Question Entire SSD Disappears Only During Backups

[orleans704]

Randomly, only during Macrium Reflect automated backups, my PC loses the SSD containing C: and crashes. The next morning I find it at the BIOS screen because the entire SSD is missing until I do a hard power reset.

BIOS shows other SSDs, but no Samsung 990 Pro which contains C:. Reset button sends me back to BIOS because it can’t boot. A hard power reset clears the problem and the PC can boot. I have never seen this crashing when running Macrium manually or during any other behavior. Has anyone experienced anything like this before?

I changed the time Macrium runs from 4am to 6am, and the crashes moved to 6am. I split the backup into different hours for each of the 5 partitions on the Samsung 990 Pro – Boot, Hidden, Recovery, C: and D:. Crashes occur only on backups of C: or D: -- so not always while backing up Windows. D: is a data drive and no applications are stored there.

Macrium support feels the issue is hardware or firmware, and I agree, as I don’t think even Windows could make the entire SSD disappear from BIOS. But Macrium said they have not seen this exact behavior before. MSI support was ridiculously dismissive and told me to just reboot Windows every day.

The BIOS is up to date. All other firmware and drivers and patches have been applied. I’m now moving to try other backup programs even though I really like Macrium Reflect. I’m testing EaseUS Todo now, which looks likes it was written by a child in comparison. AOMEI Backupper and R-Drive Image are next.

Crash Dates:
May 6, 7, 11, 14, 19, 22
June 9
July 3, 9, 28
Aug - none
Sept - none
Oct 6, 19

Equipment:
MSI Z790 Carbon WiFi (latest BIOS, latest drivers, default settings, no overclock)
Samsung 990 Pro SSD 2TB (C:, D:, and other small Windows partitions. Running latest firmware)
2x SSD in RAID-0 (not backed up via Macrium)
External USB Lacie backup drive
Intel 13600k
Macrium Reflect Home 8.1 (fully patched)
Windows 10 Pro (fully patched)

 

[Aeacus]

Macrium support feels the issue is hardware or firmware, and I agree, as I don’t think even Windows could make the entire SSD disappear from BIOS. But Macrium said they have not seen this exact behavior before. MSI support was ridiculously dismissive and told me to just reboot Windows every day.

Have you contacted Samsung about it as well? Since it seems to be conflict between Macrium automation and Samsung drive.

Other than replacing the 990 Pro, there's no other thing to suggest.
Though, your MoBo has 5x M.2 slots. You could try your 990 Pro in another M.2 slot, to see if it makes a diff. If it does, issue would be with MoBo.