[SOLVED] Help with disappearing drive

[simp1yamazn]

Several years ago, I think in 2014, I built a budget HTPC. ASRock mini-ITX mobo, AMD A6-6400K, 4GB RAM, 120GB sandisk SSD (C: ), 2TB harddrive. Over the years I've added more storage and now have 2x8tb harddrives (F: ) and (H: ).
The problem is that the F: drive keeps disappearing. Sometimes it disappears randomly when using the computer, sometimes it doesn't show up at all on boot-up. I've tried everything I can think of to get it to work correctly. Here are the troubleshooting steps I've taken so far:

• swapped SATA cables
• swapped SATA ports on the mobo
• swapped mobo
• update all available drivers
• swapped drive for a new one
• changed the drive letter to Z
• It's always the same drive that disappears, the F drive. H never gives me any problems.
• I swapped the F drive and H drive SATA cables and SATA ports between each other
• F drive does not have any performance issues when it's detected by windows. I can access the data on the HTPC and over my network without issue. Data transfer speeds are good, over 170mb/s
• I can usually get the missing drive to show up if I go to device manager and tell it to scan for hardware changes

Does anyone have any ideas as to what's going on? I feel like I've done my due diligence in normal troubleshooting and have come up empty handed.

 

[popatim]

Try changing the drive letter to Z:
If the issue clears up, I would look for another drive that had been assigned F: , like a card reader