Vanishing hard drive

Diggs

Diggs

Well-Known Member
Reaction score
3,563
Location
Wisconsin
I've been struggling with an issue on one of my bench machines. It's a Dell Optiplex 3010, i3, 8 GB RAM running Win10 pro. The MB has four SATA ports. It boots from a Samsung SSD, has a WriteOn DVD player and a second HDD (WD 2 TB Black). The problem is anything I plug into the fourth SATA port doesn't show up in Windows. I can see everything correctly identified, active and running in the BIOS, but the fourth SATA device never shows up in Device Manager or Disk Management in Windows 10. I'm a bit at a loss to explain it....... Thoughts?

I've also tried to expand several machines with a PCIe to SATA adapter but I have found them to be unreliable and flaky. Probably just me but I won't go there again.
 
In the BIOS is the 4th SATA port enabled? If you look on the Drives page at the top should be check boxes for all the ports. They should all be checked.
 
mikeroq said:
In the BIOS is the 4th SATA port enabled? If you look on the Drives page at the top should be check boxes for all the ports. They should all be checked.
Click to expand...

Yes it is. I meant to mention they were all checked. In fact I unchecked and then rechecked it with reboots in between just to be sure.

BIOS was updated but the fourth drive has always shown up in BIOS.

Things that make you go hmmm.......
 
Driver issue? Uninstall & reinstall the SATA port driver, and/or see if SDIO has an alternative driver you can try. Might be a bit of a longshot, since only one port isn't working, but worth a try.

edit: Also try it with a Linux live disk, if you haven't already.
 
Hmmm.... No SATA driver updates showing in SDI and of course Linux has no problem seeing/reading/writing all four SATA devices.
 
sapphirescales said:
Then it's definitely a Windows problem. Time for a nuke n' pave.
Click to expand...

Sigh - I'm afraid so. The install wasn't that old but had a PCI SATA card (linked above) go in and out so one of the drivers for that could have hosed Windows. (....but my CRS is acting up and I think the reason the card went in was because of no SATA on port 3.)
 
Last edited:
sapphirescales said:
Then it's definitely a Windows problem. Time for a nuke n' pave.
Click to expand...

Dang! I N&P'd this after this discussion and all four SATA ports worked. Now the fourth port is gone in Windows again! I can pull the third HDD drive out of the fourth port and put it in place of the DVD and it works but the DVD doesn't work in the fourth port. Again - Anything in the fourth port shows up in the BIOS and Linux and after a fresh Win10 install but disappears somewhere along the line. Again - WTF Windows????
 
It's possible it's hardware. The linux drivers may not be "sophisticated" enough.

For example:
You install a (unknown to you at the time, defective) video card. You boot into Windows and everything seems fine. It's running the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter Driver however. So you download and install the real driver and the video goes tits up. You install in another system, same thing. Different drivers, same thing. You install another identical card. Works perfect.
 
backwoodsman said:
Does SDIO show any alternative driver you can try? Older version maybe?
Click to expand...

Nope - Nothing.

Rosco said:
maybe the port is failing and only windows trips it.
Click to expand...

Could well be but see below....

Sky-Knight said:
You may have no choice but to consider that 4th port defective, and adjust accordingly.
Click to expand...

Yep - That's the plan until replacing the machine. Funny thing is I've tried a SATA PCI expansion card in the past and it has failed to respond after awhile also (???).
 
That's positively screaming some sort of strange mainboard fault. It's almost like the systembus cannot handle that many devices. I suspect you'd have the same problems on Linux too if left to run long enough.

Wait... did you try a new SATA cable?
 
Sky-Knight said:
That's positively screaming some sort of strange mainboard fault. It's almost like the systembus cannot handle that many devices. I suspect you'd have the same problems on Linux too if left to run long enough.

Wait... did you try a new SATA cable?
Click to expand...

Different cables have been tried and I've used the working DVD player and cable without it being seen on port 3 but works fine on port 1 (boot drive is port 0). Before it boots I can read the hard drive specs (and I've tried a bunch of drives) in the BIOS and Linux reads and writes to it for as long as I've run it (1+ hours) where in Windows it never is seen.

(Things that make you go hmmm.......)
 
I've never seen this before in a Dell, I have seen this before in an ASUS. The SATA 3 controller ports would pull this crap, but the other SATA ports were SATA 2 and worked fine.

Does that platform have more than one SATA controller? It may be that one of them is faulty.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

timeshifter
How to wipe 4-8 drives at the same time in a Windows PC?
2
Replies
27
Views
6K
Joep
Joep
Diggs
Transplanting drive from one machine to another
2 3
Replies
43
Views
8K
britechguy
britechguy
labtech
Weird Windows 10 64bit USB 3.x devices don't mount
Replies
13
Views
3K
Markverhyden
Markverhyden
HCHTech
Office 2019 slow to open Google Drive files
Replies
13
Views
3K
HCHTech
HCHTech
NETWizz
Upgrading Own Computer... Need Ideas
Replies
15
Views
2K
frase
frase
Back
Top