Disks Disappear From 'my Computer'

OS: Windows 7

I'm getting this disk error thing constantly, and resetting my PC seems the only way to fix it. Unfortunately it only fixes it for a few hours as it gets back to the same thing. I work a lot through my PC and sometimes it's not convenient to restart my PC as I'm rendering stuff etc.

I'll show a screenshot of my issue, but here's the issue, all my drives disappear. I have 1 internal SSD 525GB, 1 internal 2TB SATA2 and 2 external USB3 with 4TB each. They all disappear from 'My Computer' I have no clue what starts the error, but sometimes it's by copy/pasting files, others just random. It all started with Thumbnail of video files just not showing to eventually the whole disk disappearing. Sometimes I also get a prompt asking me to format the disk but a restart fixes that issue too.

Viewing the screenshot, the highlighted red box shows the magnifying glass in circles looking for my drives and the highlighted green box shows the windows address bar loading but when it reaches the end it won't load anything, just gets stuck at the end.


I've tried to disfragment my disks, repair the disks via windows checkdisk and repair the disks via CMD chkdsk /r.

What should I do? I wanted to avoid re-installing windows yet again. Thanks

 

It could be a system file error.
Follow these instructions.
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html?ltr=S

 

Cool, thanks. It said it found and repaired some corrupted sectors so I rebooted my PC now. Let me see if this remains fixed or not, time will tell. Cheers

 

Nope, that didn't help. After 10 mins of files transfer, it blocked up again. It's now searching for drives on a endless loop. One of my external disks is 2 months old. My SSD is 7 months old. :/

 

When the drives disappear, open Device manager.
Are there any yellow triangles or question marks?

 

No yellow triangles nor question marks. Looks normal on DM. :/

 

Have a look over here.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/330140/my-drive-does-not-appear-in-windows-explorer-view

 

By 'normal' do you mean your drives all show in Device Manager but do not show in My Computer?

 

Yes, exactly that. Shows on DM but not in My Computer. My shortcuts to different folders also work but thumbnails do not show, sometimes even the icon doesn't show (when on extra large icons view).

 

It might be the Icon Cache is corrupted.
The IconCache.db file is located over here.
C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\IconCache.db
Delete it and restart the computer.

 

The fact that this happens randomly at a time when the comp is apparently working normally does rule out most of the common causes given in Eldon's link and suggests either a computer malfunction or malware. Not a lot you can do if it's a malfunction but you could get it thoroughly checked by the MG malware experts. You do need first to go through the Read and Run Me sticky.

https://forums.majorgeeks.com/forums/malware-help-mg-a-specialist-will-reply.35/

 

Deleting the Icon Cache doesn't work either, after the reboot I'm still having issues. The problem seems to instantly occur when I attempt to transfer files, last few reboots I tested transferring files from my SSD to my external and the disks start bugging out. Guess I'll have to try with the MG malware experts. Thanks for trying to help guys.

 

If it's malware, they'll fix it.
Do give a brief summary of what you've done.
Good luck.

 

One question we should have asked but didn't is whether these disks could be overfull? It certainly looks a pretty well stuffed computer from your screenshots but given the massive storage capacity you have it's not at all likely but the question still needs asking. As a general rule you should keep 20% free, perhaps less with larger drives.

 

I'm trying to free up my C drive, but every time I try to transfer files, the process freezes and won't copy.

 

That overfull C drive may well explain all of your disk problems. You need a boot disk to slim it down a bit. A Linux CD would be sufficient.

 

I'll try tomorrow as it's 4:30am here. What exactly are you talking about? I have Linux on a USB pen but it's with my gf, she took it with her on holidays. How can I keep my Windows C drive as empty as possible? It keeps on increasing size, I have only 7GB of non-Windows related files, I wouldn't think Windows is 200 GB...

 

Run Disk Cleanup.
https://www.howtogeek.com/125923/7-ways-to-free-up-hard-disk-space-on-windows/

 

Windows 7 - even with old version folders - wont remotely approach that size.
Use Tree Size Free to see exactly what is on that C drive

 

I think we are nearly there. Try Eldon's suggestion first, which should clear enough space to then install and then run Treesize. You should have little problem getting C well below 100GB, after which hopefully all will be well.

 

Tree Size takes up less than 10mb of space even if fully installed, and the Portable version works just as well without any install.
In terms of Disk Clean Up it would require two uses - the first one is standard and quite minimal, the second option is that which appears in the DCU window at the bottom separately titled 'Clean up System Files'.

 

Given the problem the OP presently has it must make sense to relieve the pressure on space before installing Treesize or even trying to run its portable version.

 

I agree doing Disk Clean Up should be done now. However, if the OP is to reduce the hard drive used space so that there is at least 15% free space then Tree Size - as recommended in every single thread where a Hard Drive is close to capacity - is essential for them to actually see what is taking up the space. Installing it now, or using the portable version now, is not going to cause any problem at all. Given the free space currently is 15 GB installing Tree Size before doing DCU is not only simple and manageable but the suggestion it is a 'pressure' holds no water.

 

I've ran Disk Cleanup and CCleaner, but they only cleared ~70MB and I do not have System Restore enabled, so no previous backups to delete. I did notice a folder I have that one of my softwares has been rendering files into it, but they are pretty important so I cannot delete them. So far I've freed up 10% of the disk, but since I can't delete these files, I'm attempting to copy/paste them elsewhere but it causes the drives to 'disappear'.

 

Turn System Restore ON - it's simple. https://www.winhelp.us/configure-system-restore-in-windows.html
Configure it to use the amount of space you want. Keeping SR off is a very bad idea unless you use an external drive to make regular back ups.
Use TREE SIZE as suggested to find out what is on that drive that can be deleted or saved elsewhere.

 

When you ran Disk Cleanup did you go on to the second stage and run Cleanup System Files? While I agree with Max about turning system restore on there isn't any point doing so until you have meaningful space available.

 

Post # 22 two days ago. Let's hope the OP read it

With 15 gb of current free space, leaving SR off with no external back up leaves open the risk of a total crash with no back up.

 

It was because of these problems that I suggested earlier using a Linux boot disk. Linux boot disks boot your computer outside of Windows into the Linux operating system and give you access to all your disks. This would enable you to copy off these important files to another disk. There are endless versions of Linux available for free download but for this purpose I would recommend Puppy. You burn the downloaded iso to a flash drive or to CD/DVD and boot to it. You would probably have to do a little simple configuration just to get the screen right but it would enable you to resolve your space problem where Windows methods are failing.

 

This is important to clean up unused files.

 

So far I’ve reached up to 56GB free space out of 228GB and I’m still having this issue. :/

 

What Windows theme are you using?

 

Not clear from that what the 'issue' is. Have you run Tree Size to identify data?

 

The issue is stated on the 1st post and further down. My disks disappear from My Computer, especially when I’m trying to transfer data.

 

You mean that the one disk you are interested in - the C drive - still cant be seen in Disk Management?
If that's true maybe you just need to hook the hard drive with C up to a working system, save all important data onto an external drive, then re attach it and do a OS reinstall.

 

MaxTurner, I appreciate you trying to help, but I’ve explained it all with screenshots and follow up details. All my drives disappear, both internal sata and external usb from ‘My Computer’. It still shows on Device Manager and I can still browse those disks with my folder shortcuts. Opening ‘My Computer’, it shows the magnifying glass in circles trying to load my drives, nothing shows up. Browsing my folders, thumbnails won’t show and sometimes even the icons won’t show.

Hooking up my C (SSD internal disk) drive to another system is quite difficult cos it means I need to find a tower from someone to hook it up to. Most people I know run laptops.

It was suggested that the main drive was too full but I’ve already cleared to 56GB free space out of 228GB but when I try to transfer files out of that disk not only will the transfer freeze on ‘calculating’, the disks ‘disappear’ from My Computer. This is the issue you were asking for.

 

Right now I can’t recall the theme software I use, but I’ve used this for a while now and this issue only recently came up. I’m replying through my phone but once I get home I’ll find out.

 

You didn't show a screenshot of the Disk Management and you didn't answer other questions..
Anyway, good luck solving this issue.
If you haven't already run scans with Check Disk (on every one of the internal drives) and the System File Checker (SFC) to try and repair any potential problems on your system, then you should. And if that doesn't work then running Tweaking Windows Repair in Windows Safe Mode might work, other wise you are left with a fresh reinstall of Windows.

 

Disk Management screen

 

The theme software I'm using is called UxStyle Core, the theme preset is called 'Placebo' or 'Placebo Ashtray - Calibri'

 

The scans suggested in post #38 still apply.

 

Can you please post your system specs? The fact that you mentioned SATA 2 leads me to believe you have a much older system board. The issue may be hardware related due to age. Do you keep your tower clean, and dust free?

 

Specs:
MOBA: GByte GA-990FXA-UD3 MoBo
CPU: AMD FX-8350 Black Edition
GPU: 2GB ASUS Rad R9 270X DCUII OC
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3 2x8GB
PSU: Powercool 850w 80+
SSD: Plextor M7V 256GB
HDD Internal: 2TB SEAGATE ST2000DM001 SATA3
HDD External #1: 4TB WD Elements USB3
HDD External #2: 4TB Seagate USB3

I have a Metro Data-Vac air compressor/vaccum to keep my tower dust free. The SATA cables I replaced some 7months ago when I installed my new SSD. Sorry, I must have typo’ed my SATA number, it’s 3, not 2. But yea, my PC is quite old, like 3 years old. I built it myself at home.

 

Unfortunately none of those help. I'm starting to think one of my disks has a bad sector rather than something corrupt.

 

I have been watching this thread, and some really good advice has been offered.
I originally thought exactly as you just said- One of those hard drives needs replacing, and I would think it is the C: drive.
I would say that when sfc was run, and found and fixed errors, and it was O.K for a short time, that points to the hard drive.
You can use an external hard drive enclosure , or, an enclosure similar to this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/iDsonix®-S...9&sr=1-22&keywords=hard+drive+docking+station
and then a laptop to check it- Using something like Partition WIZARD- (You can aso use Partition Wizard to copy the hard drive to another.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/minitool_partition_wizard_home_edition.html

 

I've done some improvised troubleshooting and apparently it is the C: drive. I tried copying stuff from my internal to both USB drives and vice versa, transfers work perfectly. The second I try to transfer either in or out of my C: drive, the process freezes. Now my question is, how can a 7 month old SSD drive malfunction so quickly? I've never had a disk drive gone bad, and amazes me how 'young' the drive is to already die out. In any case, I reckon it has a 1 year warranty from the shop, I am going over there with my disk and receipt after new years.

 

Go into you computer management and see if it has a drive letter.If it does not assign one.