Strange Drive Behavior

[RanchoBob]

I didn't touch my machine for a few days , so Sat last I fired it up to do some things and ...lo....one of my HDD's was missing. I restarted several times and ...???...nope. Not listed..not in Disk Mgt, Device Manager, nowhere. So, rebooted again and opened the BIOS and basically did nothing but save all the existing settings and exit and the "prodigal son" came home.

There it was. I ran thorough diagnostics on the drive and it's in great shape...no worries.

So, alles en ordenen. For now.

Anyone else ever see this ?

RBob

 

[Digerati]

I have seen this before and there is no one set cause, therefore no one set solution.

But one possibility is simply a loose cable. So inspect your computer and make sure all power and data cables are securely attached. Another possibility is your power supply is starting to fail so you might want to swap in a known good spare and see what happens. Also, this could be that the drive is warning you that it is going to fail.

All motors grow weaker over time. All motor bearings wear over time. And on older motors, the lubricant for the motor bearings starts to break down and become less viscus and slippery. And in particular, when cold (like on cold winter mornings), it hardens. And depending on how the lubricant and the bearings "settle in" during cool off, especially after long periods of time (over days, for example), when trying to start again, the weakened motor struggles to get moving through the hardened lubricant and takes a couple "nudges" to get rolling. Once it starts to move, the lubricant immediately starts to warm up and soften and presents no further problems - until next time it hardens around the bearings. You see this often on old fans where you have to give it a little flick with your finger to get it spinning. The problem is, it could be months later, or tomorrow morning when it happens again. And eventually, no matter how many flicks (nudges) you give it, the motor just does not have enough in it to keep going or get up to speed. I have seen this often on older drives.

So bottom line, regardless the cause, you need to make a backup of your data NOW! And make regular backups thereafter. Then hurry up and wait.

 

[RanchoBob]

Dig...couldn't agree more IF, my system wasn't 6 months old, my power supply wasn't brand new...oh, and I live in FLORIDA. I do have everything backed up, but this is an issue I have never seen before in nearly 40 years of building my own computers. I have two HDD's (and two SDD's and two WD my books AND a 64 gig flash drive plugged into a USB slot. EVERYTHING showed up but this drive until after I did what I did.

This morning, I turned the system back on. It was there...so maybe it took a vacation ??? Weird.

 

[Dan99]

Strange and mysterious things have been occurring on Windows systems and not just Windows 10 either. Windows 7 too has been troubled. Of course we will hear responses to the contrary but still "glitches" have been popping up and then disappearing like magic. Those following these forums may attest to that.

 

[Digerati]

Even brand new drives from the best makers can fail prematurely. Same with power supplies - if not more so. Depending on the hard drive, most are warrantied for 3 years.

And being new does not, in any way, diminish the need for current backups.

It still gets cold in Florida but the ambient (room) temperature is what matters. So it is what you have your thermostat set at and how cold it gets in the house, not the outside temperature. But also, I note parts of Florida has seen records amount of rain already this month and humidity can affect electronics too - especially if the furnace does not run enough to dry out the air.

Contrary to what some may have heard or believe, hard drives are NOT hermetically sealed.

And that still leaves a connector, perhaps not securely fastened during assembly that has finally worked itself loose and intermittently losing contact.

40 years? Wow! That's pretty good since the IBM PC was first introduced in 1981. As seen via the link in my sig, I've been at this for awhile too. My first computer, an Altair 8800 in the mid 70s came in kit form sold through Popular Mechanics. I didn't build my first "PC" (for me, that is) until the early nineties when the self-build industry finely took off. But I have a lot of builds under my belt since then.

As for W7 or W10 having problems - there are an estimated 1.5 billion Windows computers in use today - consisting of billions and billions of components from 1000s and 1000s of different manufactures, with each computer within the first minutes of the first power up uniquely configured by their individual users - and Microsoft is expected to make them all work together seamlessly.

And for nearly all those 1.5 billion computers out there, the vast majority do work perfectly. Of course there will be problems. But considering those odds, Microsoft has done a miraculous job. It is just easy to think otherwise when you work in the trenches. I liken it to the Honda mechanic who sees broken down Hondas all day. If he does not step back and look at the big picture, he might think Hondas are lousy, unreliable cars.

 

[Saltgrass]

And keep in mind, other drives connected to the system may be involved with the system seeing a certain drive.

 

[Dan99]

And keep in mind, other drives connected to the system may be involved with the system seeing a certain drive.

I adhere to the KISS principle. Although I have two computers, Each has just one hard drive and one USB drive (connected) for storage. I realize that many of the CIA types have to have multiple encrypted drives and rely on daily image backups but that is their problem. I do not and have never made an image backup. Yet I am getting along just fine after many years of computer use. Amazing as it may seem, I only have a media disk for reloading an OS and my files are backed up on several USB thumb drives. No giant main drive required and no giant external storage either. I do not even have cloud storage. Life is pretty simple here by the dock of the bay.

 

[Digerati]

I do not and have never made an image backup.
Yet I am getting along just fine after many years of computer use. Amazing as it may seem
I only have a media disk for reloading an OS and my files are backed up on several USB thumb drives

I don't see anything amazing about this at all. This is still [more or less] a viable backup plan. Nothing says viable backup plans MUST include image backups.

No giant main drive required and no giant external storage either. I do not even have cloud storage.

Again, not required.

It is important to note that for many - if not most of us - that it is our "user data" that is most important to have backup copies of. We can always buy another copy of Windows, Office, our games and other programs, and then buy a new disk drive and re-install them all for just a few $100. Painful perhaps, but not heartbreaking.

But it is all our personal documents, business and tax documents, work and school projects, emails, precious family photos that are priceless and potentially irrecoverable if lost.

I have a current image file but that is really just for convenience - just in case. But it the backups of all my personal data that I am diligent about keeping safe.

I do however, suggest you use something other than flash drives and a single attached disk for "storage". Flash drives were never intended for permanent/backup storage. They are just too volatile in terms of their reliability as storage devices, and their physical robustness. You can zap them with excessive ESD just by sliding them out of your pocket. You can physically damage them just by dropping or stepping on them. And they can simply be lost easily.

As for the attached drive, do you back it up? If so, to what? If not, why not? A backup plan MUST include multiple backups. Understand it is not uncommon for thieves who break in to a home to steal all of your electronics, including attached drives. Then where will you be? Or what happens if your house burns down, is hit by a tornado, or flooded? And then you lose your computer, the attached drive, and the flash drive you keep in your computer desk.

So if you maintain any personal documents you don't want to lose, you need to have multiple backup copies and at least one should be "off-site", or at least hidden safely away in a different part of the house.

When I had my computer repair shop in my home, I kept a current copy of everything on my computers in the safe deposit box at my bank. Now I have an older, networked computer I repurposed as my NAS (network attached storage) device that I drag and drop copies of my documents to on a regular basis. This computer is located out of the way in a different part of the house. I still keep a copy at the bank, but since I have slowed down and slipped into retirement, that copy does not need to be as current as little "new" content is being created.