SSD not being recognised

[Toto]

Hi everyone,

I bought my PC back in July 2020. For the last few months, my second M.2 SSD Drive (2TB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 520 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 5000MB/R, 4400MB/W)) has not been showing up on my disk management / being recognised as a drive. After I restart it, it sometimes shows up but then disappears again. When I go on Steam, which is installed on the drive, I’m unable to install anything as it gives me a “disk write error”. I am also unable to view most of my folders in the drive.

Please could you let me know what I can do, e.g. how to check if the connection is loose? I installed the Seagate diagnostic tool Seatool and Crystaldiskinfo - both of these say the SSD is fine (when it does show up - when my SSD is not recognised, it does not come up on the system).

I’ve had a look at some Youtube videos on how to install SSDs to see if I can fix a loose connection but wasn’t able to figure it out when looking at my motherboard.

Many thanks in advance!

My full specs are below:

Case
CORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 500D SE CASE
Promotional Item
Get Assassin’s Creed® Valhalla with select AMD Ryzen CPUs

[Redacted by Steaky360]
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.6GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)

Change to: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Eight Core CPU (3.9GHz-4.5GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 520 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 5000MB/R, 4400MB/W)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 520 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 5000MB/R, 4400MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
NOT REQUIRED

Change to: 4TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i RGB PLATINUM Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]

[Redacted by Steaky360]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour)

 

[ubuysa]

Try removing the drive and then reseating it.

 

[SimonPeters116]

Try removing the drive and then reseating it.

I think it's the 'how do I do that?', which the OP is after.

 

[Toto]

Thanks both - yep, I’m not sure which parts to unscrew. Would either of you be able to point it out to me if I post a picture of the motherboard?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks both - yep, I’m not sure which parts to unscrew. Would either of you be able to point it out to me if I post a picture of the motherboard?

It tells you in the motherboard manual if you look up the nvme section

 

[Toto]

It tells you in the motherboard manual if you look up the nvme section

Thanks! I’ll have a look

 

[Toto]

Hi all, I’ve tried reseating the harddrive but still no luck. I’ve tried opening the Steam app but I’m getting a “fatal error: steam needs to be online to update”.

Would anyone else have any suggestions or is this a case where I’ll have to replace the harddrive?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hi all, I’ve tried reseating the harddrive but still no luck. I’ve tried opening the Steam app but I’m getting a “fatal error: steam needs to be online to update”.

Would anyone else have any suggestions or is this a case where I’ll have to replace the harddrive?

Is the drive still not showing in disk manager or the bios?

 

[Toto]

Is the drive still not showing in disk manager or the bios?

It showed up when I first restarted the computer after reseating the drive, but it’s not showing up again after putting it to sleep (the drive appearing and disappearing has been a continued issue).

 

[SpyderTracks]

It showed up when I first restarted the computer after reseating the drive, but it’s not showing up again after putting it to sleep (the drive appearing and disappearing has been a continued issue).

It’s either the SSD or the port then, nothing to do with windows if thats happening in the BIOS

 

[Toto]

It’s either the SSD or the port then, nothing to do with windows if thats happening in the BIOS

Thanks for confirming - if it’s the port, would I need to replace the whole motherboard?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks for confirming - if it’s the port, would I need to replace the whole motherboard?

Yes, if you have no other ports available

 

[Toto]

Yes, if you have no other ports available

Got it, thanks for the help. Fingers crossed it’s an SSD issue!