twalls

Thanks for verifying. I did not state this in the original post, but this problem happened before I installed the M.2 drive, so that should rule that out. I did study this chart prior to acquiring the M.2 to verify compatibility. M2_2: Samsung 960 Pro SATA1: Samsung 850 Pro SATA2: WD Black This is a supported configuration in the chart above. To clarify, the drive stays working in Windows for a majority of the time. It only occasionally disappears during certain reboots.

Not sure where the 32GB RAM requirement is coming from. I have been getting between 30-70 FPS in Star Citizen at high settings (1440p). True, that is only with the currently released modules. Sheesh, I'd hate to see how much harder SC will get on hardware as it gets further along. Not to mention, it is getting to the point where older modules run at like twice the speed as the newer ones. CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Motherboard: MSI Z170A GAMING M9 ACK RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB FTW3 Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 256GB, Western Digital Black Series 2TB, Samsung 960 Pro Series 1TB (SC installed here)

I currently have two SSDs and a mechanical drive in my system. The HDD is a Western Digital Black 2TB, and it will disappear every now and then. I currently use it as a secondary drive for storing games where I don't care as much about speed. No data goes on there that I care about, so this hasn't been a priority for me. If it dies, I'll just get a new one and re-download from Steam. However, it has happened enough now where I'm starting to get annoyed. It will work fine in Windows up to the reboot where it disappears. It doesn't seem to just stop working while Windows is still running. It will no longer show up in the BIOS on subsequent reboots. The SATA port will appear empty. There are no errors in Windows. The drive is just gone. Rebooting doesn't make the drive come back. Powering off the computer and powering it back on fixes it every time. The drive has lasted a year like this, so if this is an indicator of drive failure, it is failing really slowly. I don't know why, but it does seem like it gets triggered by certain Windows 10 updates (i.e., Anniversary Update, some cumulative updates, etc.)? Anyone see anything like this? I get that there are only so many points of failure (drive, cable, port, power), so I'm really just curious to see if anyone has seen this particular set of symptoms? Others seem to run into problems where the drive just randomly disconnects, they get errors, etc. This drive passes diagnostics from WD, has no SMART errors, and has been the primary storage for my games until recently (e.g., it sees a fair amount of heavy usage). Other than the random disappearing act, it has been a solid drive. Specs below and in profile: CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Motherboard: MSI Z170A GAMING M9 ACK RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB FTW3 Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 256GB, Western Digital Black Series 2TB, Samsung 960 Pro Series 1TB PSU: Corsair RM650i Any helpful ideas, thoughts, etc. are appreciated!

Glad to help! Either try the latest software from Killer's site, or just install the driver without the software. Either method has helped in my experience so far.

Just out of curiosity, what make/model of network card do you have installed? I just got done dealing with a very similar issue. 16 GB of RAM filling up on a new Win10/Skylake build. Was very frustrating. MSI uses a Killer Networking NIC on this board. There was a terrible memory leak in the version of the driver/software that MSI is providing. Installed the latest version from Killer's site, and the memory leak is gone. It was especially bad when downloading a bunch of stuff (Steam, etc.), but I could leave the computer on for a day and not logged in, only to find the RAM was low when logging in the next day. Worst part was that the amount of RAM in use in the Task Manager didn't add up to the 16 GB reportedly in use. Open Resource Monitor and go to the Memory tab. List the top processes there, and it might be more helpful.

This was my experience when going from an EVGA 970 FTW to an EVGA 1070 FTW: 970: Most games can be cranked up to/near max settings at 1080p. 1070: Most games can be cranked up to/near max settings at 1440p. IMHO, it is worth waiting and saving up if you can.