Windows 7 HDD disappears, after restart it reappers, atapi and disk errors in the Event Viewer

[markusbenjamin]

Hi folks,


So, the problem:

one of my HDDs suddenly disappeared, like it was turned off or something. I restarted the PC and the HDD reappeared and is fully functional since then. Right after the incident I checked some files on it. Well, most of the image files seemed to be damaged, that is they had parts missing and stuff. Checking them later they seemed repeared.

I did some googling and I read somewhere that I should check the Event Viewer looking for errors and warnings labelled 'Disk'. Doing so I've find tons of events spanning back about one and a half month. There are two types: "An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk1\DR1 during a paging operation." and "The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk2\DR5.". What's really scary is that the HDD indentifier part (DR1, DR2 etc) varies from event to event, like all of my HDDs were faulty.

While checking the Event Viewer I also noticed an awful bunch of 'atapi' errors stating: "The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort3." (the IdePort number remains the same at all events). What's even more intriguing is that the first of these 'atapi' error events is dated exactly to the time of my HDD disappearing. They keep coming since then.


What I'd like to find out:

I read somewhere that the first two errors indicate a serious HDD failure very soon. Is that true?
(Personally I don't think so, since I've been getting those errors for more than a month now (without me knowing about them) and my HDDs are functioning.)

What do these atapi errors mean? What do I have to do?

What happened?

I would truly appreciate any help!
Thanks,
Ben

 

[cybercore]

Hi and welcome, Markusbenjamin.


Those errors can be caused by a few things, depending on what you have in the IDE0 port.




Possible causes:

• Problems with the IDE0 port on your motherboard
• Problems with your hard drive or CD/DVD drive
• Software error
• This issue can occur if the BIOS settings of the SATA HDD are incorrect. AHCI SATA Mode must be configured properly in the BIOS

Check out the corresponding EventID.net pages, specifically Link Removed - Invalid URL and Link Removed - Invalid URL.

 

[markusbenjamin]

i checked the eventidnet pages, but i didn't really find any _useful_ information, just vague descriptions of maybe-related errors.
i believe there's some problem with my HDD, but i think thats obvious from my first post. can anyone please tell me how to exactly diagnose the problem and solve it?

 

[reghakr]

Try gpong to Start > Run, and type cmd. Now type sfc /scannow

Was this a "clean" indstasll or an upgrade?

 

[markusbenjamin]

Try gpong to Start > Run, and type cmd. Now type sfc /scannow

Was this a "clean" indstasll or an upgrade?

cmd returns: "You must be an administrator running a console session in order to use the sfc utility."

i am indeed logged in as an administator user, so i dont really understand why i get this message. anyway, is there somewhere an executable for sfc, maybe if i start it from windows explorer it will notice im an admin...

 

[reghakr]

Navigate to the C:\windows\system32 directory, locate cmd.exe , right-click and choose run a s Administrator

Or you can go to Control Panel > User Accounts, click the Change User Account Control settings and temporarily move the slider to never notify.