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eugeneosy · ‎04-26-2017

Hi guys, i have just built my first gaming pc (rather late, in my early thirties) and I am new to this forum. I hope to see if anyone can help me with an issue I have with my 3-week old pc.

Having seen other posts, I understand it will make things easier if I list my parts:
- Asus ROG Maximus IX Hero
- i7 7700k
- Asus GTX 1080Ti FE
- 2 x 8GB G.Skill Ripjaws 3000
- Primary SSD with OS: Samsung 960 EVO NVME M.2 (250GB)
- Secondary HDD: 2TB Seagate Barracuda

Issue:
- Turned on my pc one day (1 week old at this point) and the HDD disappeared from explorer as well as Computer Management (rescanned several times to no avail)
- Did not see HDD in BIOS

Steps taken as advised from other threads/websites:
- Reboot PC to no avail
- Downloaded Seatools for Windows and still failed to detect my HDD
- Reinstalled my OS
- Flashed my BIOS
==> None of the above worked. HDD did not appear anywhere (BIOS or Windows)

What worked:
- Downloaded Seatools for DOS and booted from it
- Seatools for DOS produced an error. Rebooted PC
- HDD reappeared
- Scanned it with Computer Management, Seatools for Windows and all SMART and other tests reported HDD to be 100%. I also did not lose any files

And it happened again:
- Turn on my pc one day (3-week old at this point) and HDD disappeared again
- Ran Seatools for DOS as it was still conveniently on my flashdrive.
- Seatool for DOS ran into an error again. Rebooted PC and HDD appeared again with everything intact and reported to be 100% from scan results

Concerns:
- This instability concerns me as I can't be sure if my HDD is faulty physically or is this a software/firmware issue
- Interesting thing was that Seatools for DOS did not actually complete. It always pauses due to an unknown error
- I did not tweak my BIOS or PC at all. Neither have I ventured into overclocking. I used it as it was.

I have combed through every possible forums and did not find a solution. I would greatly appreciate any advice here.

Thank you all in advanced. Have a great day.

mcleod52 · ‎04-26-2017

I'd try upgrading the BIOS. Perhaps just go to 0801 since some people have been complaining about 0906 (although I've been running it since the day it came out, without issue I might add).

There has also been at least one thread that relates to a similar issue, perhaps search the forum.

Stew

eugeneosy · ‎04-26-2017

mcleod52 wrote:
I'd try upgrading the BIOS. Perhaps just go to 0801 since some people have been complaining about 0906 (although I've been running it since the day it came out, without issue I might add).

There has also been at least one thread that relates to a similar issue, perhaps search the forum.

Stew

Thanks for the reply and suggestions Stew. I read this thread as well. I will look into updating my BIOS or go back to 0801 as you had suggested.

*As an update, this happened again yesterday and I managed to retrieve my HDD using the Seatools for DOS trick. Each time this is about to happen, my downloads directly to this drive and even unzipping of files will start to become noticeably slow.

Regarding the ports, my M.2 is plugged above the gfx card. I believe that should be M2_1. Not sure if my SATA is using SATA6G_1, I'll have to find out, thanks. However, it is unlikely so because if I did plug my SATA into a disabled port, it should likely not be functional since day 1.*

My issue is more of an intermittent one.

Thanks much for all the time you took to respond. Really appreciate it.*

chevell65 · ‎04-26-2017

Which SATA slot is the 2tb drive plugged into?
Because SATA 0 is now basically occupied with your M.2 drive so you would need to use SATA 1 or greater in order for it to show up.

mcleod52 · ‎04-26-2017

Here's the other thread I was talking about:

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?92780-Maximus-ix-hero-sata-hdd-problem

Not much help in there though.

Stew

mcleod52 · ‎04-26-2017

Good point in the SATA ports. From the manual (page 3-19):

is using M2_1 port and if a SATA device is detected then SATA6G_1 will be disabled

if using M2_2 port SATA6G_56 will be disabled running at X4 (running at X2 will leave it enabled).

chevell65 · ‎04-26-2017

Everything I've read says SATA0 should be disabled if M.2_1 port is being used.

I'm not sure what they mean with SATA6G_1, no idea what port that relates to but it may be referring to slot 1 which is sometimes referred to as slot 0 depending on the board.

Chino · ‎04-27-2017

I don't see this mentioned in your opening post. Have you tried swapping SATA cables?

Also see if you can test with another HDD or maybe RMA the one you own.

eugeneosy · ‎04-27-2017

Chino wrote:
I don't see this mentioned in your opening post. Have you tried swapping SATA cables?

Also see if you can test with another HDD or maybe RMA the one you own.

Hi Chino, thank you very much for the reply and suggestions. I have not tried swapping the SATA cables because it did not occur to me that it might have been the issue at that point in time, especially since I managed to temporarily solve it using Seatools for DOS. But i will try this, thanks.

I have also recently changed my power saving settings to never letting my hard disk go to sleep. Hopefully this helps. So far, so good.

Regarding the use of another HDD. I am thinking of purchasing another but am deciding if it is an issue with Seagate. If I can conclude that Seagate is the problem, i will avoid Seagate and go on to either the Hitachi Deskstar or WD. I guess this will also determine if i should RMA my Seagate. It is just difficult to accept that I may have wasted money on this Seagate with it being only less than a month old.

Any suggestions on which HDD to purchase then? I'm looking at another 2TB that's reliable. I install my games and other heavy stuff on my HDD.

Thanks much and have a great day.

Maximus IX Hero and disappearing SATA HDD