2nd Internal SSD Issues

joru100 · January 5, 2018

Over the past weekend I made my first new build in about 4 years. Specs as follows:

Windows 10 64-Bit Home

i7-8700 ASUS Prime Z370-A

16 GB DDR4 2400 MHz

I have 4 SSDs in total:

m.2 NVMe SSD which is my main/boot drive.

The other three are an array of Samsung SATA III's and I use them just as extra storage. My main SSD of the three has been causing problems, though. I had this drive for a year on my previous build and always worked fine. Last night it randomly was no longer detected in Windows. Restarted in BIOS and it wasn't detected there either after lagging up the boot process. I powered down and unplugged the power and data cables for this drive, and then plugged it back in. It was detected after that. It worked until just about 30 minutes ago. It was detected by Windows and BIOS, but when I went to open the drive for the actual files, it couldn't access the drive.

Tried running a Chkdsk but it says it's now RAW, so A) this has to be wrong because I had it formatted about a year ago when I bought it and always worked fine, and B) even if it were actually RAW, I don't want to reformat it right now and risk losing tons of important data on it. I tried to restart the computer after this error and the computer just hung up on the motherboard's splash screen. Turned it off, unplugged the drive and the computer booted fine without it. Isn't this weird since it's 2nd in priority and not the boot drive?

Just a few other things to mention:

I've tried using different SATA III data ports on my motherboard with the other drives and they work fine, so it's clearly an isolated issue with this drive.
In addition I've tried using other SATA power cable connectors with the other drives, and there is no issue with them either.
The chipset and NVMe drivers are the latest offered by ASUS, Intel, and Samsung for their respective hardware.
I'm using AHCI mode for SATA, and the m.2 is set to PCIe Gen 3X4

Does this sound like the drive is simply failing? If so, can I at least clone the data somehow if I can't re-access the drive? Thanks.

Minotaur10 · January 5, 2018

That SSD is failing, I find that even if the drive in question is not the boot drive it can still cause all of the issues you're facing. When you get the chance get as much data off that drive as soon as possible and replace that drive.

Check the warranty on the drive too, it may still be eligible for a free replacement.

joru100 · January 6, 2018

Hey so update,

Replaced the drive with another and the exact same thing just happened. I have my M.2 NVMe which is my boot drive and it's connected just fine, and two internal 2.5 SSDs.

My computer started hanging, so I restarted it (which took about 20 minutes). It then hung up on the BIOS splash screen as before. Entered BIOS and now the replacement drive (which is one of the two internal SSDs) isn't detected as the old one wasn't. Doubt two drives are dying just like that.

I'm starting to now think this could be a motherboard or PSU / SATA Power Cable issue? Anyone have this issue before? It's confusing because it'll work fine for a day or so, but then it will just randomly not be detected, and an internal SSD which has no program files on it causes the entire computer to slow down dramatically seems really odd.

Any ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks.

ANOTHER UPDATE (#3)

Alright, restarted yet again. When it hung up on the splash screen I just pulled out the SATA power cable (left the data cable connected), and it booted@ So this is either an issue with the PSU or SATA Power Cable. Are the any diagnostics/tests I could do without having to go buy/try another PSU or Power Cable? Like a program that tests the strength of a PSU, or see if a connector on a SATA power cable is dying?