Solved! Disk D Drive missing from BIOS, System Restore, and Disk Management

[Reaver Stix]

My Asus ROG Strix Laptop was doing fine until one day the pc suddenly updated windows. After that I began encountering this issue where the D Drive goes missing on a boot up. It doesn't show up on Disk Management, BIOS, or System Restore. Even on a restart it doesn't show. I have to shut down the PC then power it up again. Then the drive shows and all my data with it.

I've checked the inside and both SSDs are securely attached. I've cleaned up any viruses, updated windows and the drives, but still encounter the problem to this day. At this point, I'm not sure if it's a BIOS error, battery problem, third-party program (anti-virus, etc.), or God forbid, a corrupted SSD.

I'm at my wits end and need help. Also, I'm really hoping its not a corrupted SSD as I can't afford a new one

 

[AlHuneke]

If the drive is working, it should show up in the BIOS and disk management. I would say you have a bad SSD, but maybe someone else has a suggestion. I doubt that Windows update would make it go away. What version are you running? Did it update from 10 to 11 by chance?

You might try to run a program like Crystal Disk Info or something similar. Worth a try but I doubt it will read the disk if it's not showing up in BIOS.

 

[AlHuneke]

BTW-Since you mentioned two physical SSDs, I assumed D is a separate HW drive. Obviously, one can have multiple drive letters on a single physical drive.

 

[Reaver Stix]

If the drive is working, it should show up in the BIOS and disk management. I would say you have a bad SSD, but maybe someone else has a suggestion. I doubt that Windows update would make it go away. What version are you running? Did it update from 10 to 11 by chance?

You might try to run a program like Crystal Disk Info or something similar. Worth a try but I doubt it will read the disk if it's not showing up in BIOS.

Just checked the version and it's still Windows 10. I'll try Crystal Disk Info.

BTW-Since you mentioned two physical SSDs, I assumed D is a separate HW drive. Obviously, one can have multiple drive letters on a single physical drive.

Yes, I have 2 SSDs and D drive is on the 2nd one. I have checked if it is a CDROM error but it didn't solve that. Tried changing the drive letter, no go. I did uninstall any anti-malware programs and so far the drive is reading. I'll test it till the end of the day to see if that did it.

 

[Reaver Stix]

It didn't work. It's not a software error. The PC booted very slowly (got stuck on the logo before it started loading) and as usual, Drive D is missing. So that leaves BIOS, Booting, and SSD as the culprits.

 

[Reaver Stix]

I have the worst luck. I was going to backup the files today and take it to the shop for repairs and now the D Drive is truly missing no matter how many times I boot. All that data gone before I could backup....

 

[rgd1101]

if it a separated ssd, the shop and try take it out and test on their pc