Hard drive loses the drive letter

[Skyn3t]

Hello,

It turns out that recently I installed an internal sata drive in the desktop that seems to be working fine. I've had it for a few hours testing, making transfers... and it hasn't given me any problems.

I keep losing the drive letter. Every time I restart, the drive gets "unmapped" and loses the letter. I have to go to the disk manager every time to assign a drive letter, but the moment I restart the pc or turn it off, it loses it again and it's a pain every time I want to access the content to have to assign the letter...

Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong? I've tried running chkdsk /f /r and I didn't get any errors either...

Thanks!

[Sylver]

Hello

Check it out with the CrystalDisk to see if it's damaged...

Best regards

[Franziskaner]

What brand and model is it?
Regards

[Skyn3t]

Well, this is what I got with the crystaldisk:

It seems to be ok. It's a seagate barracuda green at 5900 rpm. I took it out of a case that I had lying around, laughing my ass off, I mean, it was external, but I don't think that has much to do with it, right?

[Sylver]

Well no, it doesn't seem to be broken, nor does it seem to be a case issue.
Maybe it's a problem with the controller that's a bit crazy…

[cobito]

When a PC does strange things
a memtest is always in place.

[Skyn3t]

@cobito:

When a PC does strange things
a memtest always helps.

And what does the ram have to do with the hdd?

[cobito]

@Skyn3t:

¿Y que tiene que ver la ram con el hdd?

RAM has to do with all the hardware. A failure in the RAM can manifest in a million ways, from blue screens to graphics failures, a network that doesn't come up, a sound card that is unable to decode AC3 5.1... or an operating system that doesn't know how to mount a hard drive in its corresponding drive at each start, either because of a communication problem with the controller, because data is corrupted every time it saves the configuration, etc, etc, etc.

The first thing: run a memtest and from there you can start ruling things out.

Or if you feel like the quick option, format with the problematic disk plugged in.

[Skyn3t]

@cobito:

RAM is about all the hardware. A RAM failure can manifest in a million ways, from blue screens to graphics failures, a network that doesn't come up, a sound card that is unable to decode AC3 5.1... or an operating system that doesn't know how to mount a hard drive in its corresponding drive at each startup, either because of a communication problem with the controller, because data is corrupted every time it saves the configuration, etc, etc, etc.

The first thing: run a memtest and from there you can start ruling things out.

Or if you feel like the quick option, format with the problematic drive plugged in.

Thanks for the suggestion. I've tried formatting the drive to the bone, and nothing. I'll try a memtest as you say to see where it comes from... Thanks again!

[cobito]

@Skyn3t:

Thanks for the suggestion. I've tried formatting the disk to the bone, and nothing. I'll try a memtest as you say to see where it comes from... Thanks again!

By formatting I mean that you format the system (format + Windows installation).

If the memtest comes out negative, look for a utility like Partition Magic or Paragon Partition Manager, delete all the partitions on the disk and recreate them. But don't use the Windows utility from Administrative Tools.

[Sylver]

Indeed, I would use Partition Magic and delete all the partitions on the disk and create a new one (or a couple to test if the system assigns letters to each partition), formatted of course.

Regards

[Skyn3t]

@Sylver:

Indeed, I would use Partition Magic and delete all the partitions on the disk and create a new one (or a couple to test if the system assigns letters to each partition), formatted of course.

Regards

Puf, well I've tried both Paragon and Partition Magic and there's no way... It's impossible for windows to save me a drive letter... I've tried formatting and making partitions, and nothing

[Sylver]

Scraped controller I think… :nono:

[Skyn3t]

@Sylver:

Scraped controller I think… :nono:

Oh man… not a chance, it picks up all the disks I have without any problems except for that one xD in fact, the little Intel rapid storage program that usually comes with it detects the disk and everything...

I think this disk is only going to be destined for external use...

[packosoft]

@Sylver:

Indeed, I would use Partition Magic and delete all the partitions on the disk and create a new one (or a couple to test if the system assigns letters to each partition), formatted of course.

Regards

15 days of banning face the wall for recommending Partition Magic :ffu:
@Skyn3t:

Well man… not a chance, if it catches me all the disks I have without problems except that one xD in fact, the little program from Intel rapid storage that usually comes detects the disk and everything...

I think this disk is only going to be destined for external use...

have you looked in the system event viewer to see if there is anything?
try assigning it from the command line to see
start->run
diskpart
list disk
select disk X (the number of the disk shown in the previous case)
select partition 1
assign
exit

by the way, you won't give it any'strange' letter, right?

[Sylver]

Joe Packo, that sometimes fixes small disk problems, or just shows you if the partition is screwed up or something. I usually use the one from Hirens Boot when a disk goes crazy…
Besides, you come for me right away, Cobito said it first! :llorar:
xD

Saludos!

EDIT: By the way, I was referring to the internal controller of THAT specific disk.

[Fassou]

Check if your card has multiple controllers, in case it's plugged into one that, when you start Windows, loads additional drivers and then doesn't recover the assigned drive <:(

Come on, plug it into another SATA port ;D

Best regards!

[Skyn3t]

@packosoft:

15 days of being told to face the wall so that you can reflect on recommending Partition Magic :ffu:

have you looked in the system event viewer to see if there is anything?
try assigning it from the command line to see
start->run
diskpart
list disk
select disk X (the number of the disk shown in the previous case)
select partition 1
assign
exit

by the way, you won't give it any'strange' letter, right?

I have already tried with the diskpart and nothing… I assign it the F: or the X: to try... Anyway, I think the disk is somewhat broken, because I hear it make "clack-clack" from time to time randomly... What surprises me is that, despite being damaged, it still works in its own way...

Many thanks for the contribution by the way.

[Skyn3t]

@Fassou:

Check if your card has multiple controllers, in case it's stuck on one that loads additional drivers when you start Windows, and then doesn't recover the assigned drive <:(

Come on, plug it into another SATA port ;D

Cheers!

Yes, I've checked that too. I've plugged it into a sata port where the exact same disk was before, which has never had a problem of this type.

[packosoft]

You won't have another disk of the same model to try changing the controller, will you?