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I put together a new computer recently. Running an SSD as the install drive with 3 other HDDs for storage. I usually sleep my computer. My computer gets a black screen saying basically there is no bootable media. Checking the BIOS shows only the drives without W7 installed on them and does not recognize the install drive. I assumed my SSD was failing and RMA'd it. I installed W7 on an HDD expecting no more issues, but again I saw the black screen with no bootable media and in the BIOS the HDD with W7 on it didn't show in the BIOS. I flipped the PSU power switch, waited a few minutes, turned it back on and it boots no problem.

I'm guessing at this point it's related to sleeping and not waking the drive up in time or something, but I'm not sure. How can I narrow it down and figure exactly where the issue lies?

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  • Some devices just do not fare well with low power states, in my experience. We tell our customers to leave your system on or shut if off entirely (unless you're really that concerned about a few bucks on the power bill).
    – Shinrai
    Apr 20, 2012 at 14:31

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Check the power/sleep state settings in your BIOS. Try changing them to a more compatible setting (i.e. not S3) or something similar. Also, try moving your drive to a different SATA port, if you haven't all ready (or, if you have more than one SATA controller, try changing controllers) bad ports/bad controllers are certainly not unheard of.

Also, check the manufacturer's website for firmware for the drive/directions on how to manage the sleep states on the drive itself, rather than the whole computer.

What power settings do.

How to change them in many BIOSes (link has a bad SSL cert, but it's Tom's Hardware all right).

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