[SOLVED] Drive F completely disappearing from my disk management. Only unplug and plug again helps

whatever61

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Jul 29, 2010
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I have the server: Dell PowerEdge T20 E3-1225v3 with 4 HDDs in it.

HDD 3 has the letter F.
HDD 4 has the letter G.
HDD 3 started to disappear randomly.. I had to shut down my PC, UNPLUG the AC cord and plug it back and then F would reappear. Just restart would not help!

When I say disappear it means also from DISK MANAGEMENT and DEVICE MANAGER.

So I switched the letters for HDD 3 and HDD 4, so HDD 3 became G and HDD 4 became F.

Worked fine and suddenly I see the same problem again happening with HDD 4 now! so letter F is disappearing from time to time.

Again, to fix it, i need to shut down the PC, unlug and plug again. Only then it appears. so does not seem like a Windows problem, more like a hardware..

Any suggestions here?
 
Solution
Could it be maybe because this HDD gets lots of activity?

I use it as FTP and stuff is being downloaded there quite a lot during the day..

I doubt its activity, I will run my pc downloading for days at a time and it works just fine. If you switched the drives around, the weird part is why its allowing you to keep the drive letter on the sata connector rather than the drive. Honestly to me it sounds like the sata port for data is going out. If the drive powers up but the computer doesn't see it, power down, switch the cable on the motherboard to another spot (if their is one), keep the drives where they are, and just see if that works. It could be that the hdd is just going too, id run a drive check to see if theirs issues and...

nhardinger2003

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May 28, 2018
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I have the server: Dell PowerEdge T20 E3-1225v3 with 4 HDDs in it.

HDD 3 has the letter F.
HDD 4 has the letter G.
HDD 3 started to disappear randomly.. I had to shut down my PC, UNPLUG the AC cord and plug it back and then F would reappear. Just restart would not help!

When I say disappear it means also from DISK MANAGEMENT and DEVICE MANAGER.

So I switched the letters for HDD 3 and HDD 4, so HDD 3 became G and HDD 4 became F.

Worked fine and suddenly I see the same problem again happening with HDD 4 now! so letter F is disappearing from time to time.

Again, to fix it, i need to shut down the PC, unlug and plug again. Only then it appears. so does not seem like a Windows problem, more like a hardware..

Any suggestions here?
Have you tried a different sata port/power plug? It could be a possibility one or both are going out making the computer no longer recognize it.
 

nhardinger2003

Honorable
May 28, 2018
230
14
10,595
Could it be maybe because this HDD gets lots of activity?

I use it as FTP and stuff is being downloaded there quite a lot during the day..

I doubt its activity, I will run my pc downloading for days at a time and it works just fine. If you switched the drives around, the weird part is why its allowing you to keep the drive letter on the sata connector rather than the drive. Honestly to me it sounds like the sata port for data is going out. If the drive powers up but the computer doesn't see it, power down, switch the cable on the motherboard to another spot (if their is one), keep the drives where they are, and just see if that works. It could be that the hdd is just going too, id run a drive check to see if theirs issues and possibly have windows fix it.
 
Solution

whatever61

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Jul 29, 2010
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Hey guys, I want to open it up again, because I moved all the data from F to G and moved my FTP also to G and it started happening with G, while F doesn't have the problem anymore.

I am certain now that it's because of the FTP activity.

What can I do to resolve it? should I use another HDD model?