Disappearing Hard Drive

[lthenderson]

This is a new one to me so I thought I would post it on here for some sort of obvious solution. I bought a new Dell computer earlier this (actually last) year with duel SSD 2TB hard drives installed. I left the boot drive (C) alone and partitioned the second one into two 1TB partitions, (D and S).

Yesterday when I went to use my computer, the second partitioned drive (D and S) were no longer accessible and the computer didn't register them in any way. The D drive has all my data and the S drive houses my security camera videos. I played around, tried looking for them using Windows tools, rebooting a few times, etc. but to no avail. Finally, remembering days of yore, I rebooted to access the BIOS and looked around in there but couldn't find where the hard drives were located in the menus so just exited. Back into windows the drive reappeared. I used it the rest of the day and went to bed.

This morning the drive was gone again. I immediately rebooted into the BIOS menu and just exited it without looking at anything. The drive was showing up when windows was booted up.

Is my hard drive failing? Or perhaps an update, the last one being 5 days ago, messed with the settings? My computer is set to "performance" mode so it never sleeps. Something else?

Any help would be appreciated. All my data on the D partition of the drive is backed up to the cloud so perhaps just getting a new hard drive might be a good first step but it bugs me that going through the BIOS causes it to "reappear" to Windows which perhaps signals that there is something else wrong.

Updated with Possible Reason:

I think I might have come up with the problem.

These are Solid State Drives, my first experience with them. My security cameras are set up to save all recordings continuously in low resolution and record the alerts at high resolution. It is writing 24/7/365 to the hard drive. The drive the is "disappearing" is the drive it is writing too. I did a cursory google search and found plenty of anecdotal evidence that continuously writing to a SSD drive can wear it out prematurely. For now, I turned my security system to only write to the drive when they are alerted and after 24 hours both drives are still working.

Long term, if they stay working, I may replace the SSD drive with another one and continue as is, i.e. not recording continuously to my hard drive with my security cameras or add another drive that isn't a SSD drive for that sort of work.

[McCharley]

I had a hard drive disappear due to a loose wire. Check the wiring!

[bobn60014]

It's been awhile since I've played around with it, were the partions hidden in error?

[crefwatch]

Do you have a one year warranty?

Have you opened the box to see if one drive is on the motherboard and the second is on an expansion card?

[lthenderson]

Do you have a one year warranty?

Have you opened the box to see if one drive is on the motherboard and the second is on an expansion card?

I haven't cracked the case yet but that is what I'll do next if it does it again. It might have a warranty. I haven't checked into that yet.

Other question above: I don't think they were hidden in error. My security cameras which continually record to one of the partitions errored out when they "disappeared" as did my cloud backup software which backs up the data on the other partition. Both have been working fine for the past six months.

I wouldn't think lose wiring would be an issue since I can reboot through the BIOS menu and they have come back both times.

[enad]

Are you able to remove the drives and attach them to another computer via USB to see if they are present and still contain your data?

Another option would be to boot Linux Mint in a live session (USB) and then use the Disks program to see if all your drives are present. The Disks program will also give you information about each drive, the number of partitions and whether there is any free space left in them. The Live session will not harm your computer but if the drives are visible and the data in-tact it could help you isolate the issue i.e. perhaps an issue with a Windows update or a failing drive. Do you have backups?

You'd only want to do the Download and Live Boot, then in the equivalent of the start menu, type in Disks and run the program. If you see all the disks then something happened in windows. Start the shutdown process and remove the USB drive when prompted.

Linux Mint Guide

[rutrow2015]

If either of these drives are SATA then you have to be very specific about where they are plugged into the Motherboard. If the drives are not connected to the physical port that the BIOS expects to see the drive at, you will experience these same symptoms.

[curmudgeon]

A couple of thoughts:

1) You could look into windows update history and see what updates have been applied; maybe even roll back a while and see if things change. This is most useful if the behavior is consistent - always works after going into bios, never if doing a simple boot. BIOS version updates are a lot less common, but version/date could also be checked.

2) You could also try enabling windows boot logging and comparing good/bad logs (do some research on how to do this; it shouldn't be complicated, but interpreting the log may be obscure).

It's certainly possible that this is failing hardware or a bad connection, but it feels more like a timing issue. Have you made any changes to the hardware or added any additional devices recently?

[Circe]

Your credit card might give you a warranty in addition to whatever came with the computer.

[notmyname]

When you start the computer and the drive is missing, you may want to check Device Manager, expand Disk Drives and see what is showing or not showing. If the drive is not showing, right click and select scan for hardware changes and see if that detects the drive.

Also check Event Viewer for warnings and errors related to the missing disk drive. Sometimes there is helpful info in there.

[eri]

This disappearing is often how spinney drives die. Immediately buy an external drive and copy what you can onto it.

After that check the cabling is tight. If it isn’t cabling then the drive is done.

[lthenderson]

I think I might have come up with the problem.

These are Solid State Drives, my first experience with them. My security cameras are set up to save all recordings continuously in low resolution and record the alerts at high resolution. It is writing 24/7/365 to the hard drive. The drive the is "disappearing" is the drive it is writing too. I did a cursory google search and found plenty of anecdotal evidence that continuously writing to a SSD drive can wear it out prematurely. For now, I turned my security system to only write to the drive when they are alerted and after 24 hours both drives are still working.

Long term, if they stay working, I may replace the SSD drive with another one and continue as is, i.e. not recording continuously to my hard drive with my security cameras or add another drive that isn't a SSD drive for that sort of work.

[lthenderson]

This disappearing is often how spinney drives die. Immediately buy an external drive and copy what you can onto it.

After that check the cabling is tight. If it isn’t cabling then the drive is done.

They are both Solid State drives but that comment got me to thinking. Is writing continuously, as per my setup, to a Solid State drive hard on it? Apparently that seems to be the case.

[lthenderson]

A couple of thoughts:

1) You could look into windows update history and see what updates have been applied; maybe even roll back a while and see if things change. This is most useful if the behavior is consistent - always works after going into bios, never if doing a simple boot. BIOS version updates are a lot less common, but version/date could also be checked.

2) You could also try enabling windows boot logging and comparing good/bad logs (do some research on how to do this; it shouldn't be complicated, but interpreting the log may be obscure).

It's certainly possible that this is failing hardware or a bad connection, but it feels more like a timing issue. Have you made any changes to the hardware or added any additional devices recently?

I did check the windows update history which said an update had been done 5 days before the first disappearance. I haven't made any changes to the hardware since I set up the computer some 7 or 8 months ago. We did get a power outage on the day the drive first disappeared. The power came on, my kids turned the computer back on later that evening to use and the next day is when I discovered the drive as "missing". I also noticed from the security camera software, the drive had disappeared at the same time my kids turned on the computer after the power outage. Perhaps combined with my new theory of being written to continuously is bad for a SSD, the loss of power and subsequent reboot did some damage?

[Mrbogleheads]

How old is your SSD? I bought some software called Stablebit Scanner many years ago. It scans my ssds, hds, and usb drives, and tell me if it sees any issues.

[lthenderson]

How old is your SSD? I bought some software called Stablebit Scanner many years ago. It scans my ssds, hds, and usb drives, and tell me if it sees any issues.

Maybe 7 to 8 months old.

[lthenderson]

This is a picture of inside my computer. It has been awhile since I have cracked the case on one. Where are the hard drives? It has two empty bays, one in each of the upper corners, but I don't see any other drive looking devices. I'm guessing replacing the SSD drive that is disappearing is more complex or not doable but adding another drive to the bays as a replacement might still be an option?

[Mrbogleheads]

How old is your SSD? I bought some software called Stablebit Scanner many years ago. It scans my ssds, hds, and usb drives, and tell me if it sees any issues.

Maybe 7 to 8 months old.

Maybe you are right, or it could just be a faulty drive.

[Mrbogleheads]

This is a picture of inside my computer. It has been awhile since I have cracked the case on one. Where are the hard drives? It has two empty bays, one in each of the upper corners, but I don't see any other drive looking devices. I'm guessing replacing the SSD drive that is disappearing is more complex or not doable but adding another drive to the bays as a replacement might still be an option?

Google M.2 SSD. It's those things with white stickers next to your ram.

[lthenderson]

This is a picture of inside my computer. It has been awhile since I have cracked the case on one. Where are the hard drives? It has two empty bays, one in each of the upper corners, but I don't see any other drive looking devices. I'm guessing replacing the SSD drive that is disappearing is more complex or not doable but adding another drive to the bays as a replacement might still be an option?

Google M.2 SSD. It's those things with white stickers next to your ram.

Gottcha. Thanks! Are those as easy to replace as removing the single screw on top, popping the old one out and a new one in? I'm thinking at this point, it might be better just to get a new one of traditional size to stick in one of the empty bays and leave the SSD where it is at.

[Mrbogleheads]

Google M.2 SSD. It's those things with white stickers next to your ram.

Gottcha. Thanks! Are those as easy to replace as removing the single screw on top, popping the old one out and a new one in? I'm thinking at this point, it might be better just to get a new one of traditional size to stick in one of the empty bays and leave the SSD where it is at.

I haven't built a new computer for 10 years so I'm behind on using M.2 SSDS. If I was you. I'd youtube it (probably as simple as you said) and try reseating it. Could also flash bios of mobo (sometimes risky) to see if that clears up the problem. You could view optional updates under windows updates and see if there is something related to the SSD and try that. You could also try drivers directly from the manufacture. Just spit balling ideas but probably 1 bad drive? It's just 1 right?

The SSD should be under warranty (if it's worth the hassle). But yeah looks like you could do a mechanical drive even the cables are up there so super easy?

[lthenderson]

Gottcha. Thanks! Are those as easy to replace as removing the single screw on top, popping the old one out and a new one in? I'm thinking at this point, it might be better just to get a new one of traditional size to stick in one of the empty bays and leave the SSD where it is at.

I haven't built a new computer for 10 years so I'm behind on using M.2 SSDS. If I was you. I'd youtube it (probably as simple as you said) and try reseating it. Could also flash bios of mobo (sometimes risky) to see if that clears up the problem. You could view optional updates under windows updates and see if there is something related to the SSD and try that. You could also try drivers directly from the manufacture. Just spit balling ideas but probably 1 bad drive? It's just 1 right?

The SSD should be under warranty (if it's worth the hassle). But yeah looks like you could do a mechanical drive even the cables are up there so super easy?

Thanks for you help. I'll do some research. If I end up doing this, I think I'll probably get two drives. One to replace the PCI Express drive that might be failing and then a normal spinner drive for one of the empty bays to direct my security camera feeds too.

[hudson]

I haven't built a new computer for 10 years so I'm behind on using M.2 SSDS. If I was you. I'd youtube it (probably as simple as you said) and try reseating it. Could also flash bios of mobo (sometimes risky) to see if that clears up the problem. You could view optional updates under windows updates and see if there is something related to the SSD and try that. You could also try drivers directly from the manufacture. Just spit balling ideas but probably 1 bad drive? It's just 1 right?

The SSD should be under warranty (if it's worth the hassle). But yeah looks like you could do a mechanical drive even the cables are up there so super easy?

Thanks for you help. I'll do some research. If I end up doing this, I think I'll probably get two drives. One to replace the PCI Express drive that might be failing and then a normal spinner drive for one of the empty bays to direct my security camera feeds too.

Did you call Dell? Their support is good. They can remotely run diagnosis software and give you a verdict pretty quick.
You could also run the Dell software that's on your computer to diagnose the issue.

[dukeblue219]

. Is writing continuously, as per my setup, to a Solid State drive hard on it? Apparently that seems to be the case.

Yes, they are writelife limited. However, they should degrade gracefully with error messages and normal users will not experience issues. By writing continuously do you mean you use the computer a lot for web browsing, or you are recording live TV 24/7 in multiple channels as a DVR?

Unlikely this is your problem after less than a year, btw.

[lthenderson]

Thanks for you help. I'll do some research. If I end up doing this, I think I'll probably get two drives. One to replace the PCI Express drive that might be failing and then a normal spinner drive for one of the empty bays to direct my security camera feeds too.

Did you call Dell? Their support is good. They can remotely run diagnosis software and give you a verdict pretty quick.
You could also run the Dell software that's on your computer to diagnose the issue.

I haven't called Dell but did run the diagnostic software, after I rebooted the computer through the BIOS yesterday to get the drive to reappear, and it said there was no problems detected. I will try calling Dell today to check on warranty and if my theory about continuous writing to a SSD might be the problem.

[lthenderson]

Yes, they are writelife limited. However, they should degrade gracefully with error messages and normal users will not experience issues. By writing continuously do you mean you use the computer a lot for web browsing, or you are recording live TV 24/7 in multiple channels as a DVR?

Unlikely this is your problem after less than a year, btw.

I am recording 4 security camera feeds 24/7/365 as a DVR.

[hudson]

Did you call Dell? Their support is good. They can remotely run diagnosis software and give you a verdict pretty quick.
You could also run the Dell software that's on your computer to diagnose the issue.

I haven't called Dell but did run the diagnostic software, after I rebooted the computer through the BIOS yesterday to get the drive to reappear, and it said there was no problems detected. I will try calling Dell today to check on warranty and if my theory about continuous writing to a SSD might be the problem.

They helped me many times whether in or out of warranty.
I used to buy and support Dell computers and servers.

[IowaFarmBoy]

This is a picture of inside my computer. It has been awhile since I have cracked the case on one. Where are the hard drives? It has two empty bays, one in each of the upper corners, but I don't see any other drive looking devices. I'm guessing replacing the SSD drive that is disappearing is more complex or not doable but adding another drive to the bays as a replacement might still be an option?

I think your SSD drives are just to the right of the fan. They are rectangular and oriented vertically and quite a bit taller than wide. This a a newer configuration for SSDs- I wasn't aware of it until recently when I bought a refurbished laptop and considered upgrading the SSD. They should be replaceable but adding to the bays is also an option.

[lthenderson]

I think your SSD drives are just to the right of the fan. They are rectangular and oriented vertically and quite a bit taller than wide. This a a newer configuration for SSDs- I wasn't aware of it until recently when I bought a refurbished laptop and considered upgrading the SSD. They should be replaceable but adding to the bays is also an option.

Thanks. I'm sure you are correct and have googled up images of them. They even have labels stating the drive number beneath each one. It seems like they are PCIe form factor drives which I had never heard of until this morning. From looking at videos, they seem really easy to replace and since this isn't my boot drive, I may order a replacement after I call Dell this morning and give it a go. While I'm doing this, I will probably get a cheaper 3.5 spinner drive for one of the bays just to ensure that this won't happen again in the future.

[dukeblue219]

Yes, they are writelife limited. However, they should degrade gracefully with error messages and normal users will not experience issues. By writing continuously do you mean you use the computer a lot for web browsing, or you are recording live TV 24/7 in multiple channels as a DVR?

Unlikely this is your problem after less than a year, btw.

I am recording 4 security camera feeds 24/7/365 as a DVR.

It shouldnt be the issue yet but this will definitely burn a cheap drive (especially one using QLC flash) in a matter of years. A mechanical drive would be better, as would some of the drives made specifically for this use case. WD Purple is a popular choice.

Unfortunately this is basically the one application where mechanical drives still compete.

[lthenderson]

Another Update:

I called Dell and went through all the troubleshooting. Essentially, the drive is still showing as working perfectly but I was told that if it happens again, to call them back and they will replace the drive.

I did mention the fact that it was being written to by my security cameras 24/7/365 but the tech seemed to think that shouldn't cause a problem. So for now, I will carry on. They gave me an email to respond to should it happen again.

I think since they are fairly cheap, I will order a mechanical WD hard drive to put into one of the empty slots and then run my security cameras through them just as a hedge that I'm right with my theory. Until then, all my security cameras are set to record only when triggered to reduce the writing to the disappearing drive.

[crefwatch]

In general, you can't plug a spinning drive into those surface mounted SSD slots. My own Dell only has one such socket on the Motherboard, so I am impressed that you have two. The interface is extremely fast. These SSD's do tend to run hot, however. Put your finger on one after a few hours.

When installing a new such SSD, it is common to have to load the SSD manufacturer's free software to format the drive for windows, before it can be recognized and used. This software can also report the drive temperature and test it for flaws.

I am not an authority on this, but it seems possible that the CONSTANT high usage of the interface by the video camera made it impossible for the OS to view the drives reliably (????)

[lthenderson]

In general, you can't plug a spinning drive into those surface mounted SSD slots. My own Dell only has one such socket on the Motherboard, so I am impressed that you have two. The interface is extremely fast. These SSD's do tend to run hot, however. Put your finger on one after a few hours.

When installing a new such SSD, it is common to have to load the SSD manufacturer's free software to format the drive for windows, before it can be recognized and used. This software can also report the drive temperature and test it for flaws.

I am not an authority on this, but it seems possible that the CONSTANT high usage of the interface by the video camera made it impossible for the OS to view the drives reliably (????)

It is very warm to the touch which I think leads credence to that theory. I ordered a WD Purple spinner drive in 3.5" format to plug into one of the bays in the upper corners which I will point my security camera data to from here on out. Since the data on the disappearing drive is backed up, I'm inclined to just monitor it for now since the advanced test of it Dell had me do showed that it was working fine. It it continues to work fine and not disappear again, I'll chalk it up as an overheating issue due to the continual writing on it from the security cameras.

[scophreak]

In general, you can't plug a spinning drive into those surface mounted SSD slots. My own Dell only has one such socket on the Motherboard, so I am impressed that you have two. The interface is extremely fast. These SSD's do tend to run hot, however. Put your finger on one after a few hours.

When installing a new such SSD, it is common to have to load the SSD manufacturer's free software to format the drive for windows, before it can be recognized and used. This software can also report the drive temperature and test it for flaws.

I am not an authority on this, but it seems possible that the CONSTANT high usage of the interface by the video camera made it impossible for the OS to view the drives reliably (????)

It is very warm to the touch which I think leads credence to that theory. I ordered a WD Purple spinner drive in 3.5" format to plug into one of the bays in the upper corners which I will point my security camera data to from here on out. Since the data on the disappearing drive is backed up, I'm inclined to just monitor it for now since the advanced test of it Dell had me do showed that it was working fine. It it continues to work fine and not disappear again, I'll chalk it up as an overheating issue due to the continual writing on it from the security cameras.

Do your installed SSDs have integrated heat sinks? If they do not and are running at higher than expected temps you can likely purchase and install these to mitigate (at least to some degree) temperature effects. If replacing SSDs you can consider replacement with a new drive that does have its own heat sink.

[lthenderson]

It is very warm to the touch which I think leads credence to that theory. I ordered a WD Purple spinner drive in 3.5" format to plug into one of the bays in the upper corners which I will point my security camera data to from here on out. Since the data on the disappearing drive is backed up, I'm inclined to just monitor it for now since the advanced test of it Dell had me do showed that it was working fine. It it continues to work fine and not disappear again, I'll chalk it up as an overheating issue due to the continual writing on it from the security cameras.

Do your installed SSDs have integrated heat sinks? If they do not and are running at higher than expected temps you can likely purchase and install these to mitigate (at least to some degree) temperature effects. If replacing SSDs you can consider replacement with a new drive that does have its own heat sink.

There is no visible heat sink that I can see. From watching videos, it seems there can be a marginal heat sink, between it and the circuit board in many similar applications, or there appears to be a metallic spot in the shape of the PCIe hard drive upon removal. I haven't seen a video for my model of computer to confirm that on mine and don't want to remove it just to see. I would be willing to bet though that if one exists, it wasn't adequate for my particular situation.

[indexfundfan]

SSD manufacturers publish a TBW endurance rating. For example, it could be 300 TBW, meaning a life of 300 TB written.

https://www.howtogeek.com/806926/what-d ... -for-ssds/

So how much data does your security camera write in a day? I found the following link

https://solink.com/resources/industry-i ... e-per-day/

It could be as low as hundreds of MB per day to close to 1TB per day. If you are using close to 1TB (e.g. 20 fps and MJPEG compression), you would get close to 300 TBW in a little more than 300 days.

There should be a diagnostic tool from the SSD manufacturer that reports the number of TBW used so far.

[enad]

Thanks for you help. I'll do some research. If I end up doing this, I think I'll probably get two drives. One to replace the PCI Express drive that might be failing and then a normal spinner drive for one of the empty bays to direct my security camera feeds too.

You can query the S.M.A.R.T (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) report that is generated by many Hard Drives and Solid State Drives. Basically S.M.A.R.T. monitors the health of storage drives and reports it to you.

To query an NVMe (PCI-Express) drive with smartctl on Windows, you need to download and install the smartmontools package, then open an elevated command prompt (PowerShell as administrator) and run the command smartctl --scan to identify the drive, followed by smartctl --all /dev/sdX where "sdX" is the identifier for your NVMe drive from the scan output; this will display the full SMART data for that drive.

You can pipe the output into a text file which you can open up using a text editor i.e. notepad and expand the window so no lines wrap.

smartctl -a /dev/sda > c:\sda.txt
smartctl -a /dev/sdb > c:\sdb.txt

The top section will give you information about the drive (manufacture, model, size).
The bottom section will give you error information.

Solid State drives have a finite number of write/erase cycles. If your SSD's are made by Samsung, you can employ a technique known as Over-Provisioning whereby you set aside from 6.7% to 10% of your SSD as unallocated (at the end of the drive). The Samsung controller will use the unallocated space to prolong the life of your SSD by using portions of it as it see's fit to prevent continual write/erase cycles at a certain spot on your SSD.

You can read about Samsung Over-Provisioning here.

To check if an SSD has reached its maximum write/erase cycles, the most important SMART parameter to monitor is "SSD Wear Leveling Count" (usually identified as attribute 173), as it directly reflects the number of times data has been written and erased on the drive's flash memory blocks, indicating its overall wear level.

A high value in the SSD Wear Leveling Count signifies the drive is nearing the end of its lifespan and has undergone a significant number of write/erase cycles.

Other relevant SMART parameters for SSD health:

• "Percentage Lifetime Remaining": Some SSDs display a percentage indicating the estimated remaining lifespan of the drive.

• "Retired NAND Blocks": Tracks the number of flash memory blocks that have been marked as unusable due to wear.

• "SSD Erase Fail Count": Indicates the number of times an erase operation failed, which could be a sign of potential issues

In our security system we use both Western Digital Purple Surveillance and Western Digital Purple Pro Surveillance hard drives. The non-Pro spin at 5400-5640 RPM and carry a 3-year warranty, and the Pro spin at 7200 RPM and carry a 5-year warranty. The Western Digital Purple hard drives are designed for 24/7 surveillance.

I think if you're doing video surveillance you'll benefit from using a hard drive that uses CMR (Conventional Magnetic Recording) like the Western Digital Purple or Purple Pro Hard drives. Avoid Hard Drives that use SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording). On CMR drives the tracks are separated by a small gap. On SMR drives the tracks are partially overwritten. CMR is great for surveillance, SMR is more for data centers where the drives are frequently read and seldom written.

If you decide to replace your SSD, be careful when you go to remove it. Have someone hold down on the SSD while you unscrew it and don't let them let go until you have the tiny screw in your hand. The SSD should be fairly parallel to the board and gently pull on it and it will come out easily (the important thing is not to let the tiny screw fly out and get stuck somewhere).

One of the SSD's contains your Windows operating system, which you won't want to remove.

[crefwatch]

Because the manufacturer's label is fully visible, there is no heat sink on either factory drive. They are not expensive, but it requires a modest amount of handyman skill to put the thermal pads on BOTH sides of the drive, and then reinstall it with gentle pressure to compress the (now hidden) lower thermal pad. I added a heat sink to mine. You have about 50 to choose from on Amazon alone ...

Because the SSD has to simultaneously be plugged in (that is, moved towards the receptacle by about 3/16"), while lowering the keeper-screw end towards the motherboard, some sensitivity is required. I don't mean it's scary, just that you need to know how hard to push, and when. You will "learn" a lot when you remove the drive, so think about it at that time.

[lthenderson]

SSD manufacturers publish a TBW endurance rating. For example, it could be 300 TBW, meaning a life of 300 TB written.

https://www.howtogeek.com/806926/what-d ... -for-ssds/

So how much data does your security camera write in a day? I found the following link

https://solink.com/resources/industry-i ... e-per-day/

It could be as low as hundreds of MB per day to close to 1TB per day. If you are using close to 1TB (e.g. 20 fps and MJPEG compression), you would get close to 300 TBW in a little more than 300 days.

There should be a diagnostic tool from the SSD manufacturer that reports the number of TBW used so far.

I looked through the last month of data and the cameras have averaged between 25 and 30GB of data per day. I have the software set to save the files for a month before deleting so that the 1 TB partition only got about 75% full at any given time. I looked back through my records and purchased the computer (with same hard drive) in April of last year. So it has probably been written over 8 or 9 times at this point. I'll have to look into a tool to tell me the TBW used so far.

[lthenderson]

I ended up downloading Samsung's Smart Magician software for detecting TBW on my hard drive. Unfortunately, it does not support RAID control which apparently my desktop was set to from the factory. It will only report TBW for non-RAID drives.

My knowledge is very little about RAID but from what I read, it really can't be undone without essentially backing up all the data from all the drives first and then turning RAID off and reinstalling all the data. I'm guessing this means reinstalling all the software and OS too which I'm not sure I want to tackle at this point.

Some google search and reading though says that RAID makes pulling out the bad drive and replacing it with a good one easy and that the computer will keep the data in the same partitions even after the swap. I'm not sure how that is possible with more than 2 TB of total data. I have approximately 2.5 TB of data between the two 2 TB drives. Of that data, 1.5 TB is OS, programs and data I really care about. The other .75 TB is security cam footage over the last month.

[MGBMartin]

I ended up downloading Samsung's Smart Magician software for detecting TBW on my hard drive. Unfortunately, it does not support RAID control which apparently my desktop was set to from the factory. It will only report TBW for non-RAID drives.

My knowledge is very little about RAID but from what I read, it really can't be undone without essentially backing up all the data from all the drives first and then turning RAID off and reinstalling all the data. I'm guessing this means reinstalling all the software and OS too which I'm not sure I want to tackle at this point.

Some google search and reading though says that RAID makes pulling out the bad drive and replacing it with a good one easy and that the computer will keep the data in the same partitions even after the swap. I'm not sure how that is possible with more than 2 TB of total data. I have approximately 2.5 TB of data between the two 2 TB drives. Of that data, 1.5 TB is OS, programs and data I really care about. The other .75 TB is security cam footage over the last month.

IIRC Dell sets their BIOS to RAID enabled but the drives are not set up as a RAID Array.
If you did have a RAID array being able to recover data after a drive failure would depend on the array Level, would have to be a mirror array and not a stripped array.
I doubt you have a RAID array, just RAID enabled BIOS setup.

[lthenderson]

I ended up downloading Samsung's Smart Magician software for detecting TBW on my hard drive. Unfortunately, it does not support RAID control which apparently my desktop was set to from the factory. It will only report TBW for non-RAID drives.

My knowledge is very little about RAID but from what I read, it really can't be undone without essentially backing up all the data from all the drives first and then turning RAID off and reinstalling all the data. I'm guessing this means reinstalling all the software and OS too which I'm not sure I want to tackle at this point.

Some google search and reading though says that RAID makes pulling out the bad drive and replacing it with a good one easy and that the computer will keep the data in the same partitions even after the swap. I'm not sure how that is possible with more than 2 TB of total data. I have approximately 2.5 TB of data between the two 2 TB drives. Of that data, 1.5 TB is OS, programs and data I really care about. The other .75 TB is security cam footage over the last month.

IIRC Dell sets their BIOS to RAID enabled but the drives are not set up as a RAID Array.
If you did have a RAID array being able to recover data after a drive failure would depend on the array Level, would have to be a mirror array and not a stripped array.
I doubt you have a RAID array, just RAID enabled BIOS setup.

Thanks for that explanation.

[enad]

I ended up downloading Samsung's Smart Magician software for detecting TBW on my hard drive. Unfortunately, it does not support RAID control which apparently my desktop was set to from the factory. It will only report TBW for non-RAID drives.

My knowledge is very little about RAID but from what I read, it really can't be undone without essentially backing up all the data from all the drives first and then turning RAID off and reinstalling all the data. I'm guessing this means reinstalling all the software and OS too which I'm not sure I want to tackle at this point.

Some google search and reading though says that RAID makes pulling out the bad drive and replacing it with a good one easy and that the computer will keep the data in the same partitions even after the swap. I'm not sure how that is possible with more than 2 TB of total data. I have approximately 2.5 TB of data between the two 2 TB drives. Of that data, 1.5 TB is OS, programs and data I really care about. The other .75 TB is security cam footage over the last month.

You should be able to backup your data onto an external USB drive using one of many backup programs available, even if you are using RAID, then change the mode in the BIOS and either reformat the SSD drive (or buy a new one & preserve your old one till you are sure you can format it) and restore the data from the external USB drive. I use Acronis True Image but there are number of backup programs you can use. With Acronis I can choose what i want to back up and what I want to restore.

The good thing is you may get into a habit of backing up your system which never hurts.

[lthenderson]

Thought I would update this post for posterity.

Since turning off the continual writing of my security cameras to my SSD hard drive, it has remained stable and hasn't "disappeared". I ordered a WD Purple Security drive as a replacement and popped it into place. After three hours of trying to get the computer to recognize it and initialize it, I gave up and started reading through the spec sheets. Turns out Dell limits HHD drives to 2 TB and the one I bought was 6 TB because it was not much more expensive and had 3 times as much space. Oops. So I have a 2 TB HHD drive ordered for Monday and will hopefully be able to install it more successfully.

[WishingWell]

You should be able to use a hard drive larger than 2 TB in most modern computers. You did not list your Dell computer model number but it looks similar to a XPS 8460 and I found this thread that may be of interest: https://www.reddit.com/r/DellXPS/commen ... trictions/ where one of the solutions was to use Windows disk manager to initialize the volume.

[lthenderson]

You should be able to use a hard drive larger than 2 TB in most modern computers. You did not list your Dell computer model number but it looks similar to a XPS 8460 and I found this thread that may be of interest: https://www.reddit.com/r/DellXPS/commen ... trictions/ where one of the solutions was to use Windows disk manager to initialize the volume.

I’m wondering if Dell wisened up to that. I did use Disk Manager to try and initialize it but it just gives me an error code and says it doesn’t recognize the I/O of the drive. It sees it but says it is only 0 GB and of unknown origin. I tried looking for drivers from WD but they say all necessary drivers and in Windows updates already. I called Dell support and they told me the error meant my new drive was out of specification. I read the link you posted but didn’t see how they were getting larger sized drives to work, only that they would a year ago when the thread was created.

Mine is XPS8960

[Chuckles960]

Turns out Dell limits HHD drives to 2 TB

No, it isn't a Dell limit. It is an MBR limit (2.2TB). You have to set up the drive to use GPT instead. Dell has no problem with you using more than 2TB.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troub ... eding-2-tb

[lthenderson]

Turns out Dell limits HHD drives to 2 TB

No, it isn't a Dell limit. It is an MBR limit (2.2TB). You have to set up the drive to use GPT instead. Dell has no problem with you using more than 2TB.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troub ... eding-2-tb

When I use the Disk Management program, I am given two options for the drive, to initialize using MBR or GPT. I have tried both options unsuccessfully with the same error code "the request could not be performed due to I/O device error". Dell says that means the drive is not supported. In the article you linked, under known issues is states:

The storage device isn't detected correctly. In this case, it isn't displayed in either the Device Manager or Disk Management windows. Many storage controller manufacturers offer updated drivers that provide support for storage capacities of more than 2 TB. Contact your storage controller manufacturer or OEM to determine what downloadable support is available for single-disk capacities that are greater than 2 TB.

Mine does appear but in both the BIOS and the Disk Management menu, it lists it as either 0GB or "Unknown Device" respectively. I have the option to search for an updated driver as well but Western Digital has said that all their device drivers are already installed on Windows and in Windows Updates so I can't download a driver for the WD62PURZ that I have.

From reading numerous threads on various sites about this issue, I have yet to see specific directions on how to get around the 2 TB limit. Many say it is possible but those threads are several years old and refer to older OS than Windows 11 or don't say what they did to get around this limit. Some vaguely say that it is possible but one has to completely start over and reinstall the operating system, perhaps a different one, from scratch. I'm not wanting to reinstall the operating system and set up my computer all over again just for 6 TB of storage space if a 2 TB drive will be recognized and has enough space for my desired need of storing a month worth of surveillance videos.

I don't mind experimenting on this drive if I can find something that works but I have yet to find that website with instructions as of yet. My 2 TB drive arrives on Monday and if I don't have this one working by then, I'll just attempt to return it through Amazon where I bought it from. If not, it wasn't very expensive so I can just try to sell it third party or stick it into the remaining empty bay until a "fix" comes along.

[lthenderson]

FINAL UPDATE:

I received my new 2 TB HHD hard drive meant for surveillance cameras and popped it in. After booting my computer, it took about 5 minutes and it was set up and working. My cameras are now back to recording 24/7/365 and since I stopped them writing to my SSD, I have had no issues with it disappearing from Windows.

Amazon did allow me to return the 6 TB HHD and get a full refund minus about $7 in shipping costs. I was honest and said I just didn't want it anymore which I suppose is why they are charging me shipping back to Western Digital.