HDD in my desktop stopped detecting suddenly

omensa · Dec 29, 2016

Hey fellas!

Stuck with an unusual problem and would appreciate quick help.

I am using 3 HDDs in my desktop.

1. An old 250GB Seagate Baracuda, used for Windows 10 Pro 64bit
2. A 1TB Seagate refurbished HDD for data
3. A 2TB Seagate Baracuda for games and movies mostly.

I was using my computer normally this afternoon and shut it down normally. Later this evening when i turned my system on, it gave out error 'insert system disk'. When i wen in bios i couldn't see my 250G HDD. I opened my casing and tried cleaning and reconnecting all the cables with no luck.

Can somebody with experience guide me what might be wrong here?

Thanks is advance

Boogieman_WD · Dec 29, 2016

Hey there, omensa.

Well it sounds like the drive might have been having issues before that and it might have failed. However, it could be a faulty connection so in order to exclude that option, I'd suggest that you try it out with a different SATA port and cables. You could also try connecting it as a secondary storage drive to another computer, to see if it's recognized.
Try disconnecting the other drives and check if your OS HDD is recognized then. If you manage to get a different computer to recognize it I'd recommend that you download the drive manufacturer's diagnostic tool and test it for errors, to see if there's anything alarming.

Hope that helps. Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD

omensa · Dec 29, 2016

Thanks for the quick reply.

Unfortunately i dont have a second PC to try the HDD on.

I have tried changing the cables and ports but it is not detecting still. Other drives are detecting normally.

It can't fail suddenly can it? It was working fine a few hours ago and i shut my system down notmally. I had no reason to believe that the HD is having any kind of trouble

Boogieman_WD · Dec 29, 2016

Well unfortunately issues like that could happen suddenly, depending on the drive's current state. Unfortunately at this point if the drive is not recognized even by your BIOS there's not much else you can do.

Perhaps you could try connecting the drive externally via a USB to SATA adapter, external enclosure or a dock station, to see if it's recognized.

das_stig · Dec 29, 2016

Well you said it yourself, an old Barracuda, being an OS drive it does take fair bit of wear and tear.

My sons 6 year old Barracuda D: drive for steam is starting to do this, suddenly disappearing from one boot to another, so is being replaced by a big fat SSD.

omensa · Dec 29, 2016

Thanks for the response fellas, now get this...

I'm not sure what I did, I just opened my casing and did a little cleaning with blower and reconnected all the wires etc after making sure everything is clean. Now my BIOS still does not detect my HDD but its booting to Windows fine.

Now I'm really puzzled, what is going on here? How can I boot into windows if my HDD is not being detected in BIOS?

Appreciate the help

Boogieman_WD · Dec 30, 2016

This is pretty weird indeed. If it's a connection issues and it shows up sometimes and sometimes not, that could be the reason for you not seeing it in your BIOS' boot priority menu but boot to Windows fine. In any case I'd suggest that you use that time to backup all the important data which you might have and test the drive, to see what's its condition.

Search

HDD in my desktop stopped detecting suddenly

omensa

Commendable

Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

Judicious

omensa

Commendable

Boogieman_WD

Judicious

das_stig

Glorious

omensa

Commendable

Boogieman_WD

Judicious

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page