Solved hard drive vanished

C

cradom

Member
I have an HP Pavillion a1473w that I installed a new WD 320 drive in a few weeks ago.
This a second internal drive just for data. Been working fine until tonight when it just vanished.
It shows up in bios but not in explorer (My Computer) or in Device Manager.
When installed I initialized it as 1 partition and formatted it. Worked fine.
I don't care about the data, just want my drive back.
What shows in bios:
Samsung SP2004C
WDC WD3200AAKS-00L9A0

Doesn't show in drive management either.
Tried new data cable (SATA) and reseated power cables. Even removed one of the DVD drives thinking it might be a power problem.
Also the computer takes about twice as long to boot.
Don't have another computer to try it in (my Mac is IDE).
Using Vista Home Premium. All updates.
Any ideas?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion a1473w
    CPU
    Intel Premium 4 620
    Motherboard
    Asterope
    Memory
    2560 mb
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GForce 8800 GT
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer P201w
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Keyboard
    Apple aluminum kbd
    Mouse
    Razer Diamondback
Have any unknown devices appeared in device manager?

Considering all that you have tried, the drive itself may actually be dead or dying.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Self Built
    CPU
    i7 3770K HT ON 4.7GHz
    Motherboard
    P8Z68 Deluxe Gen 3
    Memory
    8GB G.Skill Ripjaws X 2133mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    2x Gigabyte GTX 670 OC WindForce SLI
    Sound Card
    X-FI Forte + ATH-AD900
    Monitor(s) Displays
    x2 Dell U2410 / 58" Samsung / "40 Sony
    Screen Resolution
    1920*1200 / 1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    2x Intel 520 240GB * Crucial M4 128GB * 2x Samsung F3 1TB (RAID 0) * 2x WD Caviar Blacks 2TB (RAID 0)
    PSU
    Corsair AX1200W
    Case
    Lian Li PC-V1020A
    Cooling
    NH-D14: 3x140mm Gelid Wing 14: Sunbeam Rheobus Extreme
    Keyboard
    Topre Realforce // Ducky Shine Cherry MX Black
    Mouse
    Razer Imperator + Thermaltake Theron
    Other Info
    Laptop Specs:
    Clevo Sager P170HM //
    17.3 Matte 1920x1200 //
    i7 2720QM // 8GB 1333mhz //
    Dedicated GTX 485M //
    240GB Intel 520 + 750GB + Blu-Ray //

    Samsung Story 2TB USB 3.0
smarteyeball said:
Have any unknown devices appeared in device manager?

Considering all that you have tried, the drive itself may actually be dead or dying.
Click to expand...

There IS an "unknown device". I thought it might be the Audio driver that my flight sim installed? FlightGear 1.9.1 Will try uninstalling it.

This drive is less than a month old.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion a1473w
    CPU
    Intel Premium 4 620
    Motherboard
    Asterope
    Memory
    2560 mb
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GForce 8800 GT
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer P201w
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Keyboard
    Apple aluminum kbd
    Mouse
    Razer Diamondback
cradom said:
There IS an "unknown device". I thought it might be the Audio driver that my flight sim installed? FlightGear 1.9.1 Will try uninstalling it.
Click to expand...

FlightGear uses OpenAl for the sound, so it shouldn't actually install a device per se. The unknown device could be due to what MDOC mentioned.

This drive is less than a month old.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, that is not a guarantee that the drive is okay.

These days it really is luck of the draw when it comes to mechanical Hard Drives and longevity. It is not uncommon for a drive to fail in such a short space of time.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Self Built
    CPU
    i7 3770K HT ON 4.7GHz
    Motherboard
    P8Z68 Deluxe Gen 3
    Memory
    8GB G.Skill Ripjaws X 2133mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    2x Gigabyte GTX 670 OC WindForce SLI
    Sound Card
    X-FI Forte + ATH-AD900
    Monitor(s) Displays
    x2 Dell U2410 / 58" Samsung / "40 Sony
    Screen Resolution
    1920*1200 / 1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    2x Intel 520 240GB * Crucial M4 128GB * 2x Samsung F3 1TB (RAID 0) * 2x WD Caviar Blacks 2TB (RAID 0)
    PSU
    Corsair AX1200W
    Case
    Lian Li PC-V1020A
    Cooling
    NH-D14: 3x140mm Gelid Wing 14: Sunbeam Rheobus Extreme
    Keyboard
    Topre Realforce // Ducky Shine Cherry MX Black
    Mouse
    Razer Imperator + Thermaltake Theron
    Other Info
    Laptop Specs:
    Clevo Sager P170HM //
    17.3 Matte 1920x1200 //
    i7 2720QM // 8GB 1333mhz //
    Dedicated GTX 485M //
    240GB Intel 520 + 750GB + Blu-Ray //

    Samsung Story 2TB USB 3.0
Is your boot drive SATA also ? ?
Have you tried another MBoard SATA connection ? ?
When you say you created a full partition on it what tool did you use ?
If Disk Management did you remember to format it after creating the partition ? ?

The fact it shows in the BIOS leads me to believe it hasn't failed as was mentioned.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    Intel Q6600
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5K MBoard.
    Memory
    4G OCZ PC2 8500 Platinum
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA 8800GTS Vid Card
    Hard Drives
    500G Seagate SATA
    200G Seagate SATA
    100G WD Caviar SATA
    80G WD Caviar IDE
    PSU
    OCZ Elite 800W PSU
    Case
    RaidMax Smilodon Case
    Other Info
    Lite-On dual layer DVD burner X 2
    Dos 6.2;Win2K;XP; &
    Vista Ultimate 64Bit.
patio said:
The fact it shows in the BIOS leads me to believe it hasn't failed as was mentioned.
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking too, but I mentioned it as a possible option.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Self Built
    CPU
    i7 3770K HT ON 4.7GHz
    Motherboard
    P8Z68 Deluxe Gen 3
    Memory
    8GB G.Skill Ripjaws X 2133mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    2x Gigabyte GTX 670 OC WindForce SLI
    Sound Card
    X-FI Forte + ATH-AD900
    Monitor(s) Displays
    x2 Dell U2410 / 58" Samsung / "40 Sony
    Screen Resolution
    1920*1200 / 1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    2x Intel 520 240GB * Crucial M4 128GB * 2x Samsung F3 1TB (RAID 0) * 2x WD Caviar Blacks 2TB (RAID 0)
    PSU
    Corsair AX1200W
    Case
    Lian Li PC-V1020A
    Cooling
    NH-D14: 3x140mm Gelid Wing 14: Sunbeam Rheobus Extreme
    Keyboard
    Topre Realforce // Ducky Shine Cherry MX Black
    Mouse
    Razer Imperator + Thermaltake Theron
    Other Info
    Laptop Specs:
    Clevo Sager P170HM //
    17.3 Matte 1920x1200 //
    i7 2720QM // 8GB 1333mhz //
    Dedicated GTX 485M //
    240GB Intel 520 + 750GB + Blu-Ray //

    Samsung Story 2TB USB 3.0
Formatted with Disk Management. All drives are SATA, even boot. (except for the 1 DVD drive, IDE, which is now disconnected) Have not tried different MB connection. Just swapped data cables.

Uninstalled FlightGear and driver for my LG phone. Rebooted - no joy.
Drive does not show in Disk Management anymore.

Did find this in Event logs:
The device, \Device\Harddisk1\DR1, is not ready for access yet.

Also found this...
The Fix8 Live Cam, WDM Video Capture service failed to start due to the following error:
The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.

Some stupid web cam stuff which is no longer installed and doesn't show up in msconfig.

MDOC: uninstall driver for drive? How do I do that if it doesn't show in Device Manager?
The unknown device disappeared when I uninstalled it's driver in Device Manager and hasn't reappeared.

EDIT: ok, shut down and moved SATA cable to a free MB connection. Started back up. Got new hardware found.
It installed driver and restarted. IT"S BACK!!!
Going to see if there is a driver update now.
Thanks for all the help guys. I really appreciate it.
Craig
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion a1473w
    CPU
    Intel Premium 4 620
    Motherboard
    Asterope
    Memory
    2560 mb
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GForce 8800 GT
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer P201w
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Keyboard
    Apple aluminum kbd
    Mouse
    Razer Diamondback
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top