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.

 

[Ijack]

I don't think this page is detecting your OS version. More likely the hotfix is no longer applicable for x86 or x86_64 versions of Windows so only the IA64 one is now offered.

 

[rwpritchett]

That really sucks... last time I checked that hotfix page it listed all architectures, not just Itanium. WTF Microsoft?? Something is broken and you removed the fix?

bob19233- I still have a copy of the x64 hotfix. It's only 312KB. I could email it to you in a zip file if you can't find it available anywhere else.

I'm going to post this oddity on the MS TechNet forum and see what's up.

 

[snoman777]

Hey rwpritchett,

I'm having the same problem. MS took hotfix off site can you please email me the file I need the x64 .
my email is
Thanks so much.

 

[rwpritchett]

PM me your email address and I'll send you the Hotfix.

 

[swamon]

I have had the same problem back in the day but fixed it with a simple solution. This may or may not work for you guys. My detailed setup isn't necessary to lay out but quickly to explain I was running a .....

AMD Phenom II x4 965BE 125W
Gigabyte 790XTA-UD4
OCZ AMD Black Edition 8gigs of DDR3 1600Mhz
9 Hard Drives!!!!!!!
ATI Radeon 4870



.... much more to lay out but this is enough to get you to realize what I'm about to tell you. I had an Antec 500W PSU from my computer before that I used on this setup mainly because I was an idiot and was trying to see how far I could push that little sucker PSU ... lol yea doesnt make any sense huh? I obviously knew that a 4870 alone recommends a higher wattage than 500 but then again thats just a recommendation. Anyways one of my hdds kept disappearing after resuming from sleep mode and I knew it was because my PSU wasn't supplying it enough power. Besides the hdd issue everything else ran perfectly fine. Once I finally got my lazy butt up and went a bought a 1000W PSU, problem was solved.... Point of story, make sure you got the basics down, don't be lazy like me and make sure your PSU is providing the necessary wattage to run your "rig." I hope this helped. And to "rwpritchett" he posted that he was fighting a long boot up process for Windows 7..... I ran into the same problem. The easy fix? Update your BIOS!!! Took care of that problem for me. Went from a 2:15 mins boot-time down to about 45seconds. Hope that helps as well. Have a good day!!!!

 

[maydaydaughters]

Hey, Everybody!
I wanted to chime in my experience and resolution in hopes that it might help somebody.
My problem was that my 750g Western Digital Enterprise Edition sata drive suddenly started having issues. Specifically, transfer rates dropped ridiculously low (it would take two hours to copy a 250mb file). And, 95% of the time the drive would suddenly disappear from everywhere, as if it didn't even exist. But, it would show up again once I rebooted. The reboot never cured the slow transfer rate or the "disappearing drive". I thought I was about to lose 750g worth of data due to hard drive failure. Ironically, it's my backup drive.
I spent hours pouring over different solutions all over the internet. I tried everything people suggested; updating and tweaking the BIOS, reformatting and reinstalling the OS (Windows 7), installing the hotfix mentioned in this post, uninstall/reinstall drivers, 3rd party drivers for the controllers, trying different ports, a more powerful power supply, and a dozen other ideas that I've already forgotten.
NOBODY ever thought to mention that it might be the actual connection of the motherboard sata ports themselves. I finally decided to try a USB to IDE/SATA cable.
PRESTO!!!
It wasn't the hard drive. It was the sata port failing. I built the rig using and inexpensive Biostar motherboard. It's not the first Biostar that's failed on me. My lesson learned twice now; you get what you pay for, and risk losing everything.
In summary, don't assume hard drive failure. Think mobo failure. And, try using a USB to IDE/SATA cable (you should have one around anyway, right?).
Good luck!

 

[Blossom37]

I know this thread is for Win 7; however, I had the same problem with Win XP when I added two WD 500 GB drives. I added a 6-Port SATA ll 150 Host Card w/RAID and plugged my drives in to this. I did not set up the HDDs in a RAID array, but used the "Concatenation" setting to keep all the HDDs as individuals drives. Everything works fine now, with no loss in the standby mode.

 

[rwpritchett]

Thanks for sending in more troubleshooting tips.

On a related note, Microsoft has returned the Windows 7 hotfix KB977178 for both x86 and x64 architectures on their website. Earlier in this thread it was noted that MS removed all but the Itanium hotfix downloads.

Just in case someone stumbles across this thread looking for help.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey