Cleared Steam Download Cache and now my harddrive is gone...and all the games

[Hoffis]

I encountered this problem where I couldn't play a single one of my games on Steam (disk read error) so I tried fixing it by restarting my PC, didn't work. Then I cleared Download Cache and now all my games in the library are uninstalled and my hard drive named "K" is gone, I have 3 hard drives but now there are only 2 visible in the Explorer.

The missing hard drive had about 20 GB space left and has been with me for a long time. And by the way, I had my Steam library on the K Disc but the steam client is located on another disc named "C", if that is important to know. Does anyone know what has happened and any fixes? I'm so sad now :(

[AmsterdamHeavy]

Yeah, your hard drive died.

[Satoru]

if windows explorere cant find it, then its likely dead.

If you're LUCKY you can try reseating the sata cable and the power

However its more likely the disk died and isnt readable. If you DO get it to be readable by chance, STOP. look at the drive and think "if this drive dies in the next 5 minutes what do I desperately need off of it". Get all that stuff OFF THE DRIVE IMMEDIATELY. no you dn't need a copy of Metro Exodus no matter how annoying it woud be to download it again. Think very hard about what is 'actually' critical.

Once you do, I recommend you visit the hard drive's website to see if its under warranty. However most drives today only have a 1 year warranty or 'maybe' 3 if its a more expensive drive.

[Zekiran]

Pick up a SATA/IDE to USB converter. They come with a power supply.

Carefully remove the drive physically, make sure that all surfaces are properly insulated / grounded, and plug it in externally. I guarantee you unless the hard drive has COMPLETELY broken physically, (and isn't an ssd, this only works on traditional hdds) it can get information off the drive in this manner.

All of your data, as Satoru suggests, needs to be removed but treat it like it's precious cargo.

[Iceira]

you can try turn off pc , this is seen before lost chain to the harddisk, but as other point out its sign that disk might be gone or will burn out, and do check cable is attached , move pc and check pc inside has been seen before cable is loose in the port.

check if bios can see it also a good sign, my laptop sometime drops its boot disk and i get it back with cold reboot ( look like chain issue with knife connection on cable ) and now it has not done it in long time, go figure )

[Hoffis]

Originally posted by Iceira:

you can try turn off pc , this is seen before lost chain to the harddisk, but as other point out its sign that disk might be gone or will burn out, and do check cable is attached , move pc and check pc inside has been seen before cable is loose in the port.

check if bios can see it also a good sign, my laptop sometime drops its boot disk and i get it back with cold reboot ( look like chain issue with knife connection on cable ) and now it has not done it in long time, go figure )

Thankfully it came back :)


Hey guys, I came back from work and started my PC today and all of a sudden all of the files are back! The harddrive is now visible on the PC and my Steam library is restored. However, I think I will move my library to the other hard drive that is much better. I'm very happy now and I let out a sigh of relief. Now I just need to move my library to the better harddrive somehow. Thank you for your help, is there anything I should keep in mind?

[Zekiran]

Always always always keep a backup :)

Just because it's miraculously working NOW, doesn't mean it won't equally miraculously STOP working again.

If your hdd has been janky like that, it's definitely dying, and you should definitely make sure that your data is on another drive, and be prepared to swap it out for a new drive at some point soon.

[.:AHRIMAN:.]

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