Laptop can't decide if it can see 2nd HDD or not

Varkrim · 10 Mar 2021

How can I ensure my laptop finds the data drive consistently???

System: HP 250 G7 laptop, running Win 10 1909.
OS mounted on SSD, data and apps on 2nd SATA HDD.

On booting, BIOS and Disk Management often drop the SATA HDD completely. Not always, but 75% of the time.
Of the other 25%, 2/3 of the time it's not really fully functional (eg activation-dependant apps forget they've been activated).

So far I have checked the firmware, reseated the SATA ribbon, replaced the SATA ribbon and HDD connector, run WU.

I don't see a setting in BIOS to detect an additional HDD, nor is it in the UEFI Boot.

This has been going on for a week, and any advice would be welcome.

dalchina · 10 Mar 2021

Hi, you might try running Hard Disk Sentinel (SSDs too) - trial - portable version available.
This, amongst other things, checks communication.

Best instant appraisal I know, right on its GUI.
Please post the result for both disks thus:

Laptop can't decide if it can see 2nd HDD or not-screenshot-.png

This has been going on for a week,

Were there any significant changes or updates around then?
Did anyone knock, bang or drop the device?

Varkrim · 10 Mar 2021

This is the (working) SSD:

Laptop can't decide if it can see 2nd HDD or not-ssd-hdd-1.png

And this is the (occasionally visible) SATA:

Laptop can't decide if it can see 2nd HDD or not-sata-hdd-1.png

As for what happened before this started going wrong - well, HP replaced the mainboard and it all went downhill from there. I know it seems obvious that the new MB may be faulty - but I'm desperately trying to understand why it would be intermittent.

Thanks in advance,

Varkrim

dalchina · 10 Mar 2021

Well, that's brilliant confirmation from HDS... the only thing you've not swapped is the HDD. Do you have a spare for comparison?

If that does the same- seems you have little option left.. back to HP.

RolandJS · 10 Mar 2021

dalchina, I thought replacement parts for any computer over 30 days old come out of the used, refurbished, LetUsTryThis bin, so it very likely could be the motherboard, assuming all cabling is aok?

dalchina · 10 Mar 2021

Oh indeed- and could be something that passed normal checks at the time of course.

Hence my last sentence.

Varkrim · 12 Mar 2021

Update:

I confirmed previously with a spare SATA drive, and got the same failures - this was before using HDS.

Thing is - since installing HDS, the failures have stopped. The laptop is picking up the SATA drive just fine, consistently (5/5 boots correct, as opposed to 1/15 previously.)

Correlation is not causation, and it's a small data set and so forth - but it APPEARS that running HDS has had the unexpected effect of solving the problem. So I'm going to mark this as "solved", as soon as I've worked out how to credit Dalchina for their work.

Many thanks to all involved,

Varkrim

dalchina · 12 Mar 2021

That's really unexpected... suggest you keep an eye on it...

Just click the

at the bottom and mark solved - we hope!

RolandJS · 12 Mar 2021

I purchased the license for each laptop for HardDisk Sentinel to support R&D. And, I benefit greatly because HDS is like a tiny "NORAD" from Windows load to Windows Shutdown. It has a few times given me a heads-up YellowNotice (SMART reporting problems), gave me enough time to successfully make full image backups before HDS went to RedAlert.