Two SATA drives suddenly won't coexist

[jimigunne]

I have a MSI 990FXA-GD80 mobo which is running Windows 7. The boot drive is an SSD HDD. I also have two WD SATA drives, D and E. Today, the E drive disappeared from my system. I found that I could get it to reappear in Windows and work again, by disconnecting the D drive. What is going on is that the PC will no longer load/utilize both drives, its one or the other. And it is apparently an issue with motherboard/bios. When I check BIOS, the inop drive is not listed. I haven't done any update in MSI BIOS, and I didn't make any change in the BIOS settings when this problem started. Any ideas? I need them both on-line again. What a pain to have to shut down PC, and then unplug power from the D drive if I have to access the E drive!

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, jimigunne!

I'm sorry to hear about your detection issues with the WD HDDs. 🙁 I'd recommend you to try swapping the SATA cable of the inoperative HDD with a different one and also try connecting it to a different SATA port on your mobo. It could be a faulty cable or a faulty port. If you have access to another computer, I'd also suggest you try plugging the HDD there and see if it will be properly recognized there.

Keep me posted with the troubleshooting!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[jimigunne]

I have confirmed that it is not a bad drive or SATA channel, or SATA interface cable through swapping.
I also discovered a further related problem: I have a external USB HDD--it no longer will show in Windows Explorer and work. I do hear the usual "ding" when I connect it , and again when I pull connector out. I can plug into the same USB connection a thumb drive, a scanner, and a printer, and they all work OK! I guess I could test the external USB HDD on my sons laptop, but I hardly think it just happened to go bad at the same time as the internal HDD problem cropped up. Very strange.
Would it be worth a try to reset the mobo completely back to default? Maybe its time to get another similar MSI mobo, and if its not the fix, at least I have a backup mobo for when it does die.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there again, jimigunne!

I'd recommend you to test the external on the other computer before jumping into resetting BIOS. I'd also suggest you try using a different USB cable with the HDD and see if that would get it properly recognized. Another important thing you should do is run the brand-specific diagnostic utility from the HDD manufacturer. It would help you determine the health and SMART status of all your internal as well as external drives. If you are unable to find those on their official website, you can also refer to some third-party testing tools from this thread.

Hope it helps you. Keep me posted.
SuperSoph_WD