Windows 10: Secondary HDD totally inaccessible

Recently I encountered system slowdown and instability on my Windows 10 PC. After trying a large amount of troubleshooting steps, I've almost fixed the problem by using "Reset This PC" to reinstall Windows without removing personal files.


However, there's still one issue: my secondary HDD Windows is installed on an SSD is almost totally inaccessible. File Explorer will stop responding if I try to view it, and eventually gives the error "D:/ The parameter is incorrect." File Explorer won't tell me the drive's size or used space. Right-clicking the drive and selecting "Properties" does nothing. The command prompt will hang if I try to navigate to it. Disk Management was extremely slow to open, but otherwise shows that the drive is healthy.


I'm wondering what steps I should try before giving up and formatting the drive?

:)

 

HDD inaccessible

I have a HDD that is now inaccessible and would appreciate some advice before I take the next step.

My system has:
-main SSD (C which has the Win system and all frequently used programs.
-secondary HDD (D which has all data and infrequently used programs.

Briefly here is what has happened and what I have done:
-about 2 days ago, the D: drive occasionally became very slow to access and eventually froze File Manager. A reboot would restore functionality for a short while but the problem would return.
-I ran an "error check" on the HDD. It found and fixed errors but the above symptoms continued.
-I ran a "chkdsk" on the HDD. It found and fixed errors but the above symptoms continued.
-Ultimately, the D: is totally inaccessible. It does not appear in File Manager
-Checking "Disk Management", the HDD is shown as "Disk 1 unknown" and it gives me a window asking to initialize the HDD as either MBR or GPT.
-When I boot the computer, it used to boot in less that 30 seconds. Now the POST seems to take forever before proceeding to boot.

I'm inclined to initialize the HDD but I'm worried that this will delete all data on the HDD. (I do have a back up but it doesn't include hundreds of irreplaceable pictures from a recent vacation.)

Any advice before I proceed and screw this up any further?

 

Help choosing a secondary HDD

I have a Samsung SSD 850 Pro 256GB SATA (love this thing) as a boot drive and a 1TB Toshiba HDD for storage and every thing else. I need a bigger secondary HDD. Is there an advantage to a hybrid drive like the Seagate FireCuda as a secondary drive? Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

 

Windows 10 1909 Causes Secondary Hard Drive to not be Recognized

Installing the Windows 10 1909 Update causes my secondary hard drive to not be recognized.

Steps to confirm issue:

• Secondary drive not visible in Windows Explorer
• Secondary drive not visible in device manager
• Secondary drive not visible in disk manager

Steps to replicate issue:

• Installing 1909 update

Steps to resolve issue:

• Uninstall 1909 update

Since updates can only be delayed for so long, an actual fix would be appreciated.