
>>> internal (i.e. always there, not physically removable), just disappeared
>>> from Windows sight. No longer accessible, HD Sentinel didn't see it
>>> either. Rebooted, and everything was fine, it came back. But there were
>>> no warnings in SMART about that drive. Is there something in the Windows
>>> logs that I can see about this?
>>
>> Try to replace your cables... You said that you have seen this behaviour on
>> XP and now on Win7... Often the most stupid thing is giving you the
>> headaches and produces those 'ghosty' behaviour nobody can understand... :)
>
>In the case of the IDE cables, that had already been tried before, and
>it made no difference. Haven't really tried it with the SATA cables, but
>none of these SATA cables are from the same batch, they were all
>independently obtained as drives were added.
>
>Would the number of drives in the system be a problem here? I got 5
>internal hard drives (all SATA), 3 external hard drives (1 eSATA, 2
>USB), plus 2 optical drives (all IDE). I got a 650W PSU for it.

Depends how the PSU divvies up the 12V rail. Spinning up eight drives
might be too much for it? Measure 12V rail on startup. If you not using
high power draw graphics card, you could power some HDDs from that 12V
connection.

Whatever happened to staggered spinup? Old SCSI drives used to do it,
but I dunno if there's a BIOS option for that.

Grant.
From: Rod Speed on
Yousuf Khan wrote:
> calypso(a)fly.srk.fer.hr.invalid wrote:
>> Yousuf Khan <bbbl67(a)yahoo.com> kenjka:
>>> Something strange just happened recently, under Windows 7, although
>>> I have seen it happen under Windows XP before too. A hard drive
>>> that's internal (i.e. always there, not physically removable), just
>>> disappeared from Windows sight. No longer accessible, HD Sentinel
>>> didn't see it either. Rebooted, and everything was fine, it came
>>> back. But there were no warnings in SMART about that drive. Is
>>> there something in the Windows logs that I can see about this?
>>
>> Try to replace your cables... You said that you have seen this
>> behaviour on XP and now on Win7... Often the most stupid thing is
>> giving you the headaches and produces those 'ghosty' behaviour
>> nobody can understand... :)
>
> In the case of the IDE cables, that had already been tried before, and
> it made no difference. Haven't really tried it with the SATA cables,
> but none of these SATA cables are from the same batch, they were all
> independently obtained as drives were added.
>
> Would the number of drives in the system be a problem here?

Unlikely given that a warm boot fixed it.

> I got 5 internal hard drives (all SATA), 3 external hard drives (1 eSATA, 2 USB), plus 2 optical drives (all IDE). I
> got a 650W PSU for it.


From: Grant on
On Tue, 23 Mar 2010 06:07:05 +1100, "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa(a)gmail.com> wrote:

>Yousuf Khan wrote:
>> calypso(a)fly.srk.fer.hr.invalid wrote:
>>> Yousuf Khan <bbbl67(a)yahoo.com> kenjka:
>>>> Something strange just happened recently, under Windows 7, although
>>>> I have seen it happen under Windows XP before too. A hard drive
>>>> that's internal (i.e. always there, not physically removable), just
>>>> disappeared from Windows sight. No longer accessible, HD Sentinel
>>>> didn't see it either. Rebooted, and everything was fine, it came
>>>> back. But there were no warnings in SMART about that drive. Is
>>>> there something in the Windows logs that I can see about this?
>>>
>>> Try to replace your cables... You said that you have seen this
>>> behaviour on XP and now on Win7... Often the most stupid thing is
>>> giving you the headaches and produces those 'ghosty' behaviour
>>> nobody can understand... :)
>>
>> In the case of the IDE cables, that had already been tried before, and
>> it made no difference. Haven't really tried it with the SATA cables,
>> but none of these SATA cables are from the same batch, they were all
>> independently obtained as drives were added.
>>
>> Would the number of drives in the system be a problem here?
>
>Unlikely given that a warm boot fixed it.

Draw more power when they're cold? Does reboot spin down the drives?
(I forgot).

Grant.
>
>> I got 5 internal hard drives (all SATA), 3 external hard drives (1 eSATA, 2 USB), plus 2 optical drives (all IDE). I
>> got a 650W PSU for it.
>
From: Rod Speed on
Grant wrote
> Rod Speed <rod.speed.aaa(a)gmail.com> wrote
>> Yousuf Khan wrote
>>> calypso(a)fly.srk.fer.hr.invalid wrote:

>>>> Yousuf Khan <bbbl67(a)yahoo.com> kenjka:
>>>>> Something strange just happened recently, under Windows 7,
>>>>> although I have seen it happen under Windows XP before too. A
>>>>> hard drive that's internal (i.e. always there, not physically
>>>>> removable), just disappeared from Windows sight. No longer
>>>>> accessible, HD Sentinel didn't see it either. Rebooted, and
>>>>> everything was fine, it came back. But there were no warnings in
>>>>> SMART about that drive. Is there something in the Windows logs
>>>>> that I can see about this?

>>>> Try to replace your cables... You said that you have seen this
>>>> behaviour on XP and now on Win7... Often the most stupid thing is
>>>> giving you the headaches and produces those 'ghosty' behaviour
>>>> nobody can understand... :)

>>> In the case of the IDE cables, that had already been tried before,
>>> and it made no difference. Haven't really tried it with the SATA
>>> cables, but none of these SATA cables are from the same batch,
>>> they were all independently obtained as drives were added.

>>> Would the number of drives in the system be a problem here?

>> Unlikely given that a warm boot fixed it.

> Draw more power when they're cold?

He appears to have said that the drives went away well after
the initial reboot, and then came back after a warm boot, so
there shouldnt have been any time when they were cold
because he says he leaves the system on all the time.

> Does reboot spin down the drives? (I forgot).

No it doesnt with ATA drives.

>>> I got 5 internal hard drives (all SATA), 3 external hard drives (1 eSATA,
>>> 2 USB), plus 2 optical drives (all IDE). I got a 650W PSU for it.


From: Rod Speed on
calypso(a)fly.srk.fer.hr.invalid wrote:
> Grant <omg(a)grrr.id.au> kenjka:
>>> Unlikely given that a warm boot fixed it.
>
>> Draw more power when they're cold? Does reboot spin down the drives?
>> (I forgot).
>
> Loose soldering joint on some specific drive?

It wasnt just one drive that went missing.