Windows 7 Pro doesn't always recognize data drives...please help!

Brian8377

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May 5, 2012
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Hello! I'm having a problem with my PC where windows 7 Pro isn't always recognizing my data drives. It seems to be intermittent, and I don't know how to diagnose this. Here's the situation...this PC is a dedicated music studio workstation, used to record audio. Initially, I had 3 drives on the PC...one 90gig ssd for OS, one 256gig ssd for samples, and one 2TB hdd for recording audio. Everything was fine in this configuration. I ended up needing more space, boh on the OS drive and for samples, so, I cloned (ghosted) the 90gig OS drive to the 256gig sample drive...this seemed to work just fine, no issues.

I then formatted the 90gig drive to use for sample storage, as well as added 2 new 500gig ssd's for samples as well. So the final configuration is:

256gig OS drive
90gig sample drive
500gig sample drive x2
2TB hdd for audio

Now, about 50-60% of the time when I first start up the PC, it won't recognize all the drives. Windows always loads, it just doesn't see all the data drives. I actually have to re-boot in order to get it to see them. Funny thing is, when this happens, windows doesn't usually shut down fully. It will shut down and turn off the monitors, but the PC doesn't actually turn off, most times I have to push and hold the power buttonto turn it off. Then I turn it back on, and it says something about "overclocking has failed!" and asks me to go into the bios, so I do, butall I have to do it exit without changing anything and windows will bott fine ad all drives will be present.

Now, I'm not doing any overclocking of anything, so I don't know how or why this message comes up, or if that's just some response to me having to force the PC to shut down and restart...?

My system is the following:
Asus Sabertooth X79 mobo
Intel i7 3930k cpu
32 gigs g.skill DDR3 1600 ram (8x4gig sticks)
Corsair AX850 gold power supply
Nvidia NVS450 Quadro video card

Drives:
Samsung 830 256gig OS drive
Corsair Force GT 90gig sample drive
Samsung 840 EVO 500gig sample drives x2
Hitachi 7k3000 2TB audio HDD

Any help on how to proceed would be appreciated...thanks!

Brian
 
Solution

chosen12k6

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Try this go into your BIOS, head over to the CPU section, i forget what Asus calls it. Plus I dont know if you have UEFI or non UEFI BIOs, if you have UEFI it will be easier to locate. Regardless, your best bet is to go into that CPU, and make sure your voltage and clock settings are stock.

Next dumb question but prior to formatting that HDD/SSD, did you partition off the old Windows OS. A lot of times people dont then they format and data is still present on that HDD/SSD. If not make sure you do a search (show hidden files on that SSD and make sure no Win files are present.

To be honest it sounds like a BIOs error that has nothing to do with your SSD/HDD changes, since it states OC has failed. If resetting to default does not work. Make sure your BIOs is up to date, if not do that.
 

Brian8377

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It is a UEFI bios, and it is up to date. How do I know what the settings are supposed to be so as not to overclock it? I've never manually changed the voltage settings, but I did recently upgrade from home premium to Pro and also recently updated the bios to the current version. Maybe something got changed during that process?

I've never overclocked anything and don't know anything about it or how to do it...could you tell me what specific settings I'm looking for and what they should be?

Also, I'm assuming you're referring to the 90gig drive that I had originally for my OS drive? I think I may have just done a quick format I don't remember, but I did have to go into DOS to reclaim the 100MB partition that windows creates so that I could just have one full size partition. Are you saying that there could be something on that drive affecting the system during startup? If so, wouldn't an easy way to tell be to unplug that drive and restart a few times to see if the problem goes away?
 

chosen12k6

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Sometimes things happen cause and effect if you will. Seriously, I have never done a lot a things and somehow they happen, but usually it occurs after I recently did something to my PC.

There should be a restore to default somewhere in your UEFI selections, Do you have it running on one of their presets i.e. Turbo, that automatically overclocks your system without you doing anything.
 

Brian8377

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You know what...I do remember something...there were 3 modes...something like "power saving" "normal" and "performance"...I wonder if that has something to do with it??? Let me dig into my mobo manual and see what it says...I'll check it in just a bit when I get back to the house...thanks for your reply!

I'll post back what I find, I hope this takes care of it...
 

chosen12k6

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Those are the presets I am talking about they are right there when you access your BIOS. The preset that overclocks should look like fire come out of it. Not looking at my bios right now but I am pretty sure its fire or has like fire colors orange yellow red.

That preset will overclock your cpu matter of fact if I remember correctly it will overclock everything your ram and cpu. Tip: If you do get interested in overclocking dont use the presets, manually adjust your clocks and voltage this will allow you to monitor a safe overclock.

First time I tried overclocking I used the preset and it kept crashing, bought an aftermarket heatsink and cooler, manually adjusted the clocks and i was hitting past the preset overclocks
 

Brian8377

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Yeah, I have the 3930k processor, so it needed a big heatsink, bought the Noctua with the dual fans...it keeps the processor pretty cool for anything I do...it does this on first startup though too, so I can't see heat being an issue...

I'll check that when I get back...!
 

chosen12k6

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I updated my response after you commented lol. That preset overclocks everything ram and cpu.
 
Solution

Brian8377

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Ok, so I tried the "Normal" and "Power Saving" presets in the bios, and the issue still persisted. The over clocking error did go away though, I haven't seen that since...but the ssd/HDD detection is still wrong.

So I unplugged the 90gig ssd that used to have the OS on it...same scenario. I then moved the OS drive to a different sata port, and this seems to have cleared up the issue. I had the OS drive on the Marvell sata 3 port...this was intentional as I was using the faster native intel sata 3 ports for the sample SSD's since they need to be as fast as possible. I moved the OS drive to one of the intel sata 2 ports and since then have restarted several times and it recognized all drives each time.

So, for now it seems to be working...will post back if that changes...! Thanks for all the help!