WD Black not detected on reboot

Hi,
I am glade I found this thread. I also have the same issue with a new WD Black 5TB drive. I just built my computer a month ago. The WD drive was installed a week after I got my computer running. (Seen it on sale.) Last thing I put in. Everything runs good. Installed hard drive and wont detect it on restart. Only after Shut down and Power on. After reading through the thread did reinstalling the OS help solve the problem?

I have a Asus X99 Deluxe-II BIOS 1401, CUP I7 6850K, 32GB RAM, Windows 10 64 bit, Boot device is a 960 Pro M.2 SSD, 1st. is Samsung 850 pro ssd, working great.

Exactly the same here, I thought my old WD HDD data storage disk was bad so after checking all the usual suspects (Cables, ports etc) I replaced it with a WD Black HDD. WD 2003F2EX-00SRLAO
All works fine until a soft re-start, then drive is not seen in BIOS and windows takes forever to run (I have some start-up programs on this disk so Windows canā€™t find them).
If I shut down and power off, then on the WD drive is found in BIOS and Windows 10 starts up just fine.
Asus Q87M-E Mother Board.

I agree that this seems to be a Drive problem, so when fixed can WD contact me with the solution

  • Thanks
    Tony

Iā€™m happy to have found this thread - Iā€™ve been going NUTS trying to figure this out [drives disappearing and boot times grinding to a halt]. Iā€™ve spent countless hours troubleshooting this [cables, connections, drive order, etc]. Wasnā€™t sure if it was the mobo, psu, or ram. Never considered it could be the drives. Everything in this system is brand new.

Specs: Samsung 850EVO boot drive; four 6TB WD Blacks [WD6001FZWX] ; 64GB RAM; Asus X99-A II [BIOS 1401]; i76800k; Win10 64bit.

I JUST noticed that Asus posted a BIOS update [1504]. Not sure if this will help but Iā€™m gonna try it.

WDStaff - whatā€™s the latest? Any developments? I buy WD for reliability. Please let us know if this is being addressed.

Hey everyone! Itā€™s not just for the BLACK WD Hard Drives. As Above, I am lucky and Glad to have found this post. I just got a BLUE 2TB WDBH2D0020H. Have exactly the same problem. The Drive is brand new, My HP computer (almost 10 year old) had the power supply die. I decided to add an additional HD as a second storage drive as my 750GB HD was filling up.

Drive works great on cold start, However, always on reboot after ā€œsleep / hibernatingā€ on Waking up HD is not detected. Only after a Full Restart will it appear. Iā€™m not in need of the storage that you-all have But, also, not as knowledgeable in setting BIOS Etc. I donā€™t want to go there. HOWEVER, I did download latest BIOS from HP, so thatā€™s up to date and IT did not help.

Specs: HP Pavilion Model: FQ561AA-ABA m9520f
ASUS IQIBL-LB (HP Benicia - GL8E MB
Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q8300 @ 2.5GHz
8.0 GB RAM
64 -bit OS Win 7 Ultimate
Storage: Total 2,750 internal with a Rocketfish USB external
Drive C/D : 750GB
Drive E : CD/DVD Media drive
Drive F : 2 TB new drive

Anyway, for WD, I believe they need to fix this and fix it fast. November to March, 5 months going on six, and very few posts from WD is not acceptable. In my case, since it is just 10 days old, I will be returning mine back to Best Buy and getting a SSD instead.

I would like a bit of assistance in determining the SSD size. Probably a 128GB may work, since program files (with the x86) plus windows folder is about 75GB. Except for price, is there any reason to go to 256 or 512GB over the 128?

One additional question: With this older MOBO, I have an open PCIe 8 slot. should I get a PCIe to MSATA ? from reading many articles, that might be a higher transfer rate than using the direct SATA cable from the MOBO! If I go that direction, I was also thinking of adding the adaptor board with addition SATA and USB3 for external I/O as the current system only has USB2.

Thanks for help!

Hi. Looking to buy more storage soonā€¦
Anyone from WD around that can give us an update on this issue?

Hi

I am having this same problem with a WDC-WD2003FZEX 2tb drive which is less than one year old. If I boot from cold the drive will appear OK, it is a second d: drive used for storing my documents. The c: drive is a ssd drive with Windows 10 Pro installed and fully up to date. My motherboard is an Asus Z170-E. Occasionally the d: drive will disappear from My PC and file explorer and so my overnight back up fails. I have updated the Asus bios to the latest version and that has made no difference. The PC manufacturer thought it could be a loose cable but it isnā€™t. Has anyone found a solution to this problem or would I be better changing the drive for a different manufacturer?

Hi
Pleased to find itā€™s not just me, I also have the issue of on of my Black WDC WD2003FZEX 2TB hard drives where they are fine booting from scratch but on reset one goes missing. Iā€™ve been swapping cables, trying different SATA ports, even put in a new WD black drive!

Computer details:
Asus X99-A II, latest Bios 1504 (updated recently to see if it would fix - it didnā€™t), Intel i6800k Windows 10

I was having the same issue with a 5TB Black (WD5001FZWX-00A2VA0), Asus X99-E WS USB 3.1.

Ended up buying a HGST He8 instead for my WS and installed the 5TB black in my server. So far so good. I havenā€™t had any disappearing drive problems so far with my Supermicro X10SLH-F board. Seems most people that are having this issue are running Asus motherboards.

WD you really need to fix this problem! Please issue a firmware update. Are you listening??

Hi: rchunter

WD does not provide ā€œfirmwareā€ updates for internal hard drives.
see the term firmware Firmware Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

Here are the WD supported devices for Asus and Supermico motherboards

X99-E WS series Device QVL 2017.02.13.
https://www.asus.com/us/supportonly/X99-E%20WS/HelpDesk_QVL/

Asus QVL (Qualified Vendors List ā€“ Devices)
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/Socket2011-R3/X99-E_WS/QVL/X99-E_WS_Series_Device_QVL_13022017.pdf?_ga=1.149171634.522177085.1493286471

WD Supported Hard drives

WD 60EZRX
WD 60PURX
WD WD1002FAEX
WD WD1003FZEX
WD WD10EZEX
WD WD10J31X
WD WD2003FZEX
WD WD20EFRX
WD WD25EZRX
WD WD30EFRX
WD WD30EZRX

WD WD4001FAEX - WD Black 4TB Performance Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD4001FAEX

WD WD5000AAKX - WD Blue 500GB Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 16MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD5000AAKX

WD WD5000AZLX - WD Blue WD5000AZLX 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

WD WD5000HHTZ - Western Digital WD VelociRaptor WD5000HHTZ 500GB 10000 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

WD WD60EFRX - WD Red 6TB NAS Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD60EFRX

WD10PURX
WD20PURX

WD6001FZWX - WD Black 6TB Performance Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 128MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD6001FZWX

Supermicro X10SLH-F
Vendor HDD /SSD List
https://www.supermicro.com/support/resources/HDD/display.cfm?Category=MB&sz=3.&ctrl=74&id=4CFA4655130C014A5A9FFDAAEFCDAAE1&NVMe=0

WD Supported Hard drives

WD WD6001FSYZ-01SS7B0_SATA-3 6000GB 128MB 6.0Gb/sec 7200 512E
WD WD6002FRYZ_________SATA-3 6000GB 128MB 0.0Gb/sec 7200 512E
WD WD4002FYYZ_________SATA-3 4000GB 128MB 0.0Gb/sec 7200 512N

NotaCanada

Nice response Nota. lol. So now I need a hard drive on the motherboard qvl list to make it work. Patheticā€¦
I guess I wonā€™t be buying WD hard drives anymore. Hopefully a REAL WD rep will read this thread someday and decide to do something about it.

Actually, according to this QVL list, this hard drive should be supported. Itā€™s WD WD2003FZEXā€¦

I mean my hard drive, which requires a registry change to be discovered after a restart.

Hi: rchunter

I agree it is pathetic that most motherboard manufactures to not support sata1,2 and 3 standards for all hard drive manufactures and models.

As for disappearing drive problems you might want to try

google asus disappearing drive problems

disappearing drive problems (Samung SSD)

disappearing drive problems (Asus driver issue)

disappearing drive problems (Asus bios)
https://forums.tweaktown.com/asus/64361-asus-z170-pro-hard-drive-disappears-reboot.html

and if all else fails try re-installing the OS.

NotaCanada

Yeah well Nota if WD knows of a registry tweak ā€œworkaroundā€ for windows they ought to at least post it up on this thread for everyone to see.
Not really happy with this situation. I had to totally replace the drive because of this and did so before I found this thread. Most likely will not be buying WD black drives in the future.

I spent last night and tonight googling this issue pertaining to my mobo (Gigabyte Auros z270x Gaming 7), swapping cables/ports, etc. After I couldnā€™t find anything about my mobo I finally decided to google the issue with my HD and found this:

https://rog.asus.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-92033.html

SOLUTION: Turning on Hot Swap in BIOS for my SATA ports FIXED this problem for me.

Has anyone updated to the Creators Update for Window 10? This fixed my issue. Iā€™m starting to think a reinstall would fix the issue as well. Since updating to the Creators Update I havenā€™t had my drive disappear once.

To anyone wondering this isnā€™t just affecting Asus motherboards. I have an MSI and before the Creators Update I was also having the issue.

Yet another user with the same issue. Hi guys!
Been having this problem since February 2017. RMEā€™ed the first WD4004FZWX 4TB Black, received the second from B&H, same story, cold start - drive mounts, restart - no drive.
Began to swap the drive from bay to bay, no solution. Reformated several times, ran Disk Warrior, Carbon Copy Cloned almost 2 TB of data, same problem.
Iā€™m using a Mac Pro Late 2012, Dual 6core Xeon, 32 GB ram. Mac OS - first Mavericks (10.9) then upgraded to Sierra (10.12) hoping for a solution, none.
All other bays contain older 2TB WD Black which are workhorses. Bought this one because of the 128 cache and size. Highly disappointing WD, been buying your drives since 2005. If you fail us, what are we supposed to do? Canā€™t risk buying a Seagate. Lacieā€™s have died on me like flies in a cold winterā€¦
Sincerely hoping for some input from someone cause all the Windows workarounds sound promising but on Mac OS I have no idea what to doā€¦

TL;DR - Western Digital Black Edition Drive Booting Partitions formatted in GPT Disappear from BIOS after Windows Reboot command is issued when using Creator Edition.

Full Version:
We have discovered that the Creator Edition in combination with a Western Digital Black Edition 2TB drive will cause the motherboard BIOS to lose the Hard Drive once the reboot command is issued (either via CMD.EXE prompt or through the startup menu.) Once it occurs you must power off the system to get the drive to return. So far we have replicated the issue with the following combinations:

  • Gigabyte H270M-DS3H (5 different boards with firmware F3 & F5)

  • Gigabyte H270M-D3H (1 board with firmware F3 & F5)

  • Gigabyte Z270XP-SLI (Firmware F6 - cannot go back to previous Firmware)

  • Asus H110M-E/M.2 - (firmware 0404 & 3401)

  • Asus H100M-A/M.2- (Firmware 3407)

  • Intel Pentium G4400,

  • Intel i3-6100,

  • Intel i3-7100,

  • Intel i5-7400,

  • Intel i7-7700

  • Crucial PC4-17000 - 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB

  • G.Skill TridentZ - 16GB kit (2x8GB)

  • Crucial PC4-19200 - 8GB

  • Thermaltake 650 watt (3 new in box)

  • EVGA 500 watt (thoroughly tested)

  • Cooler Master 500 watt (also thoroughly tested)

The problem does not exist if we format the drive with a MBR rather than GPT. Nor does it occur if we use a WD Blue, Seagate Barracuda, HGST, or any Solid State Drives. Problem does occur when installed with Creator Edition from the start or if 1607 is used and then allow Windows update to upgrade it to 1703. Iā€™ve personally tested the above components in nearly every permutation possible over the past 2 weeks and the only common items are Windows 10 Creator Edition, Western Digital 2TB Black Edition Drives and GPT partitions.
We are a 6 store VAR PC reseller so itā€™s something that concerns us going forward. Anyone have any idea how to resolve this?

I found this thread while searching for what sounds exactly the same problem. I have a WD Green 4TB on a MSI Z97 motherboard with i7-4790 cpu. Windows 7. It has been running for a few months, but then disappeared after a soft reboot. All the symptoms above are the same. The long time to boot through BIOS when the drive is connected, etc. Except that the fixes above do not work for me, I guess because it is a different motherboard.

The drive is still alive, it spins up when powered and I have every reason to believe the data is still there. But I need the data and so have to find a way.

Any suggestions?
PS - I doubt I will buy WD ever again. This drive is to replace a failed WD internal drive (but I did not have a receipt and so could not get warranty), not to mention my WD NAS drive that failed about the same time. I cannot create a logon on the MySupport (I had to do it on an iPad, it would not display Captur on either of my two Windows PCs). And then will not let me log on so I cannot lodge a Support Request directly.

And looking at threads like this - it appears to me that WD know they have a problem but are quite happy for us to lose data when the drive fails rather than actively doing something about it.

Some changes were made on our system. Are you still experiencing this?