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Hard Drives Disappeared

Tags:
  • 8.1
  • Hard Drives
  • Windows
  • CD-Rom
  • Windows 8
  • professional
  • 8
  • pro
  • disappear
Last response: in Windows 8
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September 5, 2014 6:21:35 AM

I'm using Windows 8.1 Pro, and when I go to "This PC" section, most of my drives have disappeared. My primary drive (an SSD) with the operating system is showing, but my two secondary drives (for games and documents etc.) are not showing, neither is the CD drive, which usually shows even when there isn't a CD in the drive.

I put a CD into the drive, the drive appeared in "This PC", it ran the CD, then as soon as I ejected the CD and refreshed, it disappeared again.
I'm also currently downloading a new game through steam to one of the disappearing drives, if that's any help?

The two disappearing drives are both Seagate Barracuda 1Tb HDD's.

More about : hard drives disappeared

September 5, 2014 7:01:34 AM

There is a FOLDER OPTION checkbox to "display empty drives". I use this to 'not display' an empty optical drive (often "D:"). So my users will see C: and E:, F:, whatever... but your subsequent HDDs are not empty.

My next step would be to do a Computer Shutdown-Restart and go into the BIOS Setup and see if drives are listed there, then let Windows restart completely and, if the condition persists, go to the Control Panel's Administrative Tools,.. Computer Management... Disk Management and see if my drives are showing up there.
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September 5, 2014 9:33:40 AM

christinebcw said:
There is a FOLDER OPTION checkbox to "display empty drives". I use this to 'not display' an empty optical drive (often "D:"). So my users will see C: and E:, F:, whatever... but your subsequent HDDs are not empty.

My next step would be to do a Computer Shutdown-Restart and go into the BIOS Setup and see if drives are listed there, then let Windows restart completely and, if the condition persists, go to the Control Panel's Administrative Tools,.. Computer Management... Disk Management and see if my drives are showing up there.


I tried all of this myself, right up until opening the BIOS. I restarted my PC and they appeared again. Very strange...
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September 5, 2014 12:45:25 PM

"Flakey listings" isn't a good sign, either, by the way. (Gee, let's throw cold water on ya, eh?)

WinOutreach's possibilities would be the next stop.

Long ago, I could refresh a BIOS listing of attached devices by doing Re-Saves in BIOS. This was usually a sign that the motherboard's battery was dying, losing power to retain the settings from one Power-On to the next.

If you have these same circumstances repeat, with the same "re-enter BIOS, re-save savings" as the solution, I suppose 'flakey motherboard battery' might again be a possible issue.

Or perhaps - there's a Motherboard Chipset Driver that needs to be re-installed? Or an updated one for this model of computer and the Win8.1 64 vs 32?
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September 6, 2014 7:56:59 AM

WinOutreach2 said:
After christinebcw’s steps, if you are still having an issue where your drives do not appear you should also update your systems storage controller drivers and check the local or group policies for Hide these specified drives in My Computer and the NoDrives registry keys.


christinebcw said:
"Flakey listings" isn't a good sign, either, by the way. (Gee, let's throw cold water on ya, eh?)

WinOutreach's possibilities would be the next stop.

Long ago, I could refresh a BIOS listing of attached devices by doing Re-Saves in BIOS. This was usually a sign that the motherboard's battery was dying, losing power to retain the settings from one Power-On to the next.

If you have these same circumstances repeat, with the same "re-enter BIOS, re-save savings" as the solution, I suppose 'flakey motherboard battery' might again be a possible issue.

Or perhaps - there's a Motherboard Chipset Driver that needs to be re-installed? Or an updated one for this model of computer and the Win8.1 64 vs 32?


My PC is custom built, so it would need updates from the component manufacturers directly, not through HP, dell or whoever else. The motherboard itself is a Gigabyte Z87-HD3, no older that about 4 months, brand new out the box, I don't know if that makes a difference?

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September 6, 2014 10:15:38 AM

This Z87 chipset is mature (no, I won't say OLD) so the drivers should be fairly stable, by this date. I would go back to the Gigabyte support site and download my OS's latest updates - even if you think those have been installed. Save them to your hard-drive or onto a DVD or USB stick for later re-use.

"Flakey" intermittent listings make me ponder the "sequence of driver installation". And having these latest drivers available might tempt me to re-RUN the "chipset" installs. I see that, for this motherboard, there are two - an Intel INF driver and then the Intel Management driver. I'd probably install the INF Driver first, then reboot, and then install that Intel Management Engine.

After another reboot, I'd then consider reinstalling the Intel SATA drive. But not at first. I'd probably use that computer for hours, days, weeks and see if a re-load of those two basic drivers had any changes in flakey behavior.

(EDIT: as I looked thru these Gigabyte drivers, I notice some are fairly new, by the way - May, 2014. That's pretty new for a 'mature' motherboard. Typically, this means 'we're trying to solve known-issues with these updates.')
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September 6, 2014 12:02:43 PM

christinebcw said:
This Z87 chipset is mature (no, I won't say OLD) so the drivers should be fairly stable, by this date. I would go back to the Gigabyte support site and download my OS's latest updates - even if you think those have been installed. Save them to your hard-drive or onto a DVD or USB stick for later re-use.

"Flakey" intermittent listings make me ponder the "sequence of driver installation". And having these latest drivers available might tempt me to re-RUN the "chipset" installs. I see that, for this motherboard, there are two - an Intel INF driver and then the Intel Management driver. I'd probably install the INF Driver first, then reboot, and then install that Intel Management Engine.

After another reboot, I'd then consider reinstalling the Intel SATA drive. But not at first. I'd probably use that computer for hours, days, weeks and see if a re-load of those two basic drivers had any changes in flakey behavior.

(EDIT: as I looked thru these Gigabyte drivers, I notice some are fairly new, by the way - May, 2014. That's pretty new for a 'mature' motherboard. Typically, this means 'we're trying to solve known-issues with these updates.')


Awesome! I'll try all of this, thanks.
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September 6, 2014 12:12:22 PM

(Seeing how many May 2014 drivers are included, I'd probably re-install all of those. I would install the VGA-Video Driver after those 2 Intel Chipsets, then the SATA, then VGA, then HDMI, Audio then LAN.)
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September 6, 2014 12:56:12 PM

christinebcw said:
(Seeing how many May 2014 drivers are included, I'd probably re-install all of those. I would install the VGA-Video Driver after those 2 Intel Chipsets, then the SATA, then VGA, then HDMI, Audio then LAN.)


Is it worth installing the video drivers? I have a graphics card so I don't use the onboard graphics.
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September 6, 2014 1:22:47 PM

I would probably go ahead and check to see if newer video-cards exist, and install those AFTER the motherboard's drivers. Of course, I don't know if you're really loading newer drivers - some of those might report back "System driver updated previously" but this re-loading is mostly to re-sequence the loading process, as if they had that pieces that overwrote drivers in the original sequencing.

HDMI's importance now impacts video drivers, fonts, printers and audio. (Fonts and Printer Drivers are in bed with Video Drivers, by the way - the Printer used to control Fonts and Color Management because the Printer was considered "the final judge" for those elements. But HDMI now has an impact - a cooperation-required impact on so many more elements in the computer.)

You can sort of view these like the Three Stooges, shoulder-to-shoulder, going thru a too-narrow doorway. They'll all get thru, but at least ONE of those thinks they should go first.
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