Hard Drive does not show in BIOS but DVD Drive does. CPU issue?

anblan25

Here's the background. I'm using my build as normal, and I run the python.exe I have stored on my internal 3.5" HDD through the SATA port. I get BSOD, and after the reboot Windows can no longer detect my hard drive in File Explorer nor anywhere in Disk Management. I reboot into the BIOS and the SATA ports are Enabled and set to AHCI mode, but it cannot detect my hard drive in any of the ports, despite swapping SATA cables. My other internal 3.5" HDD is non-detectable in all the same ways and doesn't have any exe on it and was not in use at the time of incident.

I plugged the hard drive into another build of mine, and it's detected in Windows no problem. I'm thinking that's weird, shouldn't I be able to run executables through the SATA connection? Python is a small-footprint, open-source programming language I use all the time and works fine on my local OS drive (an M.2 NVMe). And I've certainly installed software from exe files stored on the internal drive through the SATA connection before. Maybe Python caused an abnormal surge? So I thought it must have damaged the motherboard, which seems like a crazy thought.

Nevertheless, I went through all the legwork to fully replace my motherboard, remove and re-apply thermal paste to the CPU and seat it and the cooler to the new motherboard. Boot into the BIOS and the CPU and all its parameters are detected no problem. But the HDD still does not show on any of the SATA ports in the BIOS. Interestingly, I have an optical drive connected to one of the SATA ports and that does show up! Maybe it wasn't a motherboard issue after all. Could the CPU have gotten screwed up? As I said, the hard drive works fine on my other build which has a different motherboard/CPU/RAM/etc.

Hard drives ARE detected on Build 2 :

MBD : Gigabyte B450M DS3H

APU : AMD Athlon 3000G with Radeon Vega Graphics

RAM : Crucial 1x8 GB DDR4-2400

PSU : PowerSpec 650W 80+ Bronze

Hard drives are NOT detected on Build 1 :

MBD : Gigabyte B450 Gaming X

CPU : AMD Ryzen 7 2700X

GPU : MSI GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER

RAM : Kingston HyperX Fury 2x8 GB DDR4-3200

PSU : Seasonic Focus GX-750 80+ Gold

Hard drives are NOT detected on Build 1.2 (after motherboard replacement) :

MBD : ASUS Prime X570-P

CPU : AMD Ryzen 7 2700X

GPU : MSI GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER

RAM : Kingston HyperX Fury 2x8 GB DDR4-3200

PSU : Seasonic Focus GX-750 80+ Gold

Then the only things I haven't swapped are the CPU, GPU, RAM, and PSU. I think GPU and PSU are safely out of the question for relevance. What could have possibly happened to the CPU or RAM so that optical drives are detected in the BIOS through SATA but hard disk drives are not? I'd really appreciate some technical insight here. Thanks in advance.

TSTonyV

Based on all the steps you've gone through already, I'd actually say that we haven't ruled out the PSU as an issue. The CPU doesn't really have anything to do with detecting SATA devices on your system, that's handled by the chipset, and you've already ruled out the motherboard as a potential culprit. 

I'd say the most likely culprit is a bad SATA power cable/rail on the PSU. The power supply you have should have multiple SATA power ports on it, I would try different ones to see if that fixes it, and if you have a spare SATA power cable, try that as well. If neither of those work, try swapping in the Powerspec PSU from build 2 into the main build and see if that fixes it. 

Roxas112

I have similar problem as the original post. I cannot find my 3 HDDs after replacing a faulty PSU, not in Disk Management nor in the BIOS.

What it does register is the CD/DVD drive. I swap the SATA and power cables from the CD/DVD drive to either of the 3 HDDs, it does not work. On the other hand when I used the SATA and power cables from either of the 3 HDDs and hook it up to the CD/DVD drive, it can be detected. Right now I am waiting for a SATA to USB cable to test whether I can detect the HDDs on another computer. 

I just want to see if there are solutions to this problem.

MBD : MSI Z270 Tomahawk opt boost

CPU : intel i7 7700K

GPU : EVGA 1080 Ti

RAM : G.Skill Ripjaws 2x8 GB DDR4-3200

Old PSU : Corsair CS850M 80+ Gold
New PSU: EVGA 650G+ 80+ Gold

TSTonyV

Roxas112 said:

I have similar problem as the original post. I cannot find my 3 HDDs after replacing a faulty PSU, not in Disk Management nor in the BIOS.

What it does register is the CD/DVD drive. I swap the SATA and power cables from the CD/DVD drive to either of the 3 HDDs, it does not work. On the other hand when I used the SATA and power cables from either of the 3 HDDs and hook it up to the CD/DVD drive, it can be detected. Right now I am waiting for a SATA to USB cable to test whether I can detect the HDDs on another computer. 

I just want to see if there are solutions to this problem.

MBD : MSI Z270 Tomahawk opt boost

CPU : intel i7 7700K

GPU : EVGA 1080 Ti

RAM : G.Skill Ripjaws 2x8 GB DDR4-3200

Old PSU : Corsair CS850M 80+ Gold
New PSU: EVGA 650G+ 80+ Gold

You've switched your PSU, and I doubt it's a board issue if you can detect your DVD drive, but it's hard to say 100%. Do you have another system you can try plugging the drives into to rule them out as a potential issue? While it's very unlikely, if the drives were sharing a power cable that was separate from the DVD drive, the faulty PSU could have damaged those drives while the DVD drive was left unscathed. 

Roxas112

TSTonyV said:

You've switched your PSU, and I doubt it's a board issue if you can detect your DVD drive, but it's hard to say 100%. Do you have another system you can try plugging the drives into to rule them out as a potential issue? While it's very unlikely, if the drives were sharing a power cable that was separate from the DVD drive, the faulty PSU could have damaged those drives while the DVD drive was left unscathed. 

I do not have another system, that is why I am waiting on a SATA to USB cord to test it out. But if it ends up to be working fine, then I would have a similar problem as the original post. 

TSTonyV

Let us know the results when you get the chance to test it. 

anblan25

TSTonyV said:

Based on all the steps you've gone through already, I'd actually say that we haven't ruled out the PSU as an issue. The CPU doesn't really have anything to do with detecting SATA devices on your system, that's handled by the chipset, and you've already ruled out the motherboard as a potential culprit. 

I'd say the most likely culprit is a bad SATA power cable/rail on the PSU. The power supply you have should have multiple SATA power ports on it, I would try different ones to see if that fixes it, and if you have a spare SATA power cable, try that as well. If neither of those work, try swapping in the Powerspec PSU from build 2 into the main build and see if that fixes it. 

You got it!! It was the PSU. I guess with all the troubleshooting I was doing and cable swapping and juggling parts between the two builds, I was starting to get dizzy and stopped short of being absolutely thorough with the power supply. Plus I was a little drained after doing the motherboard replacement and CPU re-seating.

Turns out the problem is with port#1 on the back of my PSU (it's fully modular) for the 6-pin IDE/SATA ports. I move the exact same cable to port#2/3/4, same power cable same hard drive same everything, shows up in BIOS. Move it back to port#1 and no dice. Looks like I need to contact Seasonic for warranty replacement. Just dumbfounds me that something as seemingly inoffensive as running an exe from an internal drive could be so damaging. Guess it's just best practice to copy anything exciting to the OS drive before you run it, and use the other internal drives for storage only (but I guess you'd still be screwed if your OS drive is a SATA 3.5" HDD). Thanks again.

TSTonyV

Yeah, definitely would contact Seasonic about a warranty replacement. Glad we could get it figured out!

Roxas112

TSTonyV said:

Let us know the results when you get the chance to test it. 

I got the SATA to USB cable (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PVX682Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and tested the 3 HDDs. Unfortunately, none of them are able to connect to my laptop. Just to be sure that the cable is fine, I pulled out one of my 2.5 HDD from my external drive and test the cable. My laptop was able to read the 2.5 HDD just fine. Looks like my 3 HDDs are dead. Stupid Corsair PSU, I will not buy Corsair product again.

TSTonyV

Roxas112 said:

TSTonyV said:

Let us know the results when you get the chance to test it. 

I got the SATA to USB cable (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PVX682Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and tested the 3 HDDs. Unfortunately, none of them are able to connect to my laptop. Just to be sure that the cable is fine, I pulled out one of my 2.5 HDD from my external drive and test the cable. My laptop was able to read the 2.5 HDD just fine. Looks like my 3 HDDs are dead. Stupid Corsair PSU, I will not buy Corsair product again.

That sucks, sorry to hear. It's possible that the data on them may still be recoverable if you need that data. If you wanted to you could bring the drives to your local Micro Center store and we could see what options we have. Just keep in mind if we're unable to recover the data ourselves they'd have to be sent out to a specialized data recovery lab which is extremely expensive. 

I don't know how likely this is, but it's also possible Corsair's warranty could cover if a faulty PSU damages other electronics and they may be able to assist you with that, it's probably worth a shot to reach out to them about it.