Long story short: Downloaded Star Trek Bridge Crew today to play with some friends. Later I reconnected my main monitor (had been upstairs for work from home), but couldn't get my PC to wake up. I tried rebooting, and it wanted me to insert bootable media.
Checked the BIOS and it was only seeing one HD, and not the boot drive. I opened up the case and unplugged and replugged the drives; now it doesn't see any of them.
And ideas? I built this computer from parts about nine years ago. Thanks in advance!
Sure seems like a dead drive. Maybe try pulling that and hooking it up to a laptop and diagnosing?
Tuffalo buffalo Tuffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Tuffalo buffalo.
SW-0326-3336-1619
A dead boot drive? Why would that make the BIOS not recognize my other two HDDs?
The even LITTLER fremen!
SW 8367-1790-9698
Is it making any clicking sounds?
9 years is a long time for hard drives.
The easiest things can be ruled out by connecting the drive to another computer and only connecting one drive to the current system. (if it recognizes, you can then reconnect the others one by one)
If the drives work in another system, you can get a PCI sata card to see if it is maybe just that your sata ports on the mobo went bad. If the mobo went bad I suspect either the system wouldn't even get to the bios or other things would not be working like onboard sound and USB ports...
Being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster.
redfang#1780
Hrmmm. Didn't realize that. Weird. BIOS doesn't see any drives? Maybe stick a flash drive in a USB port and see if it sees that?
Tuffalo buffalo Tuffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Tuffalo buffalo.
SW-0326-3336-1619
Update: This morning the BIOS sees my boot drive (an SSD), but not the two traditional HDs.
Seems like either my SATA ports or the mobo, right? Very strange.
Edit: Computer just booted to Windows, but didn't have the 2 physical drives.
The even LITTLER fremen!
SW 8367-1790-9698
I think it is time for an upgrade regardless
Being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster.
redfang#1780
Yeah, that's undoubtedly true, but I've been putting it off since only game on console these days and don't really need a faster computer. I have a Surface Pro that I use for working from home right now.
I guess if I buy a new PC I can buy an enclosure to make one of my old HDDs into an external drive, at least for now.
The even LITTLER fremen!
SW 8367-1790-9698
Since you've messed around with the cables, it's possible you didn't attach them correctly this time. SATA cables back then were very fragile and easy to break, so double-check that the plastic bits haven't been busted off. (Newer ones are much stronger.)
The fact that the boot SSD disappeared and then came back is not very promising, however. I'd be inclined to think that your motherboard controller may be failing.
You *might* be able to work around the problem, if that actually is the problem, by buying a PCIe SATA controller card, but before doing that, verify that the drives still work when attached to another computer.
Nine years is a pretty good run; most PC components are designed to last about ten. It may just be time to replace CPU/motherboard/RAM, and maybe the video card. Be sure to test the power supply before buying any new parts; you could simply replace that too, just in case.
Can anyone recommend a decent (but not outrageously expensive) drive enclosure I can throw my 3.5" SATAs into?
Thanks!
The even LITTLER fremen!
SW 8367-1790-9698
If the Microcenter in Houston is still open, they have 3 Inland enclosures that are open box for $20. I have around 5-6 Inland enclosures that I've never had much problem with, mixed between 2.5" and 3.5".
GWJ Steam Key Master List
I've shopped there many times! I've lived close to it ever since it opened. Haven't been there in quite a while... I think the last time I went, I was buying one of my HDDs.
The even LITTLER fremen!
SW 8367-1790-9698
I haven't used their external enclosures, but "Icy Dock" makes some very nice bay adapters for reasonable prices. That is, they take up Y number of 5.25" bays and let you plug in X 3.5" drives.... I have a couple of 4-in-3 boxes from them that I quite like.