Official GIGABYTE Forum

GA-X58A-UD3R: Windows 7 64 Bit, HDD's Disappear / Reappear

GA-X58A-UD3R: Windows 7 64 Bit, HDD's Disappear / Reappear
« on: December 10, 2010, 03:36:24 pm »
Hello all,

I am have a GA-X58A-UD3R Rev 2.0, a quad core i7 950 3.07ghz and 3 brand new WD Caviar Black internal HDD's (OS, Apps/Files, Backup).  I am running in AHCI mode and have two major problems.

1.  My computer boots fine.  However, after a few minutes on the desktop one of the drives simply disappears from the Computer window as well as Device Manager.  Rarely more then one at a time, and it has happened to all of them at least once.  However, it is more prevelant with the Apps/File and Backup drives. 

2.  When I recently added my Backup drive to the machine (going from 2 to 3 HDDs), the computer recognized the drive upon first boot and all seemed well.  After being up for a few minutes in the desktop, the App/File drive fell out of Windows.  When I rebooted, I got a BSOD and ultimately had to run a Windows Repair tool to get it operational again.

Other relevant info:

1.  This is all centered around the North Bridge Intel ICH10R chipset.  I have tried it with their Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver as well as without it and the falling in and out happen with both situations.

2.  The WD drives are all brand new and run through diagnostics before being plugged into my machine.

3.  I am currently experimenting with having one drive in each of the controllers - 1 Intel, 1 Gigabyte, 1 Marvelle.  It SEEMS stable but this is the kind of issue where it comes and goes.

4.  In all circumstances, my BIOS always sees all the drives.

So here's my question - could it be a bad motherboard?  Or can I cross the bad hardware situation off the possibilities?  I find it hard to believe its a hard drive issue which leads me back to something like:

1.  Windows
2.  AHCI Settings
3.  AHCI Controller Driver

Has anyone seen this before?  I saw lots of posts about issues like this around sleeping and re-awakening but mine isn't related to that.

Thanks in advance!

Dark Mantis

  • *
  • 18405
  • 414
  • 10typesofpeopleoneswhoknow binaryandoneswhodont
    • Dark Mantis
Re: GA-X58A-UD3R: Windows 7 64 Bit, HDD's Disappear / Reappear
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2010, 03:44:20 pm »
Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

At the moment it could be just about anything causing this problem including the hard drives. In fact Western Digital have been having a problem with the quality of the hard drives recently and there have been several instances of drives failing form brand new.

Can you please list all your hardware including your PSU. Makes and models please?
Gigabyte X58A-UD7
i7 920
Dominators 1600 x6 12GB
6970 2GB
HX850
256GB SSD, Sam 1TB, WDB320GB
Blu-Ray
HAF 932

Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3
i7 3770K
Vengeance 1600 16GB
6950 2GB
HCP1200W
Revo Drive x2, 1.5TB WDB RAID0
16x DLRW
StrikeX S7
Full water cooling
3 x 27" Iiy

Re: GA-X58A-UD3R: Windows 7 64 Bit, HDD's Disappear / Reappear
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2010, 03:56:37 pm »
Thanks and sure thing:

PSU: Corsair TX850W
MB: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R REV2.0, Bios flashed to current verison
HDD: 3 WD 1TB WD1001FALS
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GTX460
RAM: 12G of Corsair XMS3 (2 sets of 6g Triple Channel)
DVD: OEM LG LightScribe

I'm running the most current drivers for everything.  I did notice that the ICH10R Version is higher on Gigabyte's site (10+ something) versus Intel's site (9.6).  I have been using the one from Gigabyte's site for my experimenting.

Re: GA-X58A-UD3R: Windows 7 64 Bit, HDD's Disappear / Reappear
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2010, 04:09:03 pm »
In my Event Viewer is lists the following error message consistently:

The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort10.

My only question is - which one is IdePort10? Is that the single true IDE port on the mb?  If that's the case, I don't have anything plugged into it.

Or do each of the SATA ports have a corresponding IdePort identifier (given that there are 10 there)

UPDATE
Both the App/File Drive and the Backup Drive fell out.  So I guess I can rule out the Intel Chipset drivers as the issue since it appears to happen across all of them.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2010, 04:27:30 pm by kemlinv »

Dark Mantis

  • *
  • 18405
  • 414
  • 10typesofpeopleoneswhoknow binaryandoneswhodont
    • Dark Mantis
Re: GA-X58A-UD3R: Windows 7 64 Bit, HDD's Disappear / Reappear
« Reply #4 on: December 10, 2010, 04:35:16 pm »
Oh if only it was that simple! I really can't say which port would come out as port 10 as Gigabyte seem to have there own method of numbering. Port 0 is normally the first port on the Intel ICH10R Southbridge set but I have tried to unravell them before and it doesn't always seem to make sense.

Generally the Intel drivers are rock solid and the ports are the best (and fastest) to use.
You are certainly better off using the Port 0 for the boot drive.

What BIOS version are you running? FE1 or FD?
« Last Edit: December 10, 2010, 04:36:25 pm by Dark Mantis »
Gigabyte X58A-UD7
i7 920
Dominators 1600 x6 12GB
6970 2GB
HX850
256GB SSD, Sam 1TB, WDB320GB
Blu-Ray
HAF 932

Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3
i7 3770K
Vengeance 1600 16GB
6950 2GB
HCP1200W
Revo Drive x2, 1.5TB WDB RAID0
16x DLRW
StrikeX S7
Full water cooling
3 x 27" Iiy

Re: GA-X58A-UD3R: Windows 7 64 Bit, HDD's Disappear / Reappear
« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2010, 04:39:36 pm »
Well, I was using the current Bios as of 11/1 apparently.  Ha!  That means FB.

I do have my boot drive in the SATA 0 port.  App/File in SATA 1.  Backup drive and DVD are currently disconnected after last fallout.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2010, 04:40:42 pm by kemlinv »

Dark Mantis

  • *
  • 18405
  • 414
  • 10typesofpeopleoneswhoknow binaryandoneswhodont
    • Dark Mantis
Re: GA-X58A-UD3R: Windows 7 64 Bit, HDD's Disappear / Reappear
« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2010, 04:51:14 pm »
Well the first thing then is to update your BIOS version to the latest one (or FD if you would prefer) using QFlash. Quite possibly that is all that it will take to remedy this problem.
Gigabyte X58A-UD7
i7 920
Dominators 1600 x6 12GB
6970 2GB
HX850
256GB SSD, Sam 1TB, WDB320GB
Blu-Ray
HAF 932

Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3
i7 3770K
Vengeance 1600 16GB
6950 2GB
HCP1200W
Revo Drive x2, 1.5TB WDB RAID0
16x DLRW
StrikeX S7
Full water cooling
3 x 27" Iiy