Hard Drive Disappeared

zappaDPJ · Dec 07, 2020, 11:41:55

Sounds about right

Simon · Dec 07, 2020, 14:57:56

Well, the PCI card arrived, but it doesn't fit, so back to square one.

zappaDPJ · Dec 07, 2020, 16:40:47

I'm not sure what to suggest. I would be inclined to replace the SATA cable if it's a cheap one. On the other hand the cables I use are pound shop quality and they just work.

Simon · Dec 07, 2020, 17:47:40

I'm not sure why the PCI card didn't fit. All the ones on Amazon seen to be the same so I assumed they were universal.

I daren't take the cable off the motherboard. I've now swapped the connector from the DVD drive onto the C drive and that seems stable but the bloody DVD drive doesn't work now as Windows isn't seeing it and it's not appearing in Device Manager. Well, it works as in opens and shuts but I don't think the data cable is working. That kind of confirms my theory that it's a connection issue, but the more I fiddle about the worse I'm making things.

What I'm going to do, just for easiness now, is leave it as it is and buy a USB DVD drive for when I want to rip a CD to iTunes and such like. I think, in the new year, I'll either have to take it in to a repair shop or consider buying a new one. I'd love to do another self build, as this one has lasted 13 years, and essentially is still going strong, but I don't think I'd have the time or patience these days.

zappaDPJ · Dec 07, 2020, 18:23:51

So it's either a faulty motherboard socket or a dodgy SATA lead. As you surmised the DVD will power up without a data cable.

So are all your motherboard SATA sockets in use?

Simon · Dec 07, 2020, 19:28:04

All the usable ones are, yes. That's three out of six. The others all have bent pins. As I said, the problem is that they are not 'sockets' as there is no casing around them to guide the connector, so you just have to try to fit the connector onto the tiny bare prongs, which are themselves, in an awkward place. You only have to get the connector slightly misaligned, and you bend the pins.

robinc · Dec 08, 2020, 06:37:37

Given the cost of a refurb desktop I'd just get on with it and then it's done

https://microdream.co.uk/desktop-pc.html £240 for a small form factor HP i5 with 8gb RAM.

Simon · Dec 08, 2020, 09:52:45

Cost isn't the main factor, it's the time it would take to set it all up, but thanks for the link.

Postal · Dec 08, 2020, 23:04:49

Quote from: Simon on Dec 08, 2020, 09:52:45
Cost isn't the main factor, it's the time it would take to set it all up, but thanks for the link.

And how long have you spent trying to fix what you've got?

Simon · Dec 09, 2020, 00:50:34

Not really that long, and it's all working now.

robinc · Dec 09, 2020, 05:58:42

Well, this may be of some help https://uk.pcmag.com/gallery/122339/how-to-move-your-windows-drive-to-a-new-pc
I don't use Windows so cannot really comment on the efficacy - but there are established methods of transferring your licence as well.
It may well be that combined with a drive cloning process you could get away without having to reinstall everything.

WRT to your current arrangement - it sounds like the data cables are just hanging on by friction and hope. What I do know is that combined with thermal movement, earthquakes, spiders and earwigs and just plain bad luck, you are going to hit trouble.

Please reconsider ?

Simon · Dec 09, 2020, 09:59:08

Thanks for that Robin. I did read another similar article the other day, but the caveats are a slight concern. I think if I spent the money on a new machine, it would be best to start afresh, but that is certainly worth some consideration.

Simon · Dec 16, 2020, 09:53:50

Just a tenuously linked follow-up to this, I bought a new laptop and have been trying to set it up, but no matter what I do the damned thing will not connect to the other laptop on the network, so I'm now trying to transfer huge amounts of data from one to the other via a separate external drive which will obviously take twice as long. This is precisely why I hate new computers!

nowster · Dec 17, 2020, 22:36:07

Wired or wireless? If both are wireless, some access points need a form of "isolation" turned off for two wireless devices to see each other.

Simon · Dec 17, 2020, 23:51:35

Quote from: nowster on Dec 17, 2020, 22:36:07
Wired or wireless? If both are wireless, some access points need a form of "isolation" turned off for two wireless devices to see each other.

I've no idea what that means.

In the end, I connected the two laptops via an ethernet cable.

nowster · Dec 18, 2020, 10:26:49

Quote from: Simon on Dec 17, 2020, 23:51:35
I've no idea what that means. In the end, I connected the two laptops via an ethernet cable.

It means that one wireless device can't see another wireless device. It's a security setting in the WiFi access point (which may be integrated into your modem-router).

Simon · Dec 18, 2020, 10:57:02

Yeah, I did have a look in the Asus N66U settings and couldn't see anything obvious, but then they probably wouldn't make it obvious.

sparky · Dec 30, 2020, 19:09:38

Simon

As an appendum to this, my desktop PC is also, almost 13 yrs old. I kept getting my second hard drive to re-appear by re-seating things. Ended up finding that just re-seating the power cable connection at the drive end brought it back to life. But the fix was to replace the Hard Drive, which was original.

So I guess, 13 yrs is about EOL for an HDD ? Probably lucky they lasted that long, although the quality was probably better then.

Simon · Dec 30, 2020, 19:33:35

Yeah, I would hope the quality is still as good, but like you imply, they don't make things like they used to!

In the end, I bit the bullet and have ordered a new desktop PC from CCL Online. It's being hand built to my specifications and should be with me around the second week of the new year. I've then got the task, once again, of transferring everything from the old PC to the new one, but at least I can move the new hard drive I just bought into the new PC, so that will account for a lot of data. I will also have a second 2TB hard drive on which to transfer all the data from my current two 500GB external drives, still leaving a fair amount of spare capacity.

My only slight niggle is that I recently swapped the old C drive on the old PC for a new SSD drive, which homed the operating system in isolation. I guess I could eventually use it for additional storage, but for the time being at least, I will need to still have the old PC operable, in case anything gets left behind. What I would ideally have liked would have been to move the entire new SSD C drive, including the OS, to the new PC, but apparently that sort of procedure is fraught with dangers.