[SOLVED] Internal 4TB WD SATA Just Disappeared

[2Stressed2bClever]

Hi,

System specs:
Intel 9700K
ASUS Strix 2080Ti
2x16GB Corsair Veng 3000MHz DDR4
1xSamsung 970 Evo+ M.2 500GB (Windows 10)
1xSamsung 860 Evo SATA 500GB (Apps)
1xWD SATA HDD 1TB
1xWD SATA HDD 4TB (My Documents/vids/music/photos/ISOs)(the disk that has disappeared)
Corsair 850W PSU
3,000W UPS with dual surge protection

I have had some bad experiences with some Seagate drives in the past (3 of 'em dying out on me, one after the other) so I always have Intel's smart storage app running and I frequently check if there is any problem with my drives.

So, yesterday system had been running fine all day, the drive was fine too. I played some Rocket League (which stores it's config/replays on that drive) for a while and no problems at all. No warnings, no clickity sounds, no system slowdown, no crash or hanging, no BSOD, no errors, no telltale signs of any hardware problem. Everything running perfectly. So later I ran a new game (called DARQ) for the first time, that I recently installed from the Epic Store on the 860 Evo. Ran the game. It ran perfectly. Exited the game after a few levels and later clicked on a shortcut to a folder on the 4TB WD. Prompt says the location doesn't exist. I open "My Computer" and the drive had just disappeared!!!

I ran "Disk Management", nothing. Rescan Drives, nothing. Checked the "Device Manager", the drive doesn't appear. I uninstalled/reinstalled ACHI drivers, still nothing. There are no error reports for any hardware failure. I check the BIOS and even there the drive isn't being detected. Reseated the connections, changed the ports and cables. Still nothing. Something similar happened to me a few years back, came across a solution by some guy at the MS community forums (the MS people as usual had no freakin clue, their parrots were just reciting the same things over and over again, this guy was just a regular poster). It was something fairly simple and it worked perfectly, my drive reappeared and everything went back to normal. I actually saved that solution in a .txt file and kept it........ on the 4TB HD. I have tried for hours searching for that particular post again, but can't.

So.... can I get any help here? Would anybody know how to make a drive reappear that some cruddy code in the Windows OS made disappear? And to anyone who says it can't be Windows 'cuz BIOS. Yeah, I know bro, I know, but it is Windows... somehow.

Thanks.

 

[Ralston18]

Open Powershell as Admin and run the Get-Volume cmdlet.

Also try Get-Disk

Is the missing drive listed in the cmdlet results?

Reference:

https://shellgeek.com/how-to-get-free-disk-space-in-powershell/

 

[2Stressed2bClever]

Open Powershell as Admin and run the Get-Volume cmdlet.

Also try Get-Disk

Is the missing drive listed in the cmdlet results?

Reference:

https://shellgeek.com/how-to-get-free-disk-space-in-powershell/

Thank you for your reply.

I shut down the system completely, all power switches off, disconnected both HDDs, connected with their original cables. Booted up the system. Now the 4TB is back and the 1TB has disappeared. facepalm I ran the commands you suggested in the admin powershell, but the 1TB one is missing there as well.

Thanks again for trying to help, I'll keep my fingers crossed and hopefully the missing HD will magically reappear like the other one, and then I'm going zero HDD, by getting some 4TB SSDs and moving everything there.

 

[Ralston18]

Look in Reliability History for any drive related errors.

Reliability History is much more user friendly than Event Viewer plus Reliability History uses a timeline format that can prove quite useful.

For example some entries/errors that started to appear after DARQ was installed.....

Another thought is corrupted files:

Try "sfc /scannow" and "dism".

References

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161

Fix Windows Update errors via DISM or System Update Readiness tool - Windows Server | Microsoft Docs

And I am beginning to wonder about the PSU. 850 watts should be ample but if the PSU is starting to falter and fail in some manner then the problem(s) may get worse.

All data backed up at least 2 x to other locations off of the current system?

Noted that you swapped in other cables etc.. Do you have another PSU to test with?