Disappearing Drive

buff131 · Aug 29, 2003, 02:10 PM

I have a little problem that I can use some assistance on. I installed a Segate 120 sata drive as my primary boot drive. Since you do not assign or set a serial drive as a master or slave, I was not sure what to do with my secondary drive (D). What I did was to install it as a slave drive. I used the secondary drive connection on the ide cable as my connector. Everything seemed to work normally. The secondary drive is a 17 gig maxtor drive 7200 rpm. What happens is that every now and then for no apparent reason the secondary drive disappears from the my computer screen and when this happens, if I try to run an application that is on that drive, I get the message that it cannot be found. If I reboot the computer the drive is back. I have not been able to associate any specific thing I do with the computer to cause the drive to disappear. Has anybody else experienced this problem or have any ideas as to what might be causing it and how to correct it. I have tried connecting it to the primary connector on the cable with the same results. I am running: P4 3.0 gigs with 800 front side bus, Intel D865PERL main board, 1 gig DDR PC3200 (400Mhz) ram,an MSI FX5200 128 graphics board. The sata connection is built into the main board. I am not running a raid configuration. Any help would be appreciated.

toddsmack2k · Aug 29, 2003, 02:16 PM

I know this sounds simple but have you made sure the cable is tight and getting a good connection?

Chaos · Aug 29, 2003, 02:18 PM

Do you have a spare IDE cable to try out....it sounds like the one you have may be flaky.....also disconnect and reseat the cable on the mainboard as well as the hard drive, and make sure the jumpers on the hard drive are in the correct positions......did you have these problems prior to setting up the serial ATA device?

buff131 · Aug 29, 2003, 03:50 PM

I changed the IDE card, checked the connections and verified that the jumper was correct on the secondary drive. I did not have this problem before installing the sata drive. It is working correctly now but since it is an intermittent problems will have to wait and see if it happens again.

buff131 · Aug 29, 2003, 03:52 PM

Change " changed the IDE card to changed the IDE cable"

~~Crash Override~~ · Sep 1, 2003, 09:05 AM

ok heres my thoughts

is the serial ata drive on an actual serial ata connector?

if it is and the ide drive is on a normal IDE port on the motherboard then simply put the normal master connector into the motherboard as usual

the only time you have to use the slave connector is if another device is already using the master connector.

each port handles up to 2 drives you dont have to make a HD a slave on a port just because you have another HD

buff131 · Sep 3, 2003, 11:19 PM

I have tried everything in the replies and the drive disappeared again today. It only takes a reset to get it back. I can tell when its gone because the icons on the screen turn to the basic format.

Aug 29, 2003, 02:10 PM	#1
buff131 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 9 Rep Power: 0	Disappearing Drive I have a little problem that I can use some assistance on. I installed a Segate 120 sata drive as my primary boot drive. Since you do not assign or set a serial drive as a master or slave, I was not sure what to do with my secondary drive (D). What I did was to install it as a slave drive. I used the secondary drive connection on the ide cable as my connector. Everything seemed to work normally. The secondary drive is a 17 gig maxtor drive 7200 rpm. What happens is that every now and then for no apparent reason the secondary drive disappears from the my computer screen and when this happens, if I try to run an application that is on that drive, I get the message that it cannot be found. If I reboot the computer the drive is back. I have not been able to associate any specific thing I do with the computer to cause the drive to disappear. Has anybody else experienced this problem or have any ideas as to what might be causing it and how to correct it. I have tried connecting it to the primary connector on the cable with the same results. I am running: P4 3.0 gigs with 800 front side bus, Intel D865PERL main board, 1 gig DDR PC3200 (400Mhz) ram,an MSI FX5200 128 graphics board. The sata connection is built into the main board. I am not running a raid configuration. Any help would be appreciated.

Aug 29, 2003, 02:16 PM	#2
toddsmack2k It Never..... Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Kentucky Posts: 3,173 Rep Power: 0	I know this sounds simple but have you made sure the cable is tight and getting a good connection? __________________ [color=blue]*Bleeding From the Inside Pouring Out, The* *DriverHeaven* Spiral, We Shall Never Let Go Of.[/color]

Aug 29, 2003, 02:18 PM	#3
Chaos Number Nine Join Date: May 2002 Location: Nova Scotia Posts: 5,268 Rep Power: 167 System Specs	Do you have a spare IDE cable to try out....it sounds like the one you have may be flaky.....also disconnect and reseat the cable on the mainboard as well as the hard drive, and make sure the jumpers on the hard drive are in the correct positions......did you have these problems prior to setting up the serial ATA device? __________________

Aug 29, 2003, 03:50 PM	Thread Starter #4
buff131 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 9 Rep Power: 0	Disappearing Drive I changed the IDE card, checked the connections and verified that the jumper was correct on the secondary drive. I did not have this problem before installing the sata drive. It is working correctly now but since it is an intermittent problems will have to wait and see if it happens again.

Aug 29, 2003, 03:52 PM	Thread Starter #5
buff131 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 9 Rep Power: 0	Disappearing Driver Change " changed the IDE card to changed the IDE cable"

Sep 1, 2003, 09:05 AM	#6
~~Crash Override~~ Banned Join Date: May 2002 Location: Olympia, WA Posts: 2,448 Rep Power: 0	ok heres my thoughts is the serial ata drive on an actual serial ata connector? if it is and the ide drive is on a normal IDE port on the motherboard then simply put the normal master connector into the motherboard as usual the only time you have to use the slave connector is if another device is already using the master connector. each port handles up to 2 drives you dont have to make a HD a slave on a port just because you have another HD

Sep 3, 2003, 11:19 PM	Thread Starter #7
buff131 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 9 Rep Power: 0	Disappearing Drive I have tried everything in the replies and the drive disappeared again today. It only takes a reset to get it back. I can tell when its gone because the icons on the screen turn to the basic format.