I have two internal hard drives connected directly to the motherboard through SATA, and both periodically disconnect and reconnect on their own. The problem can continue for several days, then disappear for a couple of months before returning. Using either drive—such as launching a game or program from it or copying files—often triggers the repeated disconnects. I replaced the motherboard once, which seemed to solve the issue temporarily, but the behavior eventually came back. What could be causing this, and how can I fix it?
2 Answers
Back up anything important first, then check each drive’s SMART health and run the manufacturer’s diagnostic tool. If the drives pass, test them one at a time with known-good SATA and power cables. Also make sure the motherboard BIOS and storage/chipset drivers are current. If the issue follows a particular PSU cable or only happens during heavy disk activity, the power supply or its cabling may be the real culprit.
Since both drives are affected and they use SATA rather than USB, I’d start with the shared parts of the setup: replace both SATA data cables, try different motherboard SATA ports, and check the power connectors from the PSU. A loose or failing SATA power lead, splitter, or PSU cable can make multiple drives drop out under load. Check the system logs for disk, storahci, or controller errors as well.
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