[AVZ]

Four days ago, I started having a problem where one of my six hard drives disappears, completely, from My Computer, Administrative Tools/Storage devices, and Device Manager - I hear a USB disconnect sound from Windows when this happens. I am currently running all of the HDD's in AHCI mode. The interesting thing is, when I restart my PC, the hard drive is back where it's suppose to be, until the same thing happens. I have tried taking out the SATA and power cables and replugging them - seems like for most of today it didn't disconnect up until now, again... I decided to try updating the chipset drivers of the motherboard, and, the interesting thing here was that, while updating the drivers, the screen went black at one point during the update, I heard the sound you get when connecting a USB device, the screen came back on, and the hard drive was back where it's suppose to be :huh:

However, it disconnected within the first 2 minutes after I got back into windows after the restart for the drivers.

My System:

Windows 7 64-bit
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 motherboard (revision 1.3)
5 HDD's + 1 SSD
The affected HDD is a Western Digital 500GB

 

[spunk.funk]

Is the WD 500 GB an internal drive or is it a external USB drive?
Shut down the computer and open the side and take a look at the Power Supply Units label and report the Make, Model # and Wattage. If you are 500Watts or under, your PSU is under powered for running 6 HDD's.

 

[AVZ]

It's an internal HDD. I have a modular Thermaltake 850W PSU. I have had it since December 2010... I don't think capacitor aging should be a problem here just yet... I remember the SATA port "fast aging" problem that existed with the new Sandy Bridge motherboards - I am not sure, but I doubt that my motherboard, especially as a ".3" up revised one, could possibly have that problem. The motherboard is about 369 days old, so literally, just over a year old.

My full setup:

Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 rev 1.3
Intel Core i7 2700K (4.5Ghz @ 1.37v)
16GB DDR3-1600 Corsair Vengeance RAM
Nvidia GTX580
ASUS Xonar DX
90GB Vertex 3 SSD
500GB+500GB+1TB+1.5TB+2TB HDD's

 

[spunk.funk]

Try a different SATA cable, try a different SATA power plug, try a different SATA port, try a Bios Update.