SSD Suddenly Missing

[Fr0gin]

Hi all,

 

I have resorted the forum posting as I have tried every other avenue.

 

I upgraded to an M.2, as I had it lying around, from my SATA SSD so I could put the OS On the M.2 and games on the ssd. I did a fresh windows install, all drivers etc... all working well. However, I could not see my old ssd, I had to plug it into a usb dock and format it. Once done after a bios reset it showed up.

i downloaded all my games off steam and it worked great. 
 

then it stopped showing up. I took the case apart changed the SATA cable, changed the SATA port, changed te power cable. It will not show up. It won’t show up in windows, it won’t show up on the mother board. 
 

things I have tried

- usb dock and reformat

- all mother board bios settings the internet told me

- removing and reinstalling all SATA drivers

- took off all over clocks and xmp

- many other things I can’t remember

 

the funny thing is this isn’t the first time this has happened. When I upgraded from a 120gb ssd to a 250gb one I had the same issue. 
 

my only thought is because the used to be boot drives they somehow have some residue conflict or confusion? When plugged in the computer takes about twice as long to load into windows.

 

please help I have tried everting, including ALL of the google

 

windows 10 pro

i5 4690k

16gb ddr3

gigabyte z97 gaming 5

m.2 os

2x 290x crossfire

(yeah it’s a little old but waiting on the new ryzens)

 

 

[Fr0gin]

Update, on the off chance I just unplugged my spinning hdd and the ssd has reappeared in windows! But now the hdd cannot be seen.

 

there seems to be some kind of limit to the amount of SATA devices available? Even though I have like 7 SATA ports?

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

4 minutes ago, Fr0gin said:

Update, on the off chance I just unplugged my spinning hdd and the ssd has reappeared in windows! But now the hdd cannot be seen.

 

there seems to be some kind of limit to the amount of SATA devices available? Even though I have like 7 SATA ports?

It's possible the M.2 is configured to use the SATA bus that is also associated with that SATA port you're trying to use as well. 

[Fr0gin]

Thanks, I’ll take a look in the morning.
 

But with my recent update it seems to be more like some limit of SATA devices. I can have the os drive and the the hdd or the ssd. Not both.

 

(they have both worked in the past at the same time)

[keysbeast13]

6 minutes ago, Fr0gin said:

Thanks, I’ll take a look in the morning.
 

But with my recent update it seems to be more like some limit of SATA devices. I can have the os drive and the the hdd or the ssd. Not both.

 

(they have both worked in the past at the same time)

most likely its useing the same sata lane just change your sata port and it should be there

[Fr0gin]

 Have tried changing all the cables about in different ports. it was working  with all three with the ssd in 0 and the hdd in 1 - not advised I know  

im interested to try thee old 120gb drive on its own to see if that regggistersss

[Fr0gin]

8 hours ago, keysbeast13 said:

most likely its useing the same sata lane just change your sata port and it should be there

Thanks both, tested some stuff this morning.

 

so I referred back to the manual. Apparently SATA 4 and 5 don’t work when an m.2 is installed.

 

it also appears that no drives are recognised in 0 or 1

 

so if I plug in the hdd or ssd to 2 and 3 they work. But only one at a time. This is puzzling. I have tried more research for a motherboard only allowing 2 sata connections but no luck. I’m sure it’s something simple I’m missing.

 

if anyone can help I would be very appreciative.

[Fr0gin]

Final update. Thanks to those that offered advise.  
 

so i went through each of the sata ports one by one. And the only one that worked was 3.

i knew that I had had ports 1 and 2 working before, so on the off chance I plugged into them and huzzar. For whatever reason I can now reliably see the 2 “dead” SSDs and the HDD.

 

i can only assume that the motherboard is giving up.