Although my problem *seems to have been* solved, I would really want to know:
1) Why this happened in the first place?
2) How serious was/is the problem?
3) Has it "gone" or can it come back?
A bit background: I consider myself the type of person who keeps his computer system up-to-date and smoothly running in all respects. The OS and all applications are configured properly, all updates are always installed, the best UPS system in the market is attached, Kaspersky's Internet Security is always running, no useless applications are ever installed, and so on.
Why then did my external SanDisk SSD [it uses MLC-type NAND] all of a sudden, with no apparent reason, suddenly become invisible in My Computer [Windows 8.1]? I feared loss of invaluable ~250 GB of my data - documents, family photos/videos, business data, schooling/college data and tons of other stuff. I changed the external casing but the problem persisted. I connected the drive to a different laptop but the problem persisted. I feared the worst - that the disk's hardware and/or its file system had gone bad, and I might never get my data back [defeating the very purpose of buying a SSD in the first place - to safeguard my data].
Finally, it was the good old CHKDSK that came to my rescue.
Please see the screenshots.
https://imgur.com/a/YDfAk
https://imgur.com/a/zhmdA
Somehow it recognized that there was an attached drive and it repaired the file system and my data became visible again [not sure if any/some files were lost during the repair]. What I don't know is why this happened, whether there's any hardware fault hiding somewhere, whether it'll happen again, whether the NAND has developed issues. Right now I'm copying the entire disk to a spare 250 GB external Seagate drive that I have.
Please read the error messages in the screenshots and help!
1) Why this happened in the first place?
2) How serious was/is the problem?
3) Has it "gone" or can it come back?
A bit background: I consider myself the type of person who keeps his computer system up-to-date and smoothly running in all respects. The OS and all applications are configured properly, all updates are always installed, the best UPS system in the market is attached, Kaspersky's Internet Security is always running, no useless applications are ever installed, and so on.
Why then did my external SanDisk SSD [it uses MLC-type NAND] all of a sudden, with no apparent reason, suddenly become invisible in My Computer [Windows 8.1]? I feared loss of invaluable ~250 GB of my data - documents, family photos/videos, business data, schooling/college data and tons of other stuff. I changed the external casing but the problem persisted. I connected the drive to a different laptop but the problem persisted. I feared the worst - that the disk's hardware and/or its file system had gone bad, and I might never get my data back [defeating the very purpose of buying a SSD in the first place - to safeguard my data].
Finally, it was the good old CHKDSK that came to my rescue.
Please see the screenshots.
https://imgur.com/a/YDfAk
https://imgur.com/a/zhmdA
Somehow it recognized that there was an attached drive and it repaired the file system and my data became visible again [not sure if any/some files were lost during the repair]. What I don't know is why this happened, whether there's any hardware fault hiding somewhere, whether it'll happen again, whether the NAND has developed issues. Right now I'm copying the entire disk to a spare 250 GB external Seagate drive that I have.
Please read the error messages in the screenshots and help!