Old Hard Drive Disconnecting and Reconnecting :: Hardware and Operating Systems

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Preacher 31 Oct @ 12:46pm

Old Hard Drive Disconnecting and Reconnecting

Hello,

Recently my hard drive that's been in this PC for 8+ years is disconnecting and occassionaly reconnecting. When in use, it seems to disconnect more frequently and is slower to reconnect. What I mean is that it disappears from file explorer entirely and any program inside the drive cannot be found.

I don't use the hard drive for anything anymore other than miscellaneous programs or files such as documents, photos, videos, music, downloads, etc. When doing a final backup, I was able to save the files of smaller sizes but anything large would be interuppted by a disconnect, so most of my steam clips will be gone (no loss, tbh). It is a lesson, though, to keep things backed up frequently.

The drive itself seemed to make an odd noise where it sounded like it'd start spinning then stop and repeat.

I have made sure the SATA connections were clean and snug. I even replaced the SATA cable and used a different port on the motherboard to no avail.

Windows in the past year repaired this drive twice.

I ran CrystalDiskInfo an the results were odd. It says the drive is good and chatgpt says (yes, sorry) it's fine but getting old: https://imgur.com/a/mfJWFJM

I'd prefer not to replace the drive but I have enough SSD space on my computer to keep it running and a new hard drive is cheap enough, but I'd rather not go through the hassle of reinstalling programs and reuploading files.

Is replacing the drive the go-to or is there another problem here?

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Showing 1-15 of 23 comments

wing0zero 31 Oct @ 12:54pm

Old drive now just replace it.

Originally posted by Preacher:
It is a lesson, though, to keep things backed up frequently.

Don't know what size you need but say you're buying a 4TB, buy 2 backup the backup if you don't ever want to lose old pics.

DevaVictrix 31 Oct @ 12:56pm

I’ve never known a drive to disconnect/reconnect because of drive issues. It’s the connectors or software/os, surely.

wing0zero 31 Oct @ 1:01pm

Originally posted by DevaVictrix:
It’s the connectors or software/os, surely.

Originally posted by Preacher:
I have made sure the SATA connections were clean and snug. I even replaced the SATA cable and used a different port on the motherboard to no avail.

Originally posted by DevaVictrix:
I’ve never known a drive to disconnect/reconnect because of drive issues.

I've seen things like this on old drives, could have an issue on the controller board.

_I_ 31 Oct @ 1:23pm

sata cables can go bad, try replacing it

all sata cables are the same, only diff is sata 1 does not have the clips

Preacher 31 Oct @ 1:26pm

On an old family computer I recently stripped down, it had the same exact model hard drive, however, it's even older than the one I had (at least installed earlier). It hasn't been used very often throughout the last decade. I'm thinking of installing that one in since I have it and not have to wait for a new one to come.

I still probably ought to buy a new drive, though. I'm sure the even older hard drive will fail sooner rather than later as well.

Preacher 31 Oct @ 1:27pm

Originally posted by _I_:
sata cables can go bad, try replacing it

all sata cables are the same, only diff is sata 1 does not have the clips

I already tried that. Sadly it did not work. Too bad the simplest solution was not the answer.. :(

Last edited by Preacher; 31 Oct @ 1:27pm

Preacher 31 Oct @ 1:31pm

Ordered a new hard drive. The heck with trying to make the old hard drive work.

PopinFRESH 31 Oct @ 1:39pm

Originally posted by DevaVictrix:
I’ve never known a drive to disconnect/reconnect because of drive issues. It’s the connectors or software/os, surely.

Happens all the time. While it can usually be the cables and/or connectors; this will often happen when a drive's controller is starting to fail or has issues and it doesn't respond to a command so the host adapter will send a reset command and then try to renegotiate the link at a lower rate.

This will very frequently happen if the drives cache is failing.

_I_ 31 Oct @ 2:04pm

did bios see it?

hdd almost never fail unless its physical damage

lightning or failing psu can kill them tho

Preacher 31 Oct @ 2:06pm

Originally posted by _I_:
did bios see it?

hdd almost never fail unless its physical damage

lightning or failing psu can kill them tho

Hmm I did not check that but I recently had some brown-outs where the electricity would dim and flicker on and off in quick succession, making the PC go off and on.

I think my surge protector needs replaced too, now that I think of it.

Last edited by Preacher; 31 Oct @ 2:07pm

#10

smallcat 31 Oct @ 2:20pm

bro , no gamer should use HDD

#11

Preacher 31 Oct @ 2:21pm

Originally posted by smallcat:
bro , no gamer should use HDD

If you read the post you'll see I don't use it for games.

#12

smallcat 31 Oct @ 2:26pm

yes , i ve read it ,dont doubt . Yet , 1TB HDD is not much storage in order to serve as long lasting storage . Moreover 1TB HDD is as expensive as 1TB DRAMless SSD . Not worth the hassle . Yet , it s up to you .

Last edited by smallcat; 31 Oct @ 2:27pm

#13

smallcat 31 Oct @ 2:45pm

i have a 2TB HDD , 4.5 years old . it caused an OS failure . i replaced it with a SSD and retired it into a wardrobe . Eventhough Windows fixed the drive i dont want this again. It earned its rest

#14