0

I was playing with a friend all evening when my game crashed (for like the 3rd time) and then I saw that it was no longer installed on Battle.net and that the hard drive which it was installed on totally disappeared from my computer!

  • The hard drive is also completely gone from Device Manager and Disk Management.
  • When restarting the computer, the loading time is much longer than before even though Windows 10 is on the SSD and the SSD didn't crash or disappear.
  • There is no troubleshooting option and no recovery point to go back to.
  • Any idea what could have caused this and how to fix it?
  • Is there a way to check if the hard drive is mounted in Windows?

Thanks!

Improve this question
1
  • If you have another PC with which to test, connect it to that PC to see if the same symptoms appear.
    – Gloria Gu
    Commented Dec 22, 2020 at 8:39

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Your hard drive has likely gone (which may be why the earlier crashes).

Get a bootable USB key (a Windows ISO is fine), boot from this and (probably using Command Mode) see if you can see the disk or any data on the disk.

Next (or alternate) approach: Remove the hard drive, put in a USB carrier, attach this assembly (USB carrier including the hard drive) to a working computer. Using an Explorer tool or command mode, see if you can see the disk or any data on the disk.

I think there is a good chance the disk is just dead, but see if either approach above works.

Good luck.

Improve this answer
4
  • Thanks for your help! So the weirdest thing ever happened. After rebooting several times nothing changed. I then turned off the computer and went to bed. Now I just turned the computer back on and the hard drive is back!! Do you have any clue as to what could cause this and what is going on? Could it just be a warning sign that the drive might break soon or maybe a slightly badly plugged cable inside? Do you recommend any software to diagnose this? I'm currently doing a full scan of the drive using Lenovo Diagnostics (the computer is a gaming laptop Lenovo Legion y720).
    – MFJC
    Commented Dec 22, 2020 at 11:54
  • 1
    In addition to the suggestions in my answer, the Lenovo diagnostics are excellent. That will you help you with checking your drive. Use "Lenovo Diagnostics Windows" V4.37.0 . I think that is the latest. Beware the condition of the drive because it could stop again.
    – anon
    Commented Dec 22, 2020 at 12:18
  • Thanks! Glad to hear the Lenovo tool is reliable. Should I double check with the Western Digital tools since the HDD is of that brand? Also, if the tests say everything is fine, does it still mean the drive could fail because of that event?
    – MFJC
    Commented Dec 22, 2020 at 17:47
  • Tests tell condition at the time of test and are not always predictive so it is hard to tell how long the disk will last. As long as my own tests show no errors over some time ( a few weeks) I am happy with the disk. If I get disk errors that is troublesome
    – anon
    Commented Dec 22, 2020 at 17:52

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .