Hard Drive Issues

[Mateyyy]

I've had problems with my HDD for a few days. It's a WD Caviar Green 2TB, and I've had it for just a few months (I think I finished my PC in February, so about 5-6 months).

What happened 3 days ago, was, my HDD disappeared from the Device Manager, and I had to click on Scan for new hardware, and the HDD was back again.
Same happened yesterday, my HDD disappeared from the Device Manager, clicked on scan hardware etc etc, and it was back again.

Today, I launched Steam and it didn't show any games installed, except for the ones installed on my SSD. So, I went to the Device Manager, and I could see the HDD. I tried to see if I could find the game files, and other stuff on my HDD, or if all was corrupted. I could see all my data, but it ran a bit slower than usual. It's a 5400RPM drive, so it's quite slow, but now it was even slower, not like 5 minutes to see a photo, but I could see a small difference. 

This is what CrystalDiskInfo shows me: http://puu.sh/aUGbs/0e0e89ffa3.png

This is what Defraggler shows me, only 9% fragmentation: http://puu.sh/aUGeV/7d48692e01.png

 

I also changed the SATA cable to another one, but it didn't seem to help.

Is there anything I could do or is my HDD just dying, even if I had it only for a few months..?

 

 

[TheKDub]

I'd backup your data on it to be safe, it would suck to have to re-download tons of games.

[Mateyyy]

I'd backup your data on it to be safe, it would suck to have to re-download tons of games.

Well, I'm not that worried about the games, since I wanted to get another faster hard drive, just for games, because as I said it's just a 5400RPM drive and sometimes I get lag spikes in a few games because it's too slow.

I'm more worried about photos and other stuff. I'm going to try to backup what I can..

[TheRagingGamer]

I've had problems with my HDD for a few days. It's a WD Caviar Green 2TB, and I've had it for just a few months (I think I finished my PC in February, so about 5-6 months).

What happened 3 days ago, was, my HDD disappeared from the Device Manager, and I had to click on Scan for new hardware, and the HDD was back again.

Same happened yesterday, my HDD disappeared from the Device Manager, clicked on scan hardware etc etc, and it was back again.

Today, I launched Steam and it didn't show any games installed, except for the ones installed on my SSD. So, I went to the Device Manager, and I could see the HDD. I tried to see if I could find the game files, and other stuff on my HDD, or if all was corrupted. I could see all my data, but it ran a bit slower than usual. It's a 5400RPM drive, so it's quite slow, but now it was even slower, not like 5 minutes to see a photo, but I could see a small difference. 

This is what CrystalDiskInfo shows me: http://puu.sh/aUGbs/0e0e89ffa3.png

This is what Defraggler shows me, only 9% fragmentation: http://puu.sh/aUGeV/7d48692e01.png

 

I also changed the SATA cable to another one, but it didn't seem to help.

Is there anything I could do or is my HDD just dying, even if I had it only for a few months..?

format it 

[Mateyyy]

It seems like I also have a Steam bug or something, because now I noticed that it doesn't show even the games installed on my SSD.

For example, CS:GO, it's on the SSD, and when I click on it, in Steam, instead of letting me play it, it wants me to install the game. If I go to the game files, I can launch the game, but I get a warning that I launched the game outside of Steam, so I can't join any VAC secured servers, etc....

 

Edit: In Steam, the game installation folders were gone, so I had to manually select the folders with the games, and now the games are detected in Steam.

 

I'll keep you informed if I have anymore problems with the HDD. Thank you so far!

[R2D2_WD]

Hi, Mateyyy

It is highly possible that you may be experiencing some Steam or Windows related issues, but the disappearing of the HDD seems like a good reason to be alert. Check it with WD's Data Lifeguard Diagnostics. When the drive drops and is not seen by Windows, can you see it in BIOS? I would try to plug it in other SATA slot. You should check the Power Plan settings, in case the drive is set to turn off after some time.
In any case, I totally agree that you should backup your data, format the drive and monitor it's behavior.  If the issues persists, check your RMA status and return the drive.

 

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=810&sid=3〈=en – Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows.

 

Hope this helps

[Mateyyy]

Hi, Mateyyy

It is highly possible that you may be experiencing some Steam or Windows related issues, but the disappearing of the HDD seems like a good reason to be alert. Check it with WD's Data Lifeguard Diagnostics. When the drive drops and is not seen by Windows, can you see it in BIOS? I would try to plug it in other SATA slot. You should check the Power Plan settings, in case the drive is set to turn off after some time.

In any case, I totally agree that you should backup your data, format the drive and monitor it's behavior.  If the issues persists, check your RMA status and return the drive.

 

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=810&sid=3〈=en – Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows.

 

Hope this helps

I didn't check the BIOS, when it disappeared in Windows, but I changed the SATA cable for the hard drive, and I didn't have any more problems since then. 

I will try out that program, thank you very much