Hello learned folks,

My laptop is asus G551JW and has a 1 TB hard disk whose model name is Samsung st1000lm024.

A few days ago windows started randomly crashing one or twice daily with BSOD and then I would restart the computer. After a few crashed within two weeks one day laptop refused to recognize hard disk. But the interesting bit is that BIOS does not detect the hard disk but when I run ubuntu live from USB pen drive then ubuntu is able to mount the hard disk and I can access hard disk without any problem.

Please shed some light on this. How is it possible that BIOS does not see the hard disk but ubuntu can access it.

Hello,

Your laptop seems using a SSD as main drive: https://www.manua.ls/asus/rog-g551jw/specifications

I assume your ST1000LM024 disk is a second drive, typically for an additional "Data" storage.
Possibly was your ST1000LM024 not listed in the "Boot" (aka "Start") section of your BIOS, because the BIOS may currently be set one some secure boot from the SSD. Without seeing the BIOS, is is difficult to say.
It is also possible that some cable to your hard drive is damaged, or not tightly connected.

I hope you know what the BIOS is.
Many individuals confuse the BIOS with Windows disk management tool, or with the view of storages (partitions) in Windows file explorer.

Assuming the computer hardware is working properly and everything is connected correctly, it is very common for Linux (Ubuntu or else distro) to be able accessing a partly corrupted file system, whilst Windows or Mac would not. This is simply because filesystem drivers handle errors differently. (Hence, the contrary is also possible, although less common from my experience.)
Some corrupted filesystem can block adriver trying to read it, but not another one, because their logic in case of an error was programmed differently.

You should check if the S.M.A.R.T. values of your hard drive, with a software like "HD Tune", "Hard Disk Sentinel" to see if they report some sign of pre-failing status like typically some bad or weak sectors.
Here's for instance a report that I generated with Hard Disk Sentinel for a Samsung ST500LM012 with 28 weak sectors detected: https://drive-for-parts.com/shop/report ... %2028.html

These softwares also have a non-data-destructive full surface check, which should be run to see if there are some additional still undetected bad sectors.

Pre-failing drives can typically initialize but will typically have a corrupted and/or instable file system.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for your reply.

My laptop does not have SSD, Only a 1 tb hard drive. That is a different variant of this same model that has a mini m.2 ssd.

I installed this hard disk on a desktop and it was detected in the desktop bios and booted normally to the windows 10 OS. S.M.A.R.T. report says hard drive is good.

I am astounded with the laptop behavior. The bios does not see the hard drive but after booting to ubuntu live hard drive is mounted.

I too think there is something wrong with my laptop itself because today suddenly laptop BIOS started recognizing the hard disk and is booting to OS normally.

I am running my laptop without battery for many years. Can this be the reason of motherboard components going bad?

regards