Question My hard drive is wiped and/or confused ?

[bobblefish]

So this is a chaotic set of events, and I will try to be organized with it. Please forgive me for any ignorance or missteps. I've built my own computer, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm super tech savvy.
To start with: I have 3 harddrives I've used for years:
C: 500gb Samsung SSD
D: Storage 4tb WD HDD
E: Gaming 1tb Samsung SSD

Motherboard: Asus Rog Strix Z390-E

I wanted to install a 4TB NVMe SSD because my E drive that I used for gaming was nearly full.

In the process of (not) figuring out how to deal with my computer not recognizing the new drive, I thought maybe I was supposed to have the SATA 2 port unused. I wasn't 100% sure this was what would fix it, but I'd tried several other methods to no avail. So I searched whether or not shuffling ports would be a problem, and the answers I saw seemed to indicate that without any RAID setup that it would be okay.

So I shuffled things around a bit and noticed something odd. My E drive (which was titled "E Gaming") now said "D Storage". It was still listed as my E drive and still showed that it was supposed to be a 1tb drive. But there was almost nothing on it, and the name was different.

I rearranged things back to the way they had been, and the issue was still the same (this time, my PC did a disk check, which went quickly). I clicked around, and while some of the file folders looked the same as my D drive, there was only one file ("music") anywhere on it. I tried to open a game on Steam just to see what happened, and it said "that drive does not exist" or something to that effect.

I initiated another disk check (this one taking 1.5-2 hours vs the first one's... 10 mintues or so?). Nothing changed. It still says D Storage, and it still has nothing in it except a few odd folders.

I'd love help on the NVMe thing, but at the moment I'm more concerned about what happened to my E drive. My actual D drive appears to have been unaffected (although there was a time or two when doing the initial shuffling around that it was not recognized at all, but that was probably a cable connection issue).

 

[mdd1963]

With Z270, Z370, and Z390 chipsets, installing NVME drives comes at the expense of/disables SATA ports. (With 2 NVME drives installed, you might only have ports 3 and 4 available. (Once your existing D drive was disabled, the newer NVME became drive D?)

 

[CountMike]

So this is a chaotic set of events, and I will try to be organized with it. Please forgive me for any ignorance or missteps. I've built my own computer, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm super tech savvy.
To start with: I have 3 harddrives I've used for years: C (500gb Samsung SSD), D Storage (4tb WD HDD ), E Gaming (1tb Samsung SSD)
Motherboard: Asus Rog Strix Z390-E

I wanted to install a 4TB NVMe drive because my E drive that I used for gaming was nearly full.

In the process of (not) figuring out how to deal with my computer not recognizing the new drive, I thought maybe I was supposed to have the SATA 2 port unused. I wasn't 100% sure this was what would fix it, but I'd tried several other methods to no avail. So I searched whether or not shuffling ports would be a problem, and the answers I saw seemed to indicate that without any RAID setup that it would be okay.

So I shuffled things around a bit and noticed something odd. My E drive (which was titled "E Gaming") now said "D Storage". It was still listed as my E drive and still showed that it was supposed to be a 1tb drive. But there was almost nothing on it, and the name was different.

I rearranged things back to the way they had been, and the issue was still the same (this time, my PC did a disk check, which went quickly). I clicked around, and while some of the file folders looked the same as my D drive, there was only one file ("music") anywhere on it. I tried to open a game on Steam just to see what happened, and it said "that drive does not exist" or something to that effect.

I initiated another disk check (this one taking 1.5-2 hours vs the first one's... 10 mintues or so?). Nothing changed. It still says D Storage, and it still has nothing in it except a few odd folders.

I'd love help on the NVMe thing, but at the moment I'm more concerned about what happened to my E drive. My actual D drive appears to have been unaffected (although there was a time or two when doing the initial shuffling around that it was not recognized at all, but that was probably a cable connection issue).

Letters may change when shuffling drives to different connections. OS determines them as letter doesn't stay with drive, It starts with C: where OS is located-

 

[Aeacus]

I've built my own computer

If you did that, you surely had read the holy bible of PCs, right?

Since for example, on page 1-21, it is clearly stated which M.2 drives your MoBo supports and at what configuration.

I'd love help on the NVMe thing

Once you've installed the drive and it is detected in BIOS, next step would be initializing it in Disk Management. It shows up as unallocated partition, which then you need to allocate and choose a drive letter for it as well, to get it working. And last step would be firmware installation/update.

I'm more concerned about what happened to my E drive.

The 1TB Samsung drive? If so, what Samsung Magician says about it?

Also, might want to download and run WinDirStat,
link: https://windirstat.net/

It's a neat software that will locate and display all files on selected drive, once you let it to complete the seek.

But as of what you're currently describing, sounds like drive corruption.

With Z270, Z370, and Z390 chipsets, installing NVME drives comes at the expense of/disables SATA ports. (With 2 NVME drives installed, you might only have ports 3 and 4 available.

Why give OP generic advice? You should read the holy bible of PCs as well, to know the specifics of OP's MoBo.

 

[bobblefish]

Thank you so much for your thorough response.

Since for example, on page 1-21, it is clearly stated which M.2 drives your MoBo supports and at what configuration.

Yeah, this is why I started shuffling drives around (I've had this computer for two years, so this wasn't exactly something I'd planned for in advance). Now I'm concerned about any attempts at freeing up that port because I don't want this to happen to my other (more important) harddrives in the process. Do you know how I would go about shuffling things around without causing problems?

Once you've installed the drive and it is detected in BIOS, next step would be initializing it in Disk Management. It shows up as unallocated partition, which then you need to allocate and choose a drive letter for it as well, to get it working. And last step would be firmware installation/update.

Thank you. I will look into this once I'm no longer concerned about accidentally wiping my other harddrives. It is odd to me, however, that someone suggested that I should have "M.2_1 Configuration" set to auto rather than sata, but when I went to that place, as listed in the BIOs manual, the place it was supposed to be simply wasn't there. The drive can be seen when I go to NVMe configuration and whatnot, but this part of the menu is just missing for some reason. I don't know if that means it's got itself set to auto already, but it feels kind of off to me.

The 1TB Samsung drive? If so, what Samsung Magician says about it?

It's a neat software that will locate and display all files on selected drive, once you let it to complete the seek.

Yes, that's the one. I've never heard of either of these, but both show the same thing file explorer shows. Interestingly, it also shows my new Crucial harddrive, though it shows that its capacity is half of what it should be. I don't know if that would somehow change once it's properly formatted (or whatever the correct terminology is), but it makes me a tad nervous.

But as of what you're currently describing, sounds like drive corruption.

I'm just still so confused over why it's renamed itself as if it decided it wanted to be my other harddrive. It's literally renamed itself "D Storage" which is the name I gave, well, my storage drive.
So it shows up
D: D Storage
E: D Storage
As far as corruption, does this mean that the drive itself shouldn't be used anymore or simply that my "current" stuff is irretrievable? Luckily it's not stuff I'm too broken up about the loss of the data since most games' save information is in Documents on my D drive anyway. Still, I wouldn't be happy to know that the drive is unreliable or something along those lines.

 

[Aeacus]

Yeah, this is why I started shuffling drives around

IF your M.2 drive is NVMe, then according to holy bible of PCs, there is 0 need to shuffle around the SATA ports.
ONLY when your M.2 drive is ACHI (SATA), then you'll loose out on SATA#2 port, while all other SATA ports remain operational.

So, i still don't get why did you shuffle around your SATA connectors.

It is odd to me, however, that someone suggested that I should have "M.2_1 Configuration" set to auto rather than sata

IF your M.2 drive is NVMe, then it doesn't matter which port you install your M.2 drive, since both, M.2_1 and M.2_2 ports support NVMe drives.

but when I went to that place, as listed in the BIOs manual, the place it was supposed to be simply wasn't there. The drive can be seen when I go to NVMe configuration and whatnot, but this part of the menu is just missing for some reason.

This selection should appear prior to installing a drive into M.2_1 slot. By default, it should be set to Auto and once you've installed M.2 drive into there, MoBo detects which it is (NVMe or ACHI/SATA), after-which MoBo either grays out or completely removes the selection part.

Yes, that's the one. I've never heard of either of these, but both show the same thing file explorer shows.

Samsung Magician can't show file structure on the drive. Instead, it is software to keep your Samsung drives in check and monitor their performance.

E.g here's screenshot of my Samsung Magician;

And Samsung Magician does detect other drives as well, besides Samsung drives (like my Crucial MX500 1TB drive, not seen on screenshot). But it won't offer the same telemetry (e.g Drive Health) about other brand drives.

I suggest that you do Diagnostic Scan (in Samsung Magician) on your Samsung drive. This will check and tell if there would be any issues with your drive.
There are 4 different scans you can do, i suggest doing:
* Extended SMART Self-test (drive failure test)
* Full Scan (more in-depth way to see read/write issues, takes 1-3h)

Interestingly, it also shows my new Crucial harddrive

I did not know that Crucial also makes HDDs. I know that Crucial makes RAMs, SATA SSDs (have one myself, MX500) and M.2 drives, both ACHI and NVMe.
Since when Crucial stated making HDDs?

Btw; HDD - Hard Disk Drive (aka hard drive)
SSD - Solid State Drive

though it shows that its capacity is half of what it should be.

What the capacity should be then?
Also, write out model number of the drive to us. I can then check if you got smaller drive (shop/shipping error) or if issue is somewhere else.

I don't know if that would somehow change once it's properly formatted (or whatever the correct terminology is), but it makes me a tad nervous.

Disk Management shows the entire Unallocated space drive has.

Also, unless you make two equal partitions of the one unallocated space (essentially making PC to see 2 drives, while you have 1 physical drive), there's no other, apparent reason, why the drive space is half.

That, and partition split nowadays isn't worthwhile. Back in the day, when OS limited the partition size, you had to split the partition of one big drive, so you can use it. (E.g when you had 240GB HDD on Win98, you had to split it into two partitions, since Win98 only supported up to 125GB as system (OS) drive.) Though, at current date, some people still like to split one drive into two paritions. E.g when you have only one 2TB drive, one may want to have 1TB OS drive and 1TB data drive. Windows sees these two partitions as two separate drives, while in reality, you have one physical drive in the system.

I'm just still so confused over why it's renamed itself as if it decided it wanted to be my other harddrive. It's literally renamed itself "D Storage" which is the name I gave, well, my storage drive.
So it shows up
D: D Storage
E: D Storage

If you switch around SATA ports on MoBo, OS will give drives a new letters. This isn't a big thing since you can easily change it back in Disk Management. Heck, you can even give your drives other letters within alphabet.

Back in the early days, hardware had specific drive lettering;
A:/ - primary floppy drive
B:/ - secondary floppy drive
C:/ - system drive
D:/ etc - data drive(s)

Early PCs only had floppy drives as storage media. A bit later, the C:/ drive (HDD) was added, but boot priority was still such, where PC 1st tries to boot off from floppy drives. This was so up to Win95/98 days, since back then, we used to have OS recovery FDD (floppy), just in case OS got corrupted and it needed saving by the dedicated floppy.
Nowadays, it doesn't matter at all what drive letter is given to system drive. It can be any. But since for the past 30 or so years, the system drive has been always C:/ drive, it has still stuck with most people.

Oh, the "D Storage" is drive name, which you can easily chance from Drive Properties panel.
When looking at drives in My Computer/This PC, right click on the proper drive, select Properties. In General tab is the drive name box. Just write new drive name into it, click Apply and then OK.

As far as corruption, does this mean that the drive itself shouldn't be used anymore or simply that my "current" stuff is irretrievable?

Run the Diagnostic Scans within Samsung Magician to know for sure. Wrote about it above.

 

[bobblefish]

I have now done the disk initialization. I wish I had realized this was all I needed to do sooner. I could've avoided this whole mess. Anyway, it is now showing up and everything seems good as far as my new drive goes. Thank you!

So, i still don't get why did you shuffle around your SATA connectors.

As noted above, I'm not necessarily savvy enough to understand even though I did sift through the manual and try to figure it out.

Samsung Magician can't show file structure on the drive.

I should've clarified - I was referring to the fact that it shows 122gb/1tb used when it was originally nearly full.

Btw; HDD - Hard Disk Drive (aka hard drive)

SSD - Solid State Drive

I am aware. My original post even says I have 3 "harddrives" and then says they're SSD, HDD, & SSD. My understanding was that it was still common parlance and that my meaning was clear.

What the capacity should be then?
Also, write out model number of the drive to us. I can then check if you got smaller drive (shop/shipping error) or if issue is somewhere else.

4tb, not 2, as listed in Samsung Magician. However, it is showing up correctly in disk management, and I guess that's what really matters.

Oh, the "D Storage" is drive name, which you can easily chance from Drive Properties panel.

Yes, that's why I was confused. The drive name was something I'd assigned and don't know why it would've changed from "E Gaming" to "D Storage." It wasn't the letters of the drives that changed (I included the intended letters for the drives in the names) but the actual assigned name that changed. I'm completely confounded by that.

Run the Diagnostic Scans within Samsung Magician to know for sure. Wrote about it above.

Thank you, I'm running that now. So this is basically all I have left to go, I suppose. I am pretty resigned to the fact that my data on that drive is gone (luckily mostly unimportant data), but I still have the mystery of the name change (and why it did this). But the new drive is nice to have up and running, so thank you again for that. I had been under the impression that this was about it being NVMe and not just "I've never installed a new drive after the initial build before." Embarrassing.

 

[Aeacus]

It wasn't the letters of the drives that changed (I included the intended letters for the drives in the names) but the actual assigned name that changed. I'm completely confounded by that.

Windows works in mysterious ways. 🥷

I've seen my fare share of Windows anomalies, including hardware anomalies. Since no explanation can be given as of why it happened, i've classified such events under "ghost in the machine" term.

4tb, not 2, as listed in Samsung Magician. However, it is showing up correctly in disk management, and I guess that's what really matters.

As i said, Samsung Magician is made for Samsung drives. So, it wouldn't be that uncommon of it showing wrong info on your Crucial drive.

My original post even says I have 3 "harddrives" and then says they're SSD, HDD, & SSD. My understanding was that it was still common parlance

When it comes to hardware, getting the terminology correct is actually important. Since HDDs and SSDs are fundamentally different hardware, troubleshooting their issues on hardware level are also different.

For example: disk defragmentation - common for HDDs (weekly/monthly defrags are suggested) while for SSDs, disk defrag is really bad idea, since it doesn't help. Instead, it makes it worse (disk defrag pointlessly uses up SSD write amounts, and those are in limited number).

And i know very well that Crucial doesn't make HDDs. I was just yanking your chain.

I was referring to the fact that it shows 122gb/1tb used when it was originally nearly full.

Here, we need to wait what Diagnostic Scans tell.

Though, my advice is to keep at least 20% of drive's max capacity free at all times. This is especially true for OS drive, to house the temp files and also pagefile.sys.
I have one additional suspicion of what might have happened (other than drive corruption), but i'll leave it be, until we know how Diagnostic Scans went.

 

[bobblefish]

Though, my advice is to keep at least 20% of drive's max capacity free at all times. This is especially true for OS drive, to house the temp files and also pagefile.sys.

Yeah, that's why I try not to put much on my C drive and why I was looking to get a new game drive

I have one additional suspicion of what might have happened (other than drive corruption), but i'll leave it be, until we know how Diagnostic Scans went.

The results either show an "all good" sort of result or don't say anything except that it's complete, which I assume is an "all good."

 

[Aeacus]

As of my other idea; it comes from days of old and was true with HDDs. Haven't "tested" it with SSDs, so, can't say for sure if same applies to SSDs as well. But the issue is, that you could overwrite the drive. Meaning that you'll write far more data on the drive than it is capable of holding. This overflow usually corrupts the data on the drive. Have seen it happen quite a few times. I can't recall what the HDD size was, but it was along the lines of: HDD capacity 60GB, while Win showed it having 100GB worth of data on it. Some of the data was able to read from the drive, but bulk of it was garbled mess (corrupted). Took few tries until Win said "Nope" and drive died completely.

Now, SSDs are built differently and following is true with SD cards. If drive gets full, any new data on it overwrites the old data. There could be some form of format before as well, clearing the entirety of the SD card, before writing more data on it.

As of what happened with your Samsung drive - hard to say.
I suggest that you give Recuva a go and look if you can recover some (or most) of the gone data,
link: https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

There are many other data recovery software out there, but Recuva was the only one for me, that managed to get most of my data back, when one of my SD cards decided to give up the ghost. While most other software that i tried, even failed to detect my SD card, let alone trying to recover something from it.

Also, if your Samsung drive is still under warranty, i suggest RMA. Since there is no telling if the drive is still sound and what happened with the drive, doesn't happen again.

As for other possibilities - malware. There are malware out there that can wipe your drives. Either partly or fully.

and why I was looking to get a new game drive

So, your new M.2 drive is Crucial 4TB one?

Is it P3 or P3 Plus? Since while both are cheap, they have their issues;
P3 review: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crucial-p3-ssd-review
P3 Plus review: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crucial-p3-plus-ssd-review-capacity-on-the-cheap

 

[bobblefish]

I suggest that you give Recuva a go and look if you can recover some (or most) of the gone data,
link: https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

Oh wow! This seems to actually be working. It found my stuff at least. It's currently recovering, which is expected to take several hours. Thank you

Also, if your Samsung drive is still under warranty, i suggest RMA. Since there is no telling if the drive is still sound and what happened with the drive, doesn't happen again.

I'm not sure if it is or not or how I would prove it. I'm terrible at keeping up with stuff that comes with things I buy. I do keep it and always intend to file it, but that doesn't mean it happens.

Is it P3 or P3 Plus?

It's the P3

 

[Aeacus]

Oh wow! This seems to actually be working. It found my stuff at least. It's currently recovering, which is expected to take several hours. Thank you

I'm terrible at keeping up with stuff that comes with things I buy. I do keep it and always intend to file it, but that doesn't mean it happens.

Can't help you with that, since for successful RMA, the invoice of purchase is needed.

I live in a well established, digitally advanced country (Estonia) and over here, most of the invoices i get, are digital, sent to my e-mail after my purchase. And those invoices that are on paper, i always file them inside my filing cabinet. I have dedicated folder where i keep my paper invoices.
And in a fluke, when i don't have the digital or paper invoice, i can always log-in to my retail store and pull the invoice from there, since i have a long order history (i buy all my PC hardware from 1 place). If that wouldn't cut it either, i can always contact my bank, who keeps the transaction records. Since all my purchases are usually online transactions. Or bought by my debit card. So, chances that i don't have an invoice (or proof of purchase) of my purchased stuff, are slim to none.

It's the P3

When it comes to M.2 drives (or SSDs in general), my #1 choice is Samsung, due to it's performance and reliability.

Now, there can be lemons, even among the best. Heck, my 1st 970 Evo Plus 2TB drive died on me 30 days after purchase. Since i keep backups of my digital data, it wasn't such a hindrance. RMA'd the drive and got a brand new as a replacement. 2nd 970 Evo Plus 2TB has served me for 1 year 10 months, as my OS drive problem free.

In total, i have 7 Samsung SSDs, out of which 3 are M.2 drives (between 2 PCs). All other Samsung drives have worked like a charm thus far.

#2 choice regarding M.2 drives would be Western Digital and that's it. I don't even look towards other brand M.2 drives. Sure, other brands have their price cheaper but i'm not willing to pay peanuts just to get monkeys. Also, since my data is valuable for me, i only settle with highest reliability drives. That + i keep backups too, several.

For 2.5" SATA SSD, there are more options. Samsung is best (like always) but for budget drive, Crucial MX500 is also good. As long as you don't fill it with data. If you do, drive performance drops considerably (i know it 1st hand). Kingston is also good (not the cheapest ones in lineup of course).

 

[bobblefish]

When it comes to M.2 drives (or SSDs in general), my #1 choice is Samsung, due to it's performance and reliability.

Thanks for the tips. I'll keep them in mind for the future. Samsung would've been my ideal, but I just couldn't cough up the cash. I went with Crucial simply because I'd heard they were good in general with storage drives. But yeah, I'll keep this in mind

 

[Aeacus]

I went with Crucial simply because I'd heard they were good in general with storage drives.

Read the reviews to know for sure.

I linked the P3 review above, here's review of my OS drive;
970 Evo Plus, link: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-970-evo-plus-ssd,5608.html

But Samsung has something that these other SSDs don’t – a very strong track record of reliability. While this won't matter to some, to others, it means the difference between a purchase and a pass. Samsung has created an almost cult-like following over the years because of its reliability and performance. For many, paying a few dollars more over a competing product goes a long way to ease the mind.

As far as Crucial in general goes, their RAM, for the most part, is cheap and can be considered as "value" RAM. Good if you don't have much money, but there are better options out there, like Corsair Dominator, Kingston Predator or G.Skill Trident series.

Crucial 2.5" SSDs, for the most part, are also budget oriented. Though, they managed to produce the gem, famous MX500 series, that almost rivals Samsung, while being considerably cheaper (that is, if you don't fill your drive).

And Crucial M.2 SSDs, while cheap, seem to be lacking in performance or reliability aspect (or even both), based on reviews of their drives.

All-in-all, Crucial products "should" work but i don't have much trust in their reliability. Though, Crucial is brand of Micron and Micron is one of the NAND flash memory OEMs. So, that explains how they can sell their stuff cheaply. Other OEMs include: Samsung, SK Hynix, Western Digital and lesser known: Kioxia, Toshiba, Transcend, Broadcom, Intel, Fujitsu, NXP.