HDD invisible after Windows re-install/fresh start. Visible in BIOS.

[d3_giigii]

Mobo: MSI 970A-G46.
Drives: Seagate Barracuda 2TB HDD (In question), Samsung 850 EVO 250GB (Boot).
OS: Windows 10 Home 64 bit.

Situation:
Decided to clean up a couple years of junk off C:\ via a Windows re-install followed by a Fresh Start to remove some bloat. Prior to re-installing Windows I moved over sentimental data from C:\ to D:\, and disconnected the power/SATA to the drive (which worked fine beforehand) for ease of mind. After the Fresh Start I installed my essentials (7zip, Malwarebytes, CCleaner, Anaconda3/Python3.6, MS Visual Studio 2017, MPV, FFmpeg, Chrome), and then Windows Subsystem for Linux. After a shutdown I re-plugged the power and SATA to the HDD, booted it up, drive is invisible to File Explorer.

Not the first time I've messed around with drives so I popped open the Device Manager, and Disk Management; The drive was invisible there as well. Restarted and went into BIOS, drive is visible.

What I've Tried:

• 
  Unplugging/Swapping/Re-plugging power/SATA cables to both drives and ports (Multiple times - just to say cables/ports are working correctly).
  Scan for hardware changes in Disk Management and Device Manager. (Multiple times - always invisible).
  Determine visibility via diskpart list volume (Multiple times - always invisible).
  Scanned with Seagate Toolkit, and Seatools both (Multiple times - always invisible).
  Ran Windows Memory Diagnostic (no errors), reset BIOS via battery, ran Memory Diagnostic again (no errors).
  Turned off Windows Subsystem for Linux (Just to say I did).

TL;DR: Re-installed Windows 10 and drive is visible in BIOS, but not Windows. Tried usual solutions with no change.

 

[CircuitDaemon]

Do you have another computer you could use to plug in the hard drive to make sure it's still working? Your post is so complete of troubleshooting and screenshots that I can't really come up with a theory on what could have happened. You've already tried everything I would have tried too.

Does the BIOS detect the drive's correct name/model/serial number or whatever?

 

[d3_giigii]

Do you have another computer you could use to plug in the hard drive to make sure it's still working? Your post is so complete of troubleshooting and screenshots that I can't really come up with a theory on what could have happened. You've already tried everything I would have tried too.

Does the BIOS detect the drive's correct name/model/serial number or whatever?

No other computer right now; Going over a friends tomorrow to test it out in his rig just to be 100% sure it is not cables/ports.

The BIOS is detecting the correct model number. I'm hesitant to say the drive is dead from physical damage considering it has only moved 3 times while still inside the case. Twice when moving the case from standing to laying, and once when switching the seat of the drive because of changing cables.

 

[CircuitDaemon]

Well, all I can think of now is that it's a weird BIOS compatibility issue. You may try updating the BIOS ( https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/970A-G46.html#down-bios ) But before you do that, try putting the SSD on the SATA 1 port and the hard drive on the SATA 6. If it doesn't work, then go ahead and attempt the BIOS update.

 

[d3_giigii]

Well, all I can think of now is that it's a weird BIOS compatibility issue. You may try updating the BIOS ( https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/970A-G46.html#down-bios ) But before you do that, try putting the SSD on the SATA 1 port and the hard drive on the SATA 6. If it doesn't work, then go ahead and attempt the BIOS update.

I put the SSD and HDD on SATA 1/6 respectively. The SSD showed, however the HDD did not... I flipped them around and both showed (At this point HDD has shown in BIOS from 5 out of 6 Ports). I'm confused as to why the HDD doesn't show on SATA 6, but since it shows on every other port I'm not sure if that points to a specific issue.

I am going to try updating the BIOS now.

 

[CircuitDaemon]

Well, all I can think of now is that it's a weird BIOS compatibility issue. You may try updating the BIOS ( https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/970A-G46.html#down-bios ) But before you do that, try putting the SSD on the SATA 1 port and the hard drive on the SATA 6. If it doesn't work, then go ahead and attempt the BIOS update.

I put the SSD and HDD on SATA 1/6 respectively. The SSD showed, however the HDD did not... I flipped them around and both showed (At this point HDD has shown in BIOS from 5 out of 6 Ports). I'm confused as to why the HDD doesn't show on SATA 6, but since it shows on every other port I'm not sure if that points to a specific issue.

I am going to try updating the BIOS now.

Let me know how it goes. By showing or not you mean at the BIOS only right? Still nothing on windows?

 

[d3_giigii]

Well, all I can think of now is that it's a weird BIOS compatibility issue. You may try updating the BIOS ( https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/970A-G46.html#down-bios ) But before you do that, try putting the SSD on the SATA 1 port and the hard drive on the SATA 6. If it doesn't work, then go ahead and attempt the BIOS update.

I put the SSD and HDD on SATA 1/6 respectively. The SSD showed, however the HDD did not... I flipped them around and both showed (At this point HDD has shown in BIOS from 5 out of 6 Ports). I'm confused as to why the HDD doesn't show on SATA 6, but since it shows on every other port I'm not sure if that points to a specific issue.

I am going to try updating the BIOS now.

Let me know how it goes. By showing or not you mean at the BIOS only right? Still nothing on windows?

Yes exactly. Sorry to keep you waiting; It looks like I will have to wait until this afternoon too update the BIOS since my BIOS doesn't seem too like my particular USB drive, but that's outside the scope of this thread.

I will post again after updating the BIOS in around ~10-12 hours. Thanks for your help so far.

 

[d3_giigii]

Found the solution. It's a Sharpie Permanent Marker that you can use to label your drives. Useful in situations where you have two identical drives, but one of them is dead whereas the other is not...

 

[CircuitDaemon]

Found the solution. It's a Sharpie Permanent Marker that you can use to label your drives. Useful in situations where you have two identical drives, but one of them is dead whereas the other is not...

So you had two hard drives, one was already dead and the other wasn't and all that happened is that you accidentally confused one for the other? I went to sleep thinking on a possible cause for your problem so I'd like to get some closure haha.

 

[d3_giigii]

Found the solution. It's a Sharpie Permanent Marker that you can use to label your drives. Useful in situations where you have two identical drives, but one of them is dead whereas the other is not...

So you had two hard drives, one was already dead and the other wasn't and all that happened is that you accidentally confused one for the other? I went to sleep thinking on a possible cause for your problem so I'd like to get some closure haha.

Yep... I lost it for a few minutes considering how much time I spent troubleshooting before I even created the thread, and afterward. Good thing I found out when I did though. Was about to give up and buy a new HDD.

Thanks for the help though, sorry it was such an anti-climactic fix.

 

[CircuitDaemon]

Found the solution. It's a Sharpie Permanent Marker that you can use to label your drives. Useful in situations where you have two identical drives, but one of them is dead whereas the other is not...

So you had two hard drives, one was already dead and the other wasn't and all that happened is that you accidentally confused one for the other? I went to sleep thinking on a possible cause for your problem so I'd like to get some closure haha.

Yep... I lost it for a few minutes considering how much time I spent troubleshooting before I even created the thread, and afterward. Good thing I found out when I did though. Was about to give up and buy a new HDD.

Thanks for the help though, sorry it was such an anti-climactic fix.

That's ok, I've been there before. If everyone made their posts as clear as yours everyone would be getting fixes ASAP. Glad it's working now.