Hard drive disappears, only reappears after power down and reboot.

[TacosNachos]

For the last year or so I've been having a couple of problems with my Pc. First the hard drive will disappear on me. It seems to happen completely at random. I could watching a movie, surfing the web, playing a game, or just trying to wake the computer up from sleep. It throws out a different BSoD every time. And if I just rest the computer or reboot the computer I get a no boot-able media error. And if I go into bios the hard drive wont be shown. Only when I completely power down the thing and turn it back on will the hard drive reappear. So far I've tried replacing the sata cables, using different ports on the mobo, replacing the hard drives, replacing the mobo, upgraded from Winxp to Win 7 (fresh install).

The other problem I have occurs when I'm gaming. Mostly its a sluing/stuttering that occurs when I play games like Gta4 or Codmw2. The video and sound will just slow down for a second or two then go right back to normal. First I thought this was a heat issue, but I've since bought a new case and heat sinks and replaced the video card and it hasn't changed.

Right now I'm thinking its a power issue. Either my psu is bad, or the crappy building I live in has dirty power. But I would love some help in figuring this thing out. I'm about at my wits end here.

Here's my specs:
Windows 7 Ultimate
MSI 785GT-E63 Motherboard
MSI N570GTX-M2D12D5 GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB Video Card
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W PSU
AMD Phenom 9850 Black Edition 2.5GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Desktop Processor
ADATA S599 AS599S-64GM-C 2.5" 64GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA

 

[Ubrales]

If this is a multi-family older building, then it is likely that it was wired for limited amount of power in its day. These days, people have more appliances, more gadgets, and more power consuming devices. Like a refrigerator and a freezer in the same apartment. It is quite possible that when your neighbor's appliances are turned ON automatically, there is a power sag for a brief moment. This is enough to cause problems in electronic devices like computers. Your solution may be to install a UPS system.

This link lists several systems: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=50001317&IsNodeId=1&Description=UPS&name=APC&Order=BESTMATCH

 

[Horsemumbler]

I had a similar problem with my data drive (a second hard drive separate from my SSD OS drive) randomly disappearing. It would be recognized again if I rebooted. The problem was solved when I updated my audio driver for another reason. Apparently the second hard drive and the sound card shared the same IRQ channel. For some reason, updating the audio driver resolved conflicts between them.

 

[PereMersenne]

I had a similar problem with my data drive (a second hard drive separate from my SSD OS drive) randomly disappearing. It would be recognized again if I rebooted. The problem was solved when I updated my audio driver for another reason. Apparently the second hard drive and the sound card shared the same IRQ channel. For some reason, updating the audio driver resolved conflicts between them.

This was exactly my problem. I had switched out motherboards and started getting this behavior. Installing the proper Sound Drivers fixed it. Thanks!!

 

[Severn7]

I just upgraded to Win10 and installed a second 'cleaned' HDD which disappeared shortly after booting.
If your Hard drive is empty try going to: folder options / view / advanced settings and un-check 'Hide Empty Drives'.
Alternatively copy some data onto the drive.
Good Luck
Severn

 

[Captainawzome]

I just upgraded to Win10 and installed a second 'cleaned' HDD which disappeared shortly after booting.
If your Hard drive is empty try going to: folder options / view / advanced settings and un-check 'Hide Empty Drives'.
Alternatively copy some data onto the drive.
Good Luck
Severn

Bro this was 5 years ago