Missing Hard Drive with Windows Vista Ultimate

I am having the same problem. I have a second SATA HDD (D that I use for
storage and backup. When the computer wakes up from Sleep mode it is gone.
I go to system tools, and it is gone, device manager gone. The only way I
get it back is to re-boot. The bios finds it just fine, then I am ok. But I
can't put my computer to sleep or it will not be there when it wakes up.


"husky86" wrote:

> I'm running a desktop system with Windows Vista Ultimate. I have encountered
> a problem that I know is being experienced by other Vista users; I'm hoping
> there is a workaround.
>
> I have an internal 1 TB Hitachi hard drive (not the C drive). This desktop
> system is only about six months old, and ever since I first acquired it I
> found that this internal hard drive would go missing after putting Vista into
> Sleep or Hibernation mode. Restarting the system would always enable Vista
> to recognize the internal 1 TB hard drive again.
>
> However, about two weeks ago this temporary fix wasn't working anymore --
> restarting Vista didn't enable the 1 TB internal drive to be recognized.
> It's been missing ever since.
>
> And yet this drive is working properly according to Device Manager
> (Including having the latest driver).
>
> Doing a Google search has produced a few other threads on the web where
> Vista users are also experiencing missing hard drives. Supposedly this
> situation is to be directly addressed by Microsoft with the release of
> Service Pack 1. Unfortunately, I need access to my internal hard drive now,
> not weeks from now when Service Pack 1 is finally released.
>
> Does anyone know of a workaround? Any solution whatsoever... outside of
> reinstalling Vista?
>
> Thanks!

xiowan:

I did check all the connections on the drives themselves; no problems.

I was able to get the drive to be recognized by the BIOS; there are no
problems with this aspect.

The drive is not recognized under Disk Management, however.

The drive is recognized under the Device Manager; right clicking on the
drive and going to Properties shows that the drive is "working properly."

The drive was not recognized by Windows Media Center, however.

So it's definitely a mixed bag to report.

Thanks for your input!

Uninstall it in device manager. Reboot.
They should appear in Disk Management.
Assign them a letter, if necessary.


"husky86" <husky86@discussions.microsoft.com> a écrit dans le message de
news:8C65155F-831A-4139-9AE9-016C615A0F2F@microsoft.com...

> xiowan:
>
> I did check all the connections on the drives themselves; no problems.
>
> I was able to get the drive to be recognized by the BIOS; there are no
> problems with this aspect.
>
> The drive is not recognized under Disk Management, however.
>
> The drive is recognized under the Device Manager; right clicking on the
> drive and going to Properties shows that the drive is "working properly."
>
> The drive was not recognized by Windows Media Center, however.
>
> So it's definitely a mixed bag to report.
>
> Thanks for your input!

cqui3:

Before uninstalling in Device Manager I wanted to check and make sure that
such an uninstall process isn't going to risk the loss of any data on the
hard drive...?

This is what we are trying to prevent at all costs, of course.

(Amazingly, the backup hard drive (an external 1 TB) and this internal hard
drive had problems during the same week (different problems, but it made both
of them unusable). So this is the only copy of this data that we have.)

Thanks!

During the past 2-3 months I have been waiting for the release of Service
Pack 1 in order that this ongoing problem may be solved. In other words, I
was told by my computer's manufacturer that Service Pack 1 would most
definitely solve this ongoing "missing hard drive" problem.

I was able to install Service Pack 1 today. The internal 1 TB Hitachi drive
still did not appear. Bringing up My Computer showed only the C drive (Disk
1) and the external 1 TB Lacie drive (Disk 0) .

Going back into Disk Management I found Disk 2 -- which I believe to be the
internal 1 TB drive -- to be unallocated. The following is a snapshot of the
present situation:

http://bp2.blogger.com/_-RQq-aijzY0/...Management.jpg

Because I know formal allocation of a drive requires formatting, I attempted
to allocate the drive and get it to be recognized by Vista without
reformatting the drive. (I assigned it its previous drive letter (X).)
However, this allocation attempt did not prove successful in that I'm
constantly told by the OS that I must format the drive before I can use it.

Does anyone have any suggestions on this present situation?

Again, this internal 1 Terabyte Drive has a lot of data on it that is
extremely valuable. I do not want to have to erase the drive if at all
possible.

Thanks!


"Hueyd" wrote:

> I am having the same problem. I have a second SATA HDD (D that I use for
> storage and backup. When the computer wakes up from Sleep mode it is gone.
> I go to system tools, and it is gone, device manager gone. The only way I
> get it back is to re-boot. The bios finds it just fine, then I am ok. But I
> can't put my computer to sleep or it will not be there when it wakes up.
>
>
> "husky86" wrote:
>

> > I'm running a desktop system with Windows Vista Ultimate. I have encountered
> > a problem that I know is being experienced by other Vista users; I'm hoping
> > there is a workaround.
> >
> > I have an internal 1 TB Hitachi hard drive (not the C drive). This desktop
> > system is only about six months old, and ever since I first acquired it I
> > found that this internal hard drive would go missing after putting Vista into
> > Sleep or Hibernation mode. Restarting the system would always enable Vista
> > to recognize the internal 1 TB hard drive again.
> >
> > However, about two weeks ago this temporary fix wasn't working anymore --
> > restarting Vista didn't enable the 1 TB internal drive to be recognized.
> > It's been missing ever since.
> >
> > And yet this drive is working properly according to Device Manager
> > (Including having the latest driver).
> >
> > Doing a Google search has produced a few other threads on the web where
> > Vista users are also experiencing missing hard drives. Supposedly this
> > situation is to be directly addressed by Microsoft with the release of
> > Service Pack 1. Unfortunately, I need access to my internal hard drive now,
> > not weeks from now when Service Pack 1 is finally released.
> >
> > Does anyone know of a workaround? Any solution whatsoever... outside of
> > reinstalling Vista?
> >
> > Thanks!

Assign it a drive letter. That does not format the drive.

"husky86" <husky86@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:3692FE7A-92B2-43FE-9760-55EF086F7F19@microsoft.com...

> During the past 2-3 months I have been waiting for the release of Service
> Pack 1 in order that this ongoing problem may be solved. In other words,
> I
> was told by my computer's manufacturer that Service Pack 1 would most
> definitely solve this ongoing "missing hard drive" problem.
>
> I was able to install Service Pack 1 today. The internal 1 TB Hitachi
> drive
> still did not appear. Bringing up My Computer showed only the C drive
> (Disk
> 1) and the external 1 TB Lacie drive (Disk 0) .
>
> Going back into Disk Management I found Disk 2 -- which I believe to be
> the
> internal 1 TB drive -- to be unallocated. The following is a snapshot of
> the
> present situation:
>
> http://bp2.blogger.com/_-RQq-aijzY0/...Management.jpg
>
> Because I know formal allocation of a drive requires formatting, I
> attempted
> to allocate the drive and get it to be recognized by Vista without
> reformatting the drive. (I assigned it its previous drive letter (X).)
> However, this allocation attempt did not prove successful in that I'm
> constantly told by the OS that I must format the drive before I can use
> it.
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions on this present situation?
>
> Again, this internal 1 Terabyte Drive has a lot of data on it that is
> extremely valuable. I do not want to have to erase the drive if at all
> possible.
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> "Hueyd" wrote:
>

>> I am having the same problem. I have a second SATA HDD (D that I use
>> for
>> storage and backup. When the computer wakes up from Sleep mode it is
>> gone.
>> I go to system tools, and it is gone, device manager gone. The only way
>> I
>> get it back is to re-boot. The bios finds it just fine, then I am ok.
>> But I
>> can't put my computer to sleep or it will not be there when it wakes up.
>>
>>
>> "husky86" wrote:
>>

>> > I'm running a desktop system with Windows Vista Ultimate. I have
>> > encountered
>> > a problem that I know is being experienced by other Vista users; I'm
>> > hoping
>> > there is a workaround.
>> >
>> > I have an internal 1 TB Hitachi hard drive (not the C drive). This
>> > desktop
>> > system is only about six months old, and ever since I first acquired it
>> > I
>> > found that this internal hard drive would go missing after putting
>> > Vista into
>> > Sleep or Hibernation mode. Restarting the system would always enable
>> > Vista
>> > to recognize the internal 1 TB hard drive again.
>> >
>> > However, about two weeks ago this temporary fix wasn't working
>> > anymore --
>> > restarting Vista didn't enable the 1 TB internal drive to be
>> > recognized.
>> > It's been missing ever since.
>> >
>> > And yet this drive is working properly according to Device Manager
>> > (Including having the latest driver).
>> >
>> > Doing a Google search has produced a few other threads on the web where
>> > Vista users are also experiencing missing hard drives. Supposedly this
>> > situation is to be directly addressed by Microsoft with the release of
>> > Service Pack 1. Unfortunately, I need access to my internal hard drive
>> > now,
>> > not weeks from now when Service Pack 1 is finally released.
>> >
>> > Does anyone know of a workaround? Any solution whatsoever... outside
>> > of
>> > reinstalling Vista?
>> >
>> > Thanks!

On Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:48:01 -0700, husky86
<husky86@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>During the past 2-3 months I have been waiting for the release of Service
>Pack 1 in order that this ongoing problem may be solved. In other words, I
>was told by my computer's manufacturer that Service Pack 1 would most
>definitely solve this ongoing "missing hard drive" problem.
>
>I was able to install Service Pack 1 today. The internal 1 TB Hitachi drive
>still did not appear. Bringing up My Computer showed only the C drive (Disk
>1) and the external 1 TB Lacie drive (Disk 0) .
>
>Going back into Disk Management I found Disk 2 -- which I believe to be the
>internal 1 TB drive -- to be unallocated. The following is a snapshot of the
>present situation:

The drive space is allocated as a primary partition. The problem is
the file system isn't being recognized.

>
>http://bp2.blogger.com/_-RQq-aijzY0/...Management.jpg
>
>Because I know formal allocation of a drive requires formatting, I attempted
>to allocate the drive and get it to be recognized by Vista without
>reformatting the drive. (I assigned it its previous drive letter (X).)
>However, this allocation attempt did not prove successful in that I'm
>constantly told by the OS that I must format the drive before I can use it.

Did you try running chkdsk in read-only mode to see what problems it
sees?

>
>Does anyone have any suggestions on this present situation?

I would try running TestDisk to see what problems, if any, it sees.
Your best bet is using a file recovery program.

>
>Again, this internal 1 Terabyte Drive has a lot of data on it that is
>extremely valuable. I do not want to have to erase the drive if at all
>possible.
>
>Thanks!
>
>
>"Hueyd" wrote:
>

>> I am having the same problem. I have a second SATA HDD (D that I use for
>> storage and backup. When the computer wakes up from Sleep mode it is gone.
>> I go to system tools, and it is gone, device manager gone. The only way I
>> get it back is to re-boot. The bios finds it just fine, then I am ok. But I
>> can't put my computer to sleep or it will not be there when it wakes up.
>>
>>
>> "husky86" wrote:
>>

>> > I'm running a desktop system with Windows Vista Ultimate. I have encountered
>> > a problem that I know is being experienced by other Vista users; I'm hoping
>> > there is a workaround.
>> >
>> > I have an internal 1 TB Hitachi hard drive (not the C drive). This desktop
>> > system is only about six months old, and ever since I first acquired it I
>> > found that this internal hard drive would go missing after putting Vista into
>> > Sleep or Hibernation mode. Restarting the system would always enable Vista
>> > to recognize the internal 1 TB hard drive again.
>> >
>> > However, about two weeks ago this temporary fix wasn't working anymore --
>> > restarting Vista didn't enable the 1 TB internal drive to be recognized.
>> > It's been missing ever since.
>> >
>> > And yet this drive is working properly according to Device Manager
>> > (Including having the latest driver).
>> >
>> > Doing a Google search has produced a few other threads on the web where
>> > Vista users are also experiencing missing hard drives. Supposedly this
>> > situation is to be directly addressed by Microsoft with the release of
>> > Service Pack 1. Unfortunately, I need access to my internal hard drive now,
>> > not weeks from now when Service Pack 1 is finally released.
>> >
>> > Does anyone know of a workaround? Any solution whatsoever... outside of
>> > reinstalling Vista?
>> >
>> > Thanks!

How is it possible to run chkdsk in read-only mode? I only know how to check
the disk under "normal" circumstances, I guess you could say.

Thanks!


"andy" wrote:

> On Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:48:01 -0700, husky86
> <husky86@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>

> >During the past 2-3 months I have been waiting for the release of Service
> >Pack 1 in order that this ongoing problem may be solved. In other words, I
> >was told by my computer's manufacturer that Service Pack 1 would most
> >definitely solve this ongoing "missing hard drive" problem.
> >
> >I was able to install Service Pack 1 today. The internal 1 TB Hitachi drive
> >still did not appear. Bringing up My Computer showed only the C drive (Disk
> >1) and the external 1 TB Lacie drive (Disk 0) .
> >
> >Going back into Disk Management I found Disk 2 -- which I believe to be the
> >internal 1 TB drive -- to be unallocated. The following is a snapshot of the
> >present situation:

>
> The drive space is allocated as a primary partition. The problem is
> the file system isn't being recognized.

> >
> >http://bp2.blogger.com/_-RQq-aijzY0/...Management.jpg
> >
> >Because I know formal allocation of a drive requires formatting, I attempted
> >to allocate the drive and get it to be recognized by Vista without
> >reformatting the drive. (I assigned it its previous drive letter (X).)
> >However, this allocation attempt did not prove successful in that I'm
> >constantly told by the OS that I must format the drive before I can use it.

>
> Did you try running chkdsk in read-only mode to see what problems it
> sees?
>

> >
> >Does anyone have any suggestions on this present situation?

>
> I would try running TestDisk to see what problems, if any, it sees.
> Your best bet is using a file recovery program.
>

> >
> >Again, this internal 1 Terabyte Drive has a lot of data on it that is
> >extremely valuable. I do not want to have to erase the drive if at all
> >possible.
> >
> >Thanks!
> >
> >
> >"Hueyd" wrote:
> >

> >> I am having the same problem. I have a second SATA HDD (D that I use for
> >> storage and backup. When the computer wakes up from Sleep mode it is gone.
> >> I go to system tools, and it is gone, device manager gone. The only way I
> >> get it back is to re-boot. The bios finds it just fine, then I am ok. But I
> >> can't put my computer to sleep or it will not be there when it wakes up.
> >>
> >>
> >> "husky86" wrote:
> >>
> >> > I'm running a desktop system with Windows Vista Ultimate. I have encountered
> >> > a problem that I know is being experienced by other Vista users; I'm hoping
> >> > there is a workaround.
> >> >
> >> > I have an internal 1 TB Hitachi hard drive (not the C drive). This desktop
> >> > system is only about six months old, and ever since I first acquired it I
> >> > found that this internal hard drive would go missing after putting Vista into
> >> > Sleep or Hibernation mode. Restarting the system would always enable Vista
> >> > to recognize the internal 1 TB hard drive again.
> >> >
> >> > However, about two weeks ago this temporary fix wasn't working anymore --
> >> > restarting Vista didn't enable the 1 TB internal drive to be recognized.
> >> > It's been missing ever since.
> >> >
> >> > And yet this drive is working properly according to Device Manager
> >> > (Including having the latest driver).
> >> >
> >> > Doing a Google search has produced a few other threads on the web where
> >> > Vista users are also experiencing missing hard drives. Supposedly this
> >> > situation is to be directly addressed by Microsoft with the release of
> >> > Service Pack 1. Unfortunately, I need access to my internal hard drive now,
> >> > not weeks from now when Service Pack 1 is finally released.
> >> >
> >> > Does anyone know of a workaround? Any solution whatsoever... outside of
> >> > reinstalling Vista?
> >> >
> >> > Thanks!

>
>