For some years I got an occasional hang at boot time when nettop not used for a week or so. There was no advance warning of HDD failure. Last year it got worse: each time I tried to boot I got the boot msg "Reboot and Select proper Boot device"
When I looked in the BIOS Menu, under 'Standard CMOS Features' I saw System Date/time - current, implying CMOS Battery OK, but SATA Port 1 [Not Detected]; SATA Port 2 [Not Detected]
I assumed from the above that either the HDD has worked lose from its connector, OR the HDD failed.
I followed a youtube guide on how to remove cover and wiggled the HDD from side to side, refitted lid and powered up. It worked fine for a month then stopped again. I assumed from this there is nothing wrong with the actual Hitachi HDD, but that its connection to the motherboard socket is poor, and that maybe there is some way of encouraging it to reconnect.
Repeated above wiggling procedure but this time no success. The youtube guide to actually removing the HDD looks extremely complicated compared to that for a Notebook.
I have 2 questions:
a) is faulty HDD connection to rest of nettop quite common ?
b) are there recommended methods of ensuring a more reliable connection - hopefully without removing CPU heatsink, motherboard etc. ?
