Drives Disappearing, really need some help

[WantoN]

Having a strange issue where my drive(s) keep disappearing. I can find nothing online about an issue with my motherboard, and nothing much in general. Pretty frustrated as the issue has been going on for months. So:

I have several drives for specific duties, these are:

A: Archive - External USB Drive, 2tb
C: System - m.2 Sata SSD
D: Documents - Sata SSD
G: Games - m2 NVME on a PCIE card
H: Media & Backups - Sata HDD
M: Music - Sata SSD (now Z: Old Documents)​

This is an old problem, which keeps reoccurring after months of stability. I keep going through the same cycle of trying something, thinking I've fixed it, and then it popping up again. At first it was confined to my Documents drive, but just now, my Media drive has disappeared. Here's the history:

1. Documents drive occasionally disappearing. Resolved with restarting a few times
2. Became more persistent. Changed SATA cable. Problem resolved for months
3. Problem reoccurred. Changed SATA ports, problem resolved for months
4. Documents Drive disappeared again. Assumed bad drive. Swapped contents over to M: Music, and made the Music Drive my new D: Documents. Problem resolved, until now
5. Media & Backups has just disappeared. It's quite new, a 2.5", 3tb iirc.

So, I'm not wondering if it's either:

i) Mobo SATA / Raid controller. Or
ii) Amount of drives and/or peripherals I have connected.​

I'm going to try the following next:

• Uninstall / reinstall Intel storage drivers, software etc
• Update BIOS if available
• Remove PCI USB card (Sold VR kit, not really needed)
• Remove 'Z: Old Documents', and then additional drives if necessary
• Purchase a Dell Perc H310 raid controller, flash with IT Firmware and try running some drives off that

I'm feeling pretty stuck at the moment, and would really, really appreciate any help!

 

[Grimley]

Tried plugging the Sata SSD's into another PC to eliminate the possibility of them failing. M.2 SSD's as well if you have access to a board that has spare M.2 slots or a m.2 to usb adaptor.

 

[WantoN]

Tried plugging the Sata SSD's into another PC to eliminate the possibility of them failing. M.2 SSD's as well if you have access to a board that has spare M.2 slots or a m.2 to usb adaptor.

Thanks for replying mate. I don't have a spare to use I'm afraid. What I'll say is since I swapped the Documents and Music drives it's not happened once to either of them. Just the Media drive.

It's always just one drive, and only those connected via Sata. Only Z (was D and H have been affected. Identical issue.

I don't think it's the drives themselves tbh, and the issue is so intermittent I'd have to run the drive on a different machine for weeks or even months to confirm it.

 

[Dave Burton]

I would try ditching the PCIe expander card, in case it's something there causing issue. I'm sure I've seen comment where people have been having issue with them in the past.