ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
I had a curious issue the other day when I did a Windows restart (ie. not a shutdown but a restart). When Windows rebooted my second drive (HDD) was missing in Windows. I did another restart and the HDD was still missing in Windows. I did a third restart and booted into the BIOS, my HDD wasn't shown there either.
In the BOOT options in my BIOS (the mobo is an Asus Z170-E) I noticed that Fast Boot was turned on and that associated with this was a setting that essentially said 'On power off do a normal boot'. I powered off and switched on again and Windows came back with my HDD showing. A further Windows restart also came back with the HDD showing.
The HDD is a WD Black and I've run the WD diagnostic tool on it and it's fine, there is nothing in the SMART data either. The PC is on 24/7 and I've not been inside it for a couple of months, so I don't believe it's loose cables or connectors.
Having researched the BIOS Fast Boot feature it appears not to be related to the Windows Fast Boot feature at all (which is what I first thought). From what I can find it appears to cause the POST tests to be done concurrently to speed up the booting process, I'm wondering whether some timing issues caused my HDD not to be detected during this 'fast boot'? In any case, since booting speed is of little consequence to a PC that's on 24/7, I've turned off the BIOS Fast Boot feature, it's my understanding that this means that the POST tests will be done consecutively now (as they have always been).
Any comments, suggestions?
FWIW The Windows Fast Boot feature has been turned off since day 1....
In the BOOT options in my BIOS (the mobo is an Asus Z170-E) I noticed that Fast Boot was turned on and that associated with this was a setting that essentially said 'On power off do a normal boot'. I powered off and switched on again and Windows came back with my HDD showing. A further Windows restart also came back with the HDD showing.
The HDD is a WD Black and I've run the WD diagnostic tool on it and it's fine, there is nothing in the SMART data either. The PC is on 24/7 and I've not been inside it for a couple of months, so I don't believe it's loose cables or connectors.
Having researched the BIOS Fast Boot feature it appears not to be related to the Windows Fast Boot feature at all (which is what I first thought). From what I can find it appears to cause the POST tests to be done concurrently to speed up the booting process, I'm wondering whether some timing issues caused my HDD not to be detected during this 'fast boot'? In any case, since booting speed is of little consequence to a PC that's on 24/7, I've turned off the BIOS Fast Boot feature, it's my understanding that this means that the POST tests will be done consecutively now (as they have always been).
Any comments, suggestions?
FWIW The Windows Fast Boot feature has been turned off since day 1....