I've been having a frustrating issue with my new PC build. My SATA-connected drives keep disappearing randomly. At first, it was an old hard drive that I thought was failing, but it works perfectly fine when plugged into an older computer. I moved everything to a new M.2 SSD, which worked great for a while. Now, my SATA SSD has started to vanish too. The odd thing is that my M.2 SSDs aren't experiencing any disconnections.
I used CrystalDiskInfo and the SATA SSD showed 100% health, so I don't think it's failing. I've already replaced the SATA cable, tried different SATA headers, and even swapped out the power cable, but nothing seems to help. When the SSD disconnects, it doesn't show up in the BIOS either. The only clue is that when it's connected, it behaves like a USB drive rather than an internal one. I really want to recover my files, but I'm stumped about what's causing this issue.
2 Answers
Have you checked the BIOS for the external SATA settings? Sometimes, enabling or disabling hot plugging can resolve these kinds of issues. Make sure your drive is set up in AHCI mode as well. It's worth a shot!
It might be worthwhile to consult your motherboard manual. Certain SATA ports could be disabled when you're using M.2 drives. You'll find specific details in the manual about which ports can be shared or disabled, which might be affecting your setup.
I looked it up, and it mentions that some SATA ports share bandwidth with a PCIe slot. However, if they were fully disabled, I think the SATA drive wouldn't connect at all—it just seems to be a hit or miss.
I tried toggling that setting on and off, but it still keeps disappearing. Really frustrating!