2 HDDs Stop and Start Working at the Same Time

Hi,

These are my pc components:

- GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DQ6 LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Motherboard
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield cpu
- mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel RAM
- CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W
- 12 Hdds - Some WD Caviar Black 1TB, 2 WD 2T Hdds, and some 750G hdds
- ASUS EAH4650-DI-512MD2 Graphics Card
- HighPoint RocketRAID 2300 PCI Express SATA II 8-Port Controller Card
- LIAN-LI PC-201A 12-Bay Case
- Windows XP Pro x64

They're all inside the 12-bay case. Recently, 2 hdds stop working for the most part and then they appear sometimes after a reboot, both at the same time, never 1 hdd alone. Either they're both there or they're both not.

They're all SATA hdds but I have the pc configured in an IDE format.

I tried swapping cables and ports, connecting them to different ports on the mobo, different ports on the adapter card, one on the mobo and one on the adapter card but the problem remains. When I remove them from the case and put them inside an external case, they both work. It's a crazy problem and I'm at the end of my abilities to discover what the problem is.

I use Avast as my primary, and then I'll start Spybot S&D, SUPERAntiSpyware, WindowsDefender and BitDefender when I want to run scan but there aren't any problems except for cookies . I use Advanced WindowsCare V2 Personal for "Registry Fix," "Junk Files Clean" and "Privacy Sweep" before I shut down each day and I defrag at least once a week. I've been doing this maintenance for over a year with no problems.

I've attached a screenshot of My Computer when the 2 hdds (E and H) are working. Some of the drives shown in the screenshot are in external SATA array enclosures.

Someone PLEASE help.

 

A bigger screenshot attached.

 

Are these drives connected directly to SATA ports on the motherboard or to a PCI/PCI-e SATA expansion card?

For starters, I would try swapping the SATA connectors on these two drives to ports that have not had issues (example: Move "G" and "H" to the ports that currently connect to "M" and "N" and vice versa). In this example, if "G" and "H" work fine but "M" and "N" start disappearing, it points to a controller card issue. If "G" and "H" still act up, I'd check to see if there is a firmware update available for these drives.

Hope this helps.

 

I tried different combinations when connecting them to the mobo and adapter card. Even when they are both connected to the mobo or both connected to the adapter card or when one is connected to the mobo and the other to the adapter card, it didn't fix the problem.

I also swapped cables from drives that have no problems but again, it didn't help.

They both work when I placed them in external cases.

I just think it's very strange that they're either both working or both not working. One doesn't work while the other doesn't work.

I check for new drivers but none were available.