What do you do when your computer only recognizes your hard-drive part of the time? Is it simply a matter of the hard-drive going bad or is it a BIOS setting that needs adjusting? Today’s SuperUser Q&A post has some helpful advice for a frustrated reader.
Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites.
Photo courtesy of Asten (Flickr).
The Question
SuperUser reader Blaine wants to how to fix a computer where the hard-drive is only recognized when it has already spun up:
So I have encountered a weird issue. When I first turn on my desktop computer, it does not recognize that it has a hard-drive in it. However, if I then press the reset button, or turn it off and back on quickly enough, the hard-drive will be recognized.
In all other aspects, the hard-drive works perfectly (with a S.M.A.R.T test showing no errors). What could be the cause of this, and is there any way to fix it?
How do you fix a computer where the hard-drive is only recognized when it has already spun up?
The Answer
SuperUser contributor Mokubai has the answer for us:
It could be that the BIOS on your computer is not waiting long enough for the hard-drive to spin up before continuing to boot. Many BIOSes have an option for “hard-drive spin up time” which can delay the boot process for a couple of seconds while the hard-drive spins up.
If you can access the BIOS on your computer, then I would look for that option and see if you can extend the delay.
If this is a recent occurrence, then it could be a sign that the hard-drive motor is beginning to fail and can no longer spin up as quickly as it used to. This would be a bad indication as it may not be able to spin up at all soon.
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