# SSD not detected anymore



## cpper (Oct 28, 2019)

I bought a Lenovo Y540 laptop and installed two SSD's: a Samsung 860 EVO and a Samsung 970 EVO Plus (M2 NVMe). I installed Win 10 on the NVMe drive and things were working fine. Both SSD's were listed in the information tab in the boot menu.
After a restart (not the first one) the laptop goes in a "Checking media - failed" loop, meaning it can't find any drive with an OS installed. Now, the info tab in the boot menu only shows the 860 EVO SSD. The NVMe one, with the OS, is not present anymore.

Before the issue occurred (but not sure if right before the latest restart) I've installed the Samsung NVMe driver from their website. I also used Samsung Magician to do some benchmarks on both SSD's (everything ok) and enabled 10% Over-Provisioning on both SSD's. Is there a chance any of these has messed something up ? If not, what could be the issue ?


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## micropage7 (Oct 28, 2019)

I dunno in here some posted that his NVMe suddenly gone too


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## TheLostSwede (Oct 28, 2019)

If the UEFI can't see the drive, it's highly likely the drive failed. Time to RMA.


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## EarthDog (Oct 28, 2019)

If it doesn't work in another system, I'd RMA it.


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## potato580+ (Oct 28, 2019)

those "evo" seems quite popular with issue, ive seen many of thread abt this hmm


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## Voluman (Oct 28, 2019)

Try to unplug your battery, ac cord totally, then, plug it again, try to restart. Maybe help.

Currently im experimenting with a ryzen 2700 and when my setting goes wrong i lost my nvme drive in bios, cant boot to os, but after ac unplug, its there again


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## Bill_Bright (Oct 28, 2019)

I would disable that 10% overprovisioning as SSDs are set to over-provision at the factory. Then I would uninstall Magician. Windows knows how to manage SSDs just fine. I run Samsung SSDs on all our builds here without Magician and they work just fine. The only time I run that program now is if I need to run "Secure Erase" on the drive.

Last, I would make sure the SSD is securely installed. Perhaps it was not fully inserted in the slot and has now worked loose.


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## cpper (Oct 28, 2019)

Bill_Bright said:


> I would disable that 10% overprovisioning as SSDs are set to over-provision at the factory. Then I would uninstall Magician. Windows knows how to manage SSDs just fine. I run Samsung SSDs on all our builds here without Magician and they work just fine. The only time I run that program now is if I need to run "Secure Erase" on the drive.
> 
> Last, I would make sure the SSD is securely installed. Perhaps it was not fully inserted in the slot and has now worked loose.



When I'll get home I'll open up the laptop, remove the SSD, and secure it back in. If no progress, I'll do a clean Win install on the drive (hopefully visible when trying to install Windows).


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## _UV_ (Oct 28, 2019)

The only thing i can tell after reading such - SATA still a thing, with less speed, but much more reliable.


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## spectatorx (Oct 28, 2019)

If drive is not available in bios/uefi then windows installer will definitely not find it either.

Try to unplug the drive, when unplugged boot your laptop and let it work for a moment then shut it down. When laptop is not working place the drive back in. If drive is working again then ok but still this is not proper behavior. If drive is back working backup all important data from it and RMA. If drive is still not working then definitely RMA. Also if available apply laptop's bios update.

SSDs are faster and "cooler" but i have no trust to them because of such situations like described in this thread, i'm sticking to HDDs as long as i'll be able to. I can't rely on drive which at some day will just not be working at all, without any warning or so, hdd at least gives me some symptoms before it fails completely and in meantime i can backup all essential data from it.


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## Bill_Bright (Oct 28, 2019)

spectatorx said:


> If drive is not available in bios/uefi then windows installer will definitely not find it either.


^^^This^^^ Remember, the BIOS needs to detect the drive very early in the boot process, long before the boot drive is even touched to load any OS.


spectatorx said:


> SSDs are faster and "cooler" but i have no trust to them because of such situations like described in this thread


^^^Not This^^^

You would pick an electro-mechanical device over pure electronics? Not me - not ever - not unless a very limited budget was the number one driving factor.

Pick a product, any product and I will find you examples of "_such situations like described in this thread_". This site is full of users complaining of hard drives failing and not being detected anymore. It is just silly to assume SSDs are less reliable. Even first generation SSDs were extremely reliable. And they've evolved and improved significantly since then while hard drive technologies reached their pinnacle and have been stagnant for years (not a criticism, just a fact).

Sure, that SSD might be bad. Until Man can create perfection 100% of the time, there will always be units that fail prematurely even from the best makers. But the odds are, unless the SSD was mishanded and damaged, the SSD is good and the problem is somewhere with the computer. I for sure would reset the BIOS and reseat the SSD before writing it off.


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## Nater (Oct 28, 2019)

spectatorx said:


> SSDs are faster and "cooler" but i have no trust to them because of such situations like described in this thread, i'm sticking to HDDs as long as i'll be able to. I can't rely on drive which at some day will just not be working at all, without any warning or so, hdd at least gives me some symptoms before it fails completely and in meantime i can backup all essential data from it.



Wut?  I'd literally buy and RMA 100's of SSD drives to get a good one before languishing on a spinner ever again.  And still end up time/money ahead!

To the OP - try the drive in a desktop as well if you get the chance...maybe your M.2 slot is fubar in the laptop?  Chances are very slim, but would hate to think you end up with a new drive only to have the laptop be burning them out or something!


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## EarthDog (Oct 28, 2019)

spectatorx said:


> i'm sticking to HDDs as long as i'll be able to. I can't rely on drive which at some day will just not be working at all, without any warning or so, hdd at least gives me some symptoms before it fails completely and in meantime i can backup all essential data from it.


Anything can just up and die without symptoms. This includes HDDs. A good backup policy mitigates this issue.

So, instead of robbing yourself of one of the most tangible upgrades a PC can make due to your back up methodology, maybe consider changing your policy and backing things up/doing so more frequently so just in case it does die, whatever it is, you have a back up ready to go... instead of seat of the pants/cross my fingers I see symptoms first and can take a back up after.


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## Millennium (Oct 28, 2019)

NVME boot issues are showing up with some of the latest AGESA updates to Ryzen motherboards as well. I have to install an NVME drive and I was just preparing for this - y'all are not filling me with confidence!

I hope I can even tell the difference. At least it's twice as big so I can get the Eth blockchain on SSD again.


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## PerfectWave (Oct 28, 2019)

EarthDog said:


> ... A good backup policy mitigates this issue.


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## EarthDog (Oct 28, 2019)

If only it was obvious for the person who stated that...nice try though.


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## cpper (Oct 29, 2019)

Well, I feel dumb. Looks like the drive was not properly inserted in the M.2 slot.  I had to push it like another 1.5mm in. Now it appears to be working fine. I still find it strange how it stopped working after a restart. Maybe I moved the laptop during the restart, or something. Sorry for wasting your time, and thanks for your input, guys


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## Bill_Bright (Oct 29, 2019)

cpper said:


> Well, I feel dumb. Looks like the drive was not properly inserted in the M.2 slot.


LOL Well then you are in great company! I assure you, if anyone who has worked with computers for any length of time claims to have never made a similar mistake, they are lying through their teeth! Forgetting to connect a power lead, failure to fully insert RAM, or inserting one or more extra standoffs in the case under the motherboard are all common newbie and distracted pro mistakes, among others.

You didn't waste our time. You provided an excellent reminder to check, double-check, and triple check our work. 

Thanks for coming back and posting your followup!


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## spectatorx (Oct 29, 2019)

Bill_Bright said:


> LOL Well then you are in great company! I assure you, if anyone who has worked with computers for any length of time claims to have never made a similar mistake, they are lying through their teeth! Forgetting to connect a power lead, failure to fully insert RAM, or inserting one or more extra standoffs in the case under the motherboard are all common newbie and distracted pro mistakes, among others.
> 
> You didn't waste our time. You provided an excellent reminder to check, double-check, and triple check our work.
> 
> Thanks for coming back and posting your followup!


That's pretty common. Personally i had recently similar situation, somehow i didn't press one ram stick enough and it wasn't getting full contact so it wasn't getting detected by motherboard/bios.
One of my customers once called me to come to check on her computer which was not starting. Once i came to her i took a look if everything is properly connected and turned out power cable was disconnected. She was cleaning the house earlier that day and forgot to plug the cable back.

With such type of mounting of pc devices like m.2 it is pretty easy to put things not deep enough. In laptop with their stripes for keyboards and touchpads it is especially possible.


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## Bill_Bright (Oct 29, 2019)

spectatorx said:


> i didn't press one ram stick enough and it wasn't getting full contact


And what happens some times in scenarios like this is contact is intermittent as components inside heat and cool and expand and contract. This often makes troubleshooting that much harder.


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