Second SSD gets randomly unmounted

[maplewolf]

Hello,

I own an HP PC mini-tower TG01-1000a (2W847AV) with the following specifications:

- OS: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit, Version 26100.3624

- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 4600G with Radeon Graphics

- RAM: 16GB SK Hynix @ 3200MHz

- Motherboard: 87D6 (SMVB)

- BIOS Version: F.46

- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060

I added a new 1TB Crucial MX500 SATA SSD to the system. Initially, it worked without issues, but I’ve encountered intermittent disconnection problems with this drive (i will call it D:/ for shorter), while my primary NVMe drive (C:/ – HP OEM) remains unaffected. The D:/ drive is used for storing photos and games only.

Here are the issues I’ve observed:

- On boot: The D:/ drive is sometimes completely missing. In Disk Management, it appears as “Unknown.”

- During normal use: While casually browsing the internet (with no active use of D:/), the system may freeze briefly, after which the D:/ drive disappears.

- While gaming: The system occasionally crashes. In some cases, I can kill Windows Explorer and game process, which reveals the same issue as 'on boot'. Other times, the crash leads to total freeze and then BSOD.

- Recovery behavior: Sometimes, a simple restart restores the drive. In one instance, the SSD was 'missing for a whole week (daily use), then reappeared after being absent with no changes made.

Troubleshooting steps taken so far:

- Windows is fully up to date.

- Crucial SSD firmware and drivers have been updated.
- Crucial SSD was attached to laptop with windows 10 for 2 weeks as secondary drive - it was used in similar matter, installing a game, and just running on it so i can reproduce the while gaming case, the issue didn't appear. However, i have had duration of - 1-2 months of this issue not appearing so it is not conclusive.

- BIOS has been updated to the latest version (F.46).

I have two available sets of SATA data and power cables. I’ve tested all possible combinations of these cables and ports, but the issue still occurs.

I was not able to find a repetitive pattern so i can force a disconnection - it seems like random behaviour.

[Bill_To]

Greetings @maplewolf 

Welcome to the HP Forum.

Your PC seems to have an intermittent problem with multiple random triggers which can be tough to diagnose.

You have done very good troubleshooting.

Have you tried the MB DVD SATA data connector with the Crucial SSD if your PC has a DVD drive? Does the SATA DVD drive work okay if you have a DVD drive?

I can only guess your PC may have a MB SATA controller hardware problem. Windows provides the standard SATA controller driver so you should not see any driver errors in Device Manager.

Your PC has an AMD AM4 MB. Try installing the latest AMD chipset driver available at this Link to see if this helps.

This sounds like a MB hardware problem since the SATA drive works on a different PC and you have tried different SATA cables and SATA ports on your PC.

Did you use SATA (internal) or USB (adapter) when you connected the Crucial drive to the Laptop?

Regards

[maplewolf]

Thanks, @Bill_To, for taking the time to look into my issue.

First, to answer your question — the SSD was tested on a laptop using the internal SATA port. I removed the DVD drive and installed the SSD using a caddy in its place.

I was "lucky" enough to encounter the issue again today. This time, I noted the exact time and checked the OS Event Viewer for related errors/warnings.

Right after the unmount, I found multiple entries like:

- "An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\DR0 during a paging operation."

- "The system failed to flush data to the transaction log. Corruption may occur in VolumeId: D:, DeviceName: \Device\HarddiskVolume2. Failure status: A device which does not exist was specified." + followed by the SATA SSD device ID/ model information, driver version and other related crucial mx500 data.

I also looked into the AMD driver link you provided, but I'm a bit unsure about which chipset driver to install. My motherboard appears to use the B550A chipset, which I couldn't find listed on AMD's official site as product lines. Because of that, I'm not sure whether I should go with the standard B550 chipset drivers, even though I've already installed the latest chipset drivers from HP’s website.

I noticed that there are "AMD RAID Installer (SATA, NVMe RAID) drivers" for the B550, which during the installation compatibility check for compatible components i get the "Unable to Install AMD RAID Component/s. Unable to proceed with installation. System is not configured in Raid Mode." - previously i have checked the BIOS options and it seems that this prebuilt PC BIOS is quite limited and and the raid mode is locked out (to be honest i am not even sure if i needed just for 1 additional SATA)

[Bill_To]

Greetings @maplewolf 

My pleasure.

Good catch on the B550A chipset. AMD did this chipset variant specifically for OEM PC makers.

So chipset driver support would come from HP.  That's why you did not see a B550A chipset driver download option at the AMD site. And you have installed the latest HP AMD chipset driver.

The Windows Event Viewer errors are a result of the drive disconnecting from the system.

The AMD RAID driver would only be useful if you were doing a RAID array, which you are not.

To me, it looks like your PC has an intermittent SATA controller problem (hardware related) because the SATA drive worked fine while installed in a different PC.

You have also tried different SATA cables (data and power) and different MB SATA data connections. 

You could try a W11 in-place upgrade. Doing this should fix any possible OS problems which may be causing the SATA drive errors.

Microsoft states a Windows in-place upgrade is non-destructive. But you should back up any data on the system drive before doing the upgrade.

I would say the PC has a MB hardware problem if a W11 in-place upgrade does not help.

The W11 in-place upgrade option is in: Settings>System>Recovery>Fix Windows using Windows Update.

Regards