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.

 

[orleans704]

Thank you Aeacus! Samsung said they never heard of the issue before and showed no interest in 3rd party software issues.

I didn't realize it, but I'd put the Samsung in the first M.2 slot which is Gen5. This drive is Gen4 so I moved it to another slot. 3 months and so far no crashes/reboots. So that appears to be a great suggestion. Thanks!

 

[orleans704]

LOL. Spoke too soon. It crash last night. Got just over 3 months. I can't believe I'm the only one with this problem as it just can't be software related.

 

[SkyNetRising]

It crash last night.

I'd suspect overheating.
Try running your backup and monitor SSD temperature.

 

[orleans704]

Last night was a scheduled once-a-month full backup so I just did that my hand and watched with HWMonitor and Magician. It took 20 mins and the SSD temp range was 35-38 C. It completed successully.

 

[Aeacus]

as it just can't be software related.

Bench the drive. Both with Samsung Magician and CrystalDiskMark. This would tell if drive would have issues.

Macrium Reflect

Try with different version of Macrium. Since it is the only program that crashes, as far as you've seen thus far. Due to this, it does point towards this specific program issue.

 

[orleans704]

Both benchmarks completed. Max temp was 42 C.

https://imgur.com/110Nnyc

https://imgur.com/n9sJFfi

Macrium has a new X version out so I can try that since I like the product.

Thanks for the assistance.

 

[Aeacus]

Samsung 990 Pro SSD 2TB (C:, D:, and other small Windows partitions. Running latest firmware)

I wonder, why do you have two partitions on single drive? C:/ and D:/?

Partitions were useful in the days of old, where HDDs came in much bigger capacity than the OS (file system) was capable of supporting. So, to make the HDD work, it was partitioned into smaller chunks, where OS saw the drive as being two (or more) different drives. While in fact, physically, there was just 1 drive.

Nowadays, where storage media is cheap (dirt cheap if you consider HDD price per GB), there is no need to partition the drives anymore. On the contrary, it actually makes the drive (especially SSD) to wear out much faster. Since when you have OS on C:/, that part of the SSD is used a lot more, than D:/ partition for data. And SSDs need to shift the data around, to get the most lifespan out of NAND cells.
Not to mention, when drive fails, you will loose all partitions on the drive.

So, it could be, that Macrium (or it's later versions) doesn't do well with partitions. 🤔

E.g i too have 2TB M.2 drive (970 Evo Plus), but i keep it with single partition, as C:/ drive (OS + games). For data, i have 2TB 2.5" SATA SSD (870 Evo). And for backup, i have 1TB 2.5" SATA SSD (Crucial MX500). Since for data, i don't need the fast read/write speeds of M.2 NVMe. I can get by with SATA3 as well.
Currently, i've phased out all HDDs in my builds, whereby i keep my old HDDs as offline backup drives (clones of data drive), while for OS backup, i have 870 Evo drives (also stored as offline backup).

Your MoBo has 5x M.2 slots. I see no reason why to partition one M.2 drive. It's not where you'd have only one or two M.2 slots (like i do), and you're limited on M.2 drives you can hook to your system.

 

[USAFRet]

On the contrary, it actually makes the drive (especially SSD) to wear out much faster. Since when you have OS on C:/, that part of the SSD is used a lot more, than D:/ partition for data.

Actually, no.

Unlike an HDD, partitions on an SSD are merely logical. Just what the software shows you.
The actual cells used are NOT devoted to one partition or the other.

On an HDD, the partitions were actual physical spaces.
Not on an SSD.


But I do agree that partitioning a single physical drive is pretty useless these days.