Windows 7: Hard Drives Disappear after Sleep Resume

[rwpritchett]

I installed Windows 7 x64 on my HTPC and have found that after resuming from S3 sleep, my media drive (1TB WD 10EACS) is missing. The drive is not seen in Disk Management and is not discovered when I scan for new hardware. The only way to get the hard drive back is to reboot. Power and data cables are secure. This exact build did not have this issue when running Vista. Win7 is the only change. If I enter S3 and then immediately wake the system the HDD is still there. The problem seems to occur when the HTPC is in standby for a longer period... like overnight.

This is on a GA-MA69GM-S2H motherboard with the SB600 SATA controller running the latest drivers in AHCI mode. I switched to IDE mode and the problem has not occurred for two days. (/crosses fingers)

This is a critical flaw for HTPC use since S3 sleep is a must. My HTPC missed several TV recordings because when it woke up my media drive was gone and I'd like to prevent this from happening again. (This really reduces the WAF!)

I posted on the TechNet forum with others having the same problem here: HDD not waking from sleep Windows 7 RTM?

I thought I'd open the topic for discussion here at Tom's since the forum here is more robust. Anyone else observing this behavior in Windows 7? Does anyone know of a fix for AHCI mode?

Please share your stories/experiences.

 

[wak101]

yeah,i've applied the Hotfix, its my large secondary HDD, a WD 1TB, its still disappearing, it's frigging annoying, and I swear it's getting worse!

 

[rwpritchett]

It's been ages since I had one of my two WD 1TB drives disappear. I don't know if it was truly the hotfix that solved the problem. I've changed a lot of things since I started this thread: new motherboard, re-installed Win7, and new boot drive.

Have you tried different SATA drivers?

 

[Lazy-B]

It's been ages since I had one of my two WD 1TB drives disappear. I don't know if it was truly the hotfix that solved the problem. I've changed a lot of things since I started this thread: new motherboard, re-installed Win7, and new boot drive.

Have you tried different SATA drivers?

Same problem. I've got a 2nd HDD that disappears after sleep mode. Only after a cold boot will Win 7 again recognize that 2nd drive. Makes the 2nd drive nearly useless.

Drivers are Microsoft for both drives. Windows 7 Pro x64 on a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R mobo. BIOS defaults to IDE management of HDDs. Boot drive is a 1 TB WD 1001FALS (Caviar Black). 2nd drive is a 300 GB Seagate Barracuda HDD. 2nd drive functions perfectly before it disappears.

 

[rwpritchett]

Did you try the Hotfix?

 

[Lazy-B]

Did you try the Hotfix?

No, I've checked out the MS site though. The description of the problem MS gives didn't seem appropriate for me.

 

[Lazy-B]

Did you try the Hotfix?

My apologies. More explanation. I didn't try because...
1) 2nd HDD just disappears. No error messages are generated until some software tries to access the 2nd drive which is missing to Win 7.
2) 2nd drive isn't particlularly large - only 300 Gb.
3) 2nd drive isn't SATA II; it's a PATA 133

Do you think it would work anyway?

 

[rwpritchett]

Try installing the Intel drivers (or 3rd party controller if that is the case) for the controller instead of using the default microsoft drivers and see if that helps. Also, might want to try a different IDE cable.

 

[SUMB44]

My apologies. More explanation. I didn't try because...
1) 2nd HDD just disappears. No error messages are generated until some software tries to access the 2nd drive which is missing to Win 7.
2) 2nd drive isn't particlularly large - only 300 Gb.
3) 2nd drive isn't SATA II; it's a PATA 133

Do you think it would work anyway?

@Lazy-B: Have you had any success achieving a resolution to your problem. I find myself having exactly the same symptoms you are experiencing. My 1.5TB Seagate is disappearing after a period of inactivity, and only generates an error when some application needs to access that drive. If you've resolved the issue, what was your solution?

 

[sbguitar92]

Hey, I have read through all of the posts and I have the exact same issue. I have a Gigabyte EP45-UD3P with a 500gb Seagate boot drive and a 600gb WD data disk and 2 lg sata dvd drives using AHCI. After S3 sleep, my WD disk disappears but no other drives (including the dvd drives), and it is extremely frustrating. I have not applied the hotfix because I am not getting any BSOD or any error that they are stating. I was wondering if all of you guys have Gigabyte motherboards?

 

[rwpritchett]

Gigabyte boards here too.

You shouldn't see a BSOD unless it's your boot drive that disappears, I believe. If a secondary drive disappears it just becomes unavailable.

Try the hotfix I say.

 

[sbguitar92]

I'll try the hotfix. I think it may be a Gigabyte mobo thing because all of the cases I've read about on the internet has to do with people with Gigabyte mobos.

 

[Lazy-B]

@Lazy-B: Have you had any success achieving a resolution to your problem. I find myself having exactly the same symptoms you are experiencing. My 1.5TB Seagate is disappearing after a period of inactivity, and only generates an error when some application needs to access that drive. If you've resolved the issue, what was your solution?

No luck yet. I'm reluctant to try the hotfix, so I'm just waiting for MS to fix the issue. I use my 2nd 300 GB drive for backups weekly, so I can accept doing them manually by setting the sleep function to "never" in Windows 7.

A poor solution I know, but since I can't get my system to automatically stay awake to do scheduled tasks yet either, it's the best I can do for now.

 

[bouldergeek]

FWIW, I had this problem on Win7-64 with a WD 750GB secondary drive, on a Gigabyte H55M board. The ACPI -> IDE switch did not resolve my issue.

I installed the MS hotfix, with the latest date. It seems to have resolved the issues. Still using MS drivers for disk drives.

 

[sbguitar92]

After I have applied the hotfix, I have put my computer in S3 sleep overnight and there is no disappearance of drives. Thank you to everyone who has helped.

 

[Lazy-B]

FWIW, I had this problem on Win7-64 with a WD 750GB secondary drive, on a Gigabyte H55M board. The ACPI -> IDE switch did not resolve my issue.

I installed the MS hotfix, with the latest date. It seems to have resolved the issues. Still using MS drivers for disk drives.

Finally tried the hotfix. Same disappearing 2nd HDD continues for me, even with the fix. Haven't tried controller drivers other than MS yet. My BIOS defaults to IDE, where I've left it.

 

[mojo567]

I have the same problem: G45 motherboard, Windows 7 64bit, 1 OCZ Vertex SSD (OS), 1 WD 1TB Green HDD (Data). I use the Microsoft AHCI drivers because the Intel ones do not pass TRIM commands to the SDD. The WD HDD disappears resuming from S3 standby.

I tried to go from AHCI to IDE in the BIOS settings but the system fails to boot.
How to do go from AHCI to IDE without reinstalling the OS?

You should not change the BIOS directly. If you do this, you may need to reinstall windows7. The correct procedure is to first let the windows registry know that you want to use the IDE drivers instead of the AHCI. After doing this, reboot the computer and change the BIOS. Once Windows starts up it will install the IDE drivers and you will need to reboot again.

Here is a windows support article that gives you step by step instructions. Hope this helps.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

 

[everluck]

I'm having this same issue. It just started a few hours ago, and can be repeated consistently. I've had W7 installed since launch. Affected drive is a 1TB Caviar Black. Using an Asus P6T deluxe.

 

[rwpritchett]

Follow Up:

Due to some hard to track down bugs on my HTPC, I ended my troubleshooting and just did a full re-install of Windows 7. Most recent drivers running in AHCI mode, all apps installed, and all Windows updates included.

I purposely did NOT install the Hotfix just to see if anything has changed since last fall that may have solved this problem. Sure enough, later in the day after my OS re-install my Western Digital 1TB Black media drive disappeared. I didn't even have to wake from S3 sleep to make it disappear. It just vanished while the system was up and running. I guess this confirms that the Hotfix is still needed and Microsoft has not issued an automatic update to fix the problem.

I installed the Hotfix and so far no disappearing problems.

 

[Guest]

GA P55-UD4, Windows 7, WD Green 2TB drive. Solved the BSOD by running hotfixes. Drive still disappeared after an hour. Ran latest GA drivers, still same problem. Bios updates don't appear to address this issue, but am going to try; will post update..

 

[Guest]

I have a Asus P6t Deluxe V2 Bios version 901 with a Intel SSD as a primary HHD and a WD Green Caviar 1 TB as secondary HHD both SATA AHCI mode. I had same behavior, secondary drvie desappear after sleep. I applied the must recent hot fix for W7 64 bit (my OS) dated 06/07/2010 hF 206215. Seen like this was the right solution for it, know PC go to sleep and wakeup with both drives ready.

 

[Guest]

One PC here is Win98SE, Asus P2B-Board. Drive D: occasionally does not show up in Windows Explorer, but can be made to reappear by restarting Explorer.

Another PC was just bought second hand - GA BX2000 Board. Win XP
clean install on C: Samsung SV0844A (master). D: was DVD-ROM drive.
After System was running fine added second drive ST320413A (slave). Repartitioned that from XP (total drive is one partition, E:\), reformatted
from XP.
After restart of system second drive E:\ did not show up in Win XP,
neither in explorer nor in disk management, in BIOS however all fine.
Run hardware assistant, found drive, then showed up in WinXP too.
This behaviour was reproducible.
Renamed DVD-Rom to F:, renamed second HDU D:, renamed DVD-Rom
to E:. Still same behaviour: Second HDU would only show up after having been searched for with Hardware Assistant.
At last I put some files onto the D: hard disk, and to my surprise this
morning it was quite present in XP from the start onwards.

I was stunned about the number of reports I found in Google on
drives disappearing from Windows. I do not think, that it is a problem caused by hardware.

 

[rimmi2002]

I have the same problem where my 1 terabyte Drive disappears after windows goes to sleep. I am running Windows 7 ultimate 64-bit. I tried dling the latest intel matrix drivers and run the exe and unfortunately get the following error:

" This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing this software"

I am running AHCI mode. I have 3 SATA hardrives and 1 IDE DVD-Drive. Any idea why the drivers from intel are not installing?

These are the drivers I am using --> Drivers Link

 

[atheus]

My system:
Win7 with Asus P5E Deluxe
OCZ Vertex 2 120GB primary drive
WD Caviar Green 1TB media drive

I have the same vanishing drive problem with my WD storage drive ever since I switched my primary drive from a WD Raptor 74gb to the SSD, although the 1TB often vanishes while I'm using it - it sometimes reappears out of the blue as well. When it is gone, using Disk Administrator to rescan the disks does not find it. It is strange that I never had this problem before using an SSD.

Another symptom I've encountered that I'm not sure is related is my computer has started hanging for periods between 1 minute and 2 hours at the "Starting Windows" screen when booting, and will sometimes hang for a while during shutdown as well - also new since I switched to the SSD. Has anyone else experienced this along with their vanishing secondary drive?

I get the same error as rimmi2002 when trying to install the matrix drivers. I haven't tried the hotfix, since I don't get BSOD, but I may give it a go later today (For some reason the hotfix request system is down right now).

 

[rwpritchett]

Definitely try the hotfix. I don't think you get a BSOD unless the drive that disappears is your OS drive. I've also experienced the long bootup but I can't remember what fixed it. I believe I played around with different AHCI drivers to solve that one.

 

[bob19233]

I can't apply the hotfix.

I run a dell xps9000, win7 64-bit, with a secondary internal 1TB WD Black drive. The WD drops out as most people experienced. However, when I try to download the hotfix, the site only lets me download the ia64 version, which then says it's not applicable to my system.

Seems like the 'system spec check' on microsoft.com is flawed. How can I download the x64 hotfix?