HDD/SSD Troubleshooting

Symptoms and Solutions

The hard drive is not detected.
Ensure that it is properly connected to the motherboard and PSU. Controller failure is also a possibility.

The system cannot boot from the hard drive.
This may be caused by a damaged or missing boot record. Try running a system repair from a boot disk. Ensure that it is set to master mode.

The operating system is unstable, and often requires a system restore/repair. Data is also sometimes lost.
This may be due to a magnetic deterioration on the platters. Back up and get a replacement drive.

Hard drive read/write times are slow.
Analize the disk’s fragmentation status, and if needed, perform a defragmentation of the drive.
Drive read/write speeds may also be affected if there are multiple instructions being executed at once.