PC problems thread

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Kalah
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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Kalah » 02 Aug 2017, 19:46

No, the BIOS does not detect the HDD at all. I read some sources and fear that it may have been fried - I hope not since this is my backup disc. I'll take it to the tech guy at work tomorrow and see if there is life in it. Regardless, I noticed that it was made in 2010 and should probably invest in one or two new discs anyway ... I just hope the files can be saved.
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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Pol » 02 Aug 2017, 19:58

Quite and oldie.

Myself I removed last old drive previous year. That was Samsung 2TB and it was suspiciously slow, made in 2011.
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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Kalah » 02 Aug 2017, 20:16

I guess I should have three discs: one for the OS (SSD), one for the video files and one biiig one for all the games.
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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Kalah » 03 Aug 2017, 11:23

Bad news: looks like the HD is indeed dead. :sad:
I guess that could have been the problem to begin with, but a new PSU doesn't hurt.
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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Pol » 03 Aug 2017, 12:17

I have several drives, my newest storage drive is from Toshiba ("Hitachi designed"), then I have some SSD but not for system just for swap and big logs analysing and then some WD Black - notoriously known for lasting forever. Notebook ones in silent cradle.

PSU and MB are the keystones of any good computer. So the new PSU is surely the best start :)
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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Kalah » 03 Aug 2017, 15:55

With the dead HDD, all the files were lost ... :sad: All my videos ... and all the Steam games. At least I can re-download those. And the savegames are on the OS drive - suddenly I'm quite happy about the fact that Steam stores the game files in "My documents". :)

Bought two new drives, of the "Black" type rather than the "Green" (recommended by the tech guy at work): one with 2TB and another with 1TB capacity. I'll use one for games and one for everything else.

Next time I buy a new hard drive I guess/hope SSDs will have gotten cheap enough to have a 1TB SSD as the gaming drive.
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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Panda Tar » 03 Aug 2017, 19:11

"Cheap" is a matter of perspective. :tongue: If you find expensive at your country, imagine what you would think of buying something like that around here. :(
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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Kalah » 03 Aug 2017, 19:52

I have a 160GB SSD as the main (OS) drive, but as for having more of them ... the 1TB SSD drives are still around $450 whereas I could get the above-mentioned 1TB 3.5" for $100. Basically, I imagine that in 4-5 years time, the 1TB SSDs may have gone down to around $100 so I can start buying those for gaming as well. Then I'll only use the 3.5" ones for storage and backups.

Btw. Pol: all CH backups I had are gone. They were on that fried drive as well. Just so you know.
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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Pol » 04 Aug 2017, 07:15

@K
Doesn't matter, have plenty of my own. :D

That's a dream of many people but demand for memory chips is so high, that I wouldn't bet on it. Personally I still prefer 1 platter drives for maximum reliability.
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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Kalah » 04 Aug 2017, 16:21

Today's problem: one of the new disks works, the other one doesn't show up in the OS. I've bought new SATA cables, tried different SATA slots, tried different power cables ... currently surfing the web to see if there are any suggestions as to what might be wrong.

EDIT: OK, I guess I must have been sent a faulty drive. I got the 2TB one to work, but the 1TB won't show up in the OS. Then I tried simply giving the 1TB drive the cables that went to the 2TB drive. No dice. It still won't show in the OS. I can only think of one possible conclusion to that: the newly bought drive is faulty.
Last edited by Kalah on 04 Aug 2017, 16:57, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Pol » 04 Aug 2017, 21:47

If the drive is visible under bios it can be ok. Anyway I cannot imagine a reason why you shouldn't see 1TB drive under Windows. You shouldn't see unassigned place/drive under Administrative Tools >> Computer Management >> Storage >> Disc Management
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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Kalah » 05 Aug 2017, 11:23

It doesn't show up in BIOS, no matter which cable or SATA port I use.
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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Pol » 05 Aug 2017, 14:59

Then it's faulty.
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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Kalah » 05 Aug 2017, 23:20

Looks like it ... The only other thing I can think of is that there's something wrong with the mobo, but it doesn't seem to be the SATA ports; they work when I hook them up with the CD-ROM drive, for instance. If I take the HDD SATA cable and then plug it into the SATA port the CD drive was connected to, we know the port was working ... but the drive doesn't show up.
What I'm hoping for now is that I'll simply get a replacement HDD, connect it and then everything works. :beg:
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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Kalah » 20 Aug 2017, 13:56

Update: I connected the new hard drive and the problem persists. Good news is that I now have two new 1TB HDDs, the bad news is that no matter what I do, my PC seems to only ever detect two HDDs in total (the SSD and the 2 TB one). I guess then that the problem must lie in the motherboard; either the SATA ports are indeed malfunctioning, or somehow it doesn't seem able to detect more than two drives at once.
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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Pol » 20 Aug 2017, 15:32

What motherboard do you have? Did you tried different SATA ports with the same results or they look dead?
(Just reconnect one of working drives here.)
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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Kalah » 21 Aug 2017, 07:27

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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Pol » 21 Aug 2017, 09:30

So, you have just one SATA controller (see 6 x SATA3) although you may have an option to switch to SATA2. Also your board supports RAID.

Please double check in BIOS that you don't have enabled RAID and you have enabled AHCI.

Can you check each port or port combinations?

Anyway if some of SATA ports are not working it's faulty board.
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The Archives | Collection of H3&WoG files | Older albeit still useful | CH Downloads
PC Specs: A10-7850K, FM2A88X+K, 16GB-1600, SSD-MLC-G3, 1TB-HDD-G3, MAYA44, SP10 500W Be Quiet

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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Kalah » 21 Aug 2017, 14:24

The ports are working; they could all rund the DVD optical drive. They just won't run more than 2 hard drives.

Sata controllers: Enabled
Sata mode selection: AHCI
Sata aggressive link power management: Disabled
Dynamic storage accelerator: Enabled
Hard disk s.m.a.r.t: Disabled.
Last edited by Kalah on 21 Aug 2017, 15:02, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: PC problems thread

Unread postby Pol » 21 Aug 2017, 15:11

Check page 79, in the manual, link is in my previous post. Try to disable "Dynamic Storage Accelerator", check if you can update BIOS, latest version is 2.70

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z87%20Ex ... ad&os=BIOS

There's no reason for fine motherboard to act like that..
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The Archives | Collection of H3&WoG files | Older albeit still useful | CH Downloads
PC Specs: A10-7850K, FM2A88X+K, 16GB-1600, SSD-MLC-G3, 1TB-HDD-G3, MAYA44, SP10 500W Be Quiet


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