[SOLVED] Hard Drive has disappeared from Windows Explorer

[jcralphy]

Hi,

I've been having a very long list of problems with my new system, clock_watchdog_timeout bluescreens, my system randomly freezing mid use etc. But the latest problem is that one of my hard drives where I store games has completely disappeared from windows files explorer.

It's a 750gb SSD from Crucial, I tried swapping ports with another drive to see if it was the cable or the socket that was causing the fault, but it's still missing while the one I swapped it with is fine.

If I go into Disk Management, I see this thing that identifies as a non initialised device, but when I try to do it I get an error.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Full system specifications including CPU, motherboard, exact power supply model and how long in service?

How old is this drive in years of service?

 

[jcralphy]

Recent upgrades, 3 months old
AMD R5 3600 cpu
ROG Strix B550-F motherboard
Corsair Dominator Platinum rgb RAM, 4×8gb
OS drive, WD Green 240gb M.2 SSD

Original components, 3 years old
Aerocool Integrator 500W psu
MSI Aero GTX1070 gpu
The drive that is missing is a Crucial MX300 750gb SSD

 

[Darkbreeze]

The first thing I'd recommend doing, which could very easily cause those, or any other symptoms on any system, is replace that horrible power supply. Aerocool just sells some of the worst power supplies on the market from any of the "known" brands. Most of what Aerocool sells is very low quality budget hardware overall, but it's power supplies are particularly poor quality.

I would not be at all surprised to find that there is a problem on the rail supplying the drives or with one of the cables or rails on that unit. I personally know of two members with systems that were irrevocably damaged by 600w Integrator power supplies in the past.

Certainly this COULD be a motherboard issue, and maybe it is, but it will be impossible to tell without a known good power supply of reliable good quality installed, and that unit, especially since it's 3 years old and likely had a three year warranty to begin with, would be my primary suspect. Even if it's NOT the problem, you want it out of your system before it has a chance to harm any other components, if it hasn't already.

Discussion - PSU recommendations and power supply discussion thread - Tom's hardware

Below you will find MY standard list of recommended power supplies and beyond that this thread is intended as a landing place for questions or discussions regarding specific units, platforms or related PSU tech, all of which are all welcome to be discussed here. If it's related to power supplies...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Vic 40]

Looked in disk manager if there is an unknown drive?

 

[jcralphy]

The first thing I'd recommend doing, which could very easily cause those, or any other symptoms on any system, is replace that horrible power supply. Aerocool just sells some of the worst power supplies on the market from any of the "known" brands. Most of what Aerocool sells is very low quality budget hardware overall, but it's power supplies are particularly poor quality.

I would not be at all surprised to find that there is a problem on the rail supplying the drives or with one of the cables or rails on that unit. I personally know of two members with systems that were irrevocably damaged by 600w Integrator power supplies in the past.

Certainly this COULD be a motherboard issue, and maybe it is, but it will be impossible to tell without a known good power supply of reliable good quality installed, and that unit, especially since it's 3 years old and likely had a three year warranty to begin with, would be my primary suspect. Even if it's NOT the problem, you want it out of your system before it has a chance to harm any other components, if it hasn't already.

Discussion - PSU recommendations and power supply discussion thread - Tom's hardware

Below you will find MY standard list of recommended power supplies and beyond that this thread is intended as a landing place for questions or discussions regarding specific units, platforms or related PSU tech, all of which are all welcome to be discussed here. If it's related to power supplies...

forums.tomshardware.com

Fascinating, power supplies are certainly the thing I am least knowledgable with in my system. I reckon this is the more likely cause, as I had tested the system with a MSi B450-A Pro Max motherboard and had similar results. I sent it back suspecting it was the cause, but symptoms have continued.

I have been planning to upgrade to a gtx 3080 when they become more widely available, what kind of power level should I aim for if I replace my current 1070 card?

 

[jcralphy]

Looked in disk manager if there is an unknown drive?

There was the first time I checked it, it has disappeared since.

 

[Darkbreeze]

what kind of power level should I aim for if I replace my current 1070 card?

Read this:

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidias-rtx-3000-power-supply-requirements-PSU-shortage-2020



Then, before settling on a PSU model, read this:

Discussion - PSU recommendations and power supply discussion thread - Tom's hardware

Below you will find MY standard list of recommended power supplies and beyond that this thread is intended as a landing place for questions or discussions regarding specific units, platforms or related PSU tech, all of which are all welcome to be discussed here. If it's related to power supplies...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[jcralphy]

Read this:

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidias-rtx-3000-power-supply-requirements-PSU-shortage-2020



Then, before settling on a PSU model, read this:

Discussion - PSU recommendations and power supply discussion thread - Tom's hardware

Below you will find MY standard list of recommended power supplies and beyond that this thread is intended as a landing place for questions or discussions regarding specific units, platforms or related PSU tech, all of which are all welcome to be discussed here. If it's related to power supplies...

forums.tomshardware.com

Yikes that's a lot more power than I currently use, is there any consequence to having surplus power until I upgrade my gpu?

 

[thepersonwithaface45]

Yikes that's a lot more power than I currently use, is there any consequence to having surplus power until I upgrade my gpu?

Nah, I run a 850W and got that originally because "just in case".
If you have a higher wattage PSU, it will only pull what you need to operate what you have connected to it, afaik.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yikes that's a lot more power than I currently use, is there any consequence to having surplus power until I upgrade my gpu?

No, there isn't. Not really. You really want to be using somewhere between 40-80% of the maximum capacity of the unit, but if you're outside that, so long as it's a high quality unit built using a solid platform, there are some considerations but they are mostly limited to the unit being slightly less efficient or potentially creating a small amount of additional waste/heat. If it's a good unit, it's negligible. If it's a poor quality unit, it could be substantial.

So long as you don't buy some cheap, and by cheap I mean mediocre or outright crappy model, unit, it is fine. In fact, you don't ever really have "surplus" power. The unit provides only what the hardware eats, with a small amount of additional lost to waste from lack of efficiency, which is exactly WHERE the efficiency ratings for plain/white, bronze, gold, platinum, titanium come into play. That is really the only part where efficiency has any relevance in selecting a unit AND, ONLY to the extent that you've already narrowed down your choices to units that are ALL quality platforms and now you are narrowing the selection based on efficiency.

So no, there aren't any appreciable consequences of having a unit that is larger than you need, especially if you know that at some point in the near future you ARE going to need it. It is fine. I ALWAYS recommend running a unit that is a minimum of 100-200w more than the maximum your system will ever pull from the wall socket anyhow. Most recommendations, like those at RealHardTechX, already incorporate that "buffer" as well.

 

[jcralphy]

No, there isn't. Not really. You really want to be using somewhere between 40-80% of the maximum capacity of the unit, but if you're outside that, so long as it's a high quality unit built using a solid platform, there are some considerations but they are mostly limited to the unit being slightly less efficient or potentially creating a small amount of additional waste/heat. If it's a good unit, it's negligible. If it's a poor quality unit, it could be substantial.

So long as you don't buy some cheap, and by cheap I mean mediocre or outright crappy model, unit, it is fine. In fact, you don't ever really have "surplus" power. The unit provides only what the hardware eats, with a small amount of additional lost to waste from lack of efficiency, which is exactly WHERE the efficiency ratings for plain/white, bronze, gold, platinum, titanium come into play. That is really the only part where efficiency has any relevance in selecting a unit AND, ONLY to the extent that you've already narrowed down your choices to units that are ALL quality platforms and now you are narrowing the selection based on efficiency.

So no, there aren't any appreciable consequences of having a unit that is larger than you need, especially if you know that at some point in the near future you ARE going to need it. It is fine. I ALWAYS recommend running a unit that is a minimum of 100-200w more than the maximum your system will ever pull from the wall socket anyhow. Most recommendations, like those at RealHardTechX, already incorporate that "buffer" as well.

Ok, using your guide (Which is fantastic by the way) I got myself a Corsair TX850M. I've fired up my system for the first time in a few days, and the screenshot below is now what I see. The (D drive is still missing in File Explorer, and I believe it's being read as the unkown Disk 0 in the manager.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I would contact Crucial and RMA the drive. There is no way that a drive which is correctly functional, after trying to switch motherboard headers and cables, on a board that other drives show up fine on, should be doing that.

Have you tried unplugging ALL other drives except the primary drive that contains the operating system to see if anything changes? Have you tried ALL of the SATA headers with this drive? Just to see?

This is weird. I'm bringing in somebody with more storage device experience than I have to offer an opinion.

 

[USAFRet]

Install and run the Crucial Storage Executive
https://www.crucial.com/support/storage-executive

If that fails, contact Crucial.
The warranty on that MX300 was 3 years.

 

[jcralphy]

Hello friends,
After a couple of tense moments and shaky restarts, the system seems to be showing all drives once more. I'm running system checks and diagnostics to see if my old psu has damaged anything else, but my main issue is solved. Thank you all for your time and help, it has been a wonderful learning experience.

 

[Darkbreeze]

👍