Hard Drive disconnects and disappears from Windows after around two hours in-game.

[brownayy]

Hello, I've been experiencing issues with my PC recently.

When I am in Football Manager 2013, the game will run fine for around 2 hours, before it will suddenly crash. I will get the "Steam.exe has stopped responding" error, and I notice that my secondary internal hard drive which holds the game has disappeared from My Computer. Sometimes around 5 minutes later, I will get a bunch of Autoplay windows popping up, representing all my partitions being recognized. Other times I just have to reset my PC for my hard drive to reappear again.

So far, I have formatted the drive using Windows Disk Management, this did nothing. I have cleaned out my PC case and re arranged my Hard Drive to put it in a better position. I have made sure all cables are correctly inserted and not loose. I have removed the HomeGroup feature of Windows as I read someone with a similar problem as me had done this and had fixed the problem by doing so. I have reinstalled the game also but the problem still occurs.

Before I formatted my hard drive, the drive was giving a C5 Current Pending Sector Count caution message, but after formatting, the caution disappeared.

This error has only came up in Football Manager, however that is the only game I have been playing recently. My hard drive is completely fine for all other processes such as web surfing, browsing etc.

I have never had this problem with my hard drive before.

I checked the temperature for the drive, and out of game, the drive hits around 47 degrees celcius. Not sure if that is good or not.

Running out of ideas now, hope you can help!

 

[scout_03]

run the drive maker test tool for short and long test game files could be in bad sector or defective parts of the drive platter .

 

[smorizio]

Go into windows power settings turn off power down your hard drives. If the drive still locks up see if there any firmware updates for it.

 

[brownayy]

run the drive maker test tool for short and long test game files could be in bad sector or defective parts of the drive platter .

Where can I find this tool?

Go into windows power settings turn off power down your hard drives. If the drive still locks up see if there any firmware updates for it.

It was turned on for one of the plans, yet this plan was not active. I set them all to never just in case. Thanks for your help, I'll let you know if it fixes anything.

EDIT: It didn't fix it.

EDIT 2: Error occurred again. This time, my Games partition has disappeared upon reset. What to do now.

EDIT 3: Decided to remove hard drive from system to prevent further damage. Installing Football Manager to primary hard drive. Will let you know if this hard drive also crashes.

 

[scout_03]

the name and model of that drive you need to check will link you to the tool .

 

[brownayy]

Bought a hard drive cooling fan. Installed it, started to play again. Managed to play for ages without a hiccup and thought my problem had finally been fixed.

Today, the problem occurred again. I'm lost now.

 

[scout_03]

so you need to test that drive with the tool .

 

[brownayy]

so you need to test that drive with the tool .

I'm not sure what tool you are speaking about, maybe you could point me in the right direction?

Hard Drive is Western Digital WD10EADS-11M2B2 1TB

Thanks

 

[brownayy]

I found the tool on the Western Digital website.

I ran the Quick Test, and it stopped half way and gave me this error:

"Quick Test on drive 2 did not complete!
Status code = 07 (Failed read test element), Failure checkpoint = 102
(Unknown test)
SMART self-test did not complete on drive 2!"

I am currently running the extended test and will provide results when it completes.

Thanks for the help so far.

 

[brownayy]

Here are the results from both the Quick Test and Extended Test

Test Option: QUICK TEST
Model Number: WDC WD10EADS-11M2B2
Unit Serial Number: WD-WCAV58977809
Firmware Number: 80.00A80
Capacity: 1000.20 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: FAIL
Test Error Code: 06-Quick Test on drive 2 did not complete! Status code = 07 (Failed read test element), Failure Checkpoint = 102 (Unknown Test) SMART self-test did not complete on drive 2!
Test Time: 21:42:17, June 03, 2013

Test Option: EXTENDED TEST
Model Number: WDC WD10EADS-11M2B2
Unit Serial Number: WD-WCAV58977809
Firmware Number: 80.00A80
Capacity: 1000.20 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: FAIL
Test Error Code: 08-Error was detected while repairing bad sectors.
Test Time: 01:09:05, June 04, 2013

I have contacted Western Digital support through e-mail for more advice. Thanks for the help.

 

[scout_03]

then you will need a new hdd back up all your data before it is to late .

 

[Muhammad Nouman Baig]

Hi ! Test results that you have posted clearly mentions in the Extended Test that it contain bad sectors and "Test Result: Fail".
So, contact manufacturer if your HDD is in warranty and if not then backup all data and buy a new HDD.

 

[brownayy]

Okay, thanks for your help. The thing is though, it never has any errors when not inside a game, so do I have to stop using the drive?

 

[Muhammad Nouman Baig]

Okay, thanks for your help. The thing is though, it never has any errors when not inside a game, so do I have to stop using the drive?

Yes, you can use it as long as you want and as long it runs. The thing is that if it is in warranty then replace it for free with a healthy HDD and if there is no warranty left then use it or buy a new one. If you want to use this HDD and it not that bad then use it but keep backup also. Do little research you will also find some tools that are used to hide bad sectors on HDD. Good Luck !

 

[brownayy]

Okay, thanks for your help. The thing is though, it never has any errors when not inside a game, so do I have to stop using the drive?

Yes, you can use it as long as you want and as long it runs. The thing is that if it is in warranty then replace it for free with a healthy HDD and if there is no warranty left then use it or buy a new one. If you want to use this HDD and it not that bad then use it but keep backup also. Do little research you will also find some tools that are used to hide bad sectors on HDD. Good Luck !

would hiding the bad sectors allow me to continue to play games from the hard drive without it crashing?

 

[Muhammad Nouman Baig]

Hi brownayy ! You need to understand that HDD is mechanical component and it has moving parts. Hiding bad sectors simply means that it will not use that part of HDD. But if HDD is weak and about to die then nothing will stop. As long as it is working you can play games and store files but be careful and keep backup if stored files are important.

Check this thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/282338-32-dealing-sector-excluding-damaged-area-partition

 

[scout_03]

the best option you have is to get a new drive and transfer everything on it before you loose all you data,but i would check on wd if this drive is still under warranty so you could ask for a express exchange and use the software from them to copy the old drive to the new one .