Question Why did all the downloaded games and apps on my M.2 disappear?

[JiggleBob]

For a short while, my M.2 disappeared from my computers" Devices and drives" section and my Bios.

When the M.2 showed back up though, All my games and apps were gone, but nothing else.

Will I have to reinstall everything? I am using windows 10 with 16 GB of RAM and an Intel i7-9700k CPU. I use this PC primarily for gaming if that's important.

 

[Ralston18]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

Motherboard, GPU? M.2?

Include PSU: make, model, wattage, age, condition (original to build, new, refurbished, used)? History of heavy gaming use?

Disk drive(s): make, model, capacity, how full?

What, if anything, did you do when the M.2 first disappeared? Any known new application installations or updates prior to the disappearance?

Power outages, system crashes, problems of any sort?

Look in Reliability History and Event Viewer: do you see any error codes, warnings, or even informational events that you can relate to the disappearance and reappearance of the M.2?

Start with Reliability History. Much more end user friendly and the time line format can be very revealing.

If you do not have a backup then you will need to reinstall all games and apps.

Caveat being the discovery of what may have happened to the M.2 and if that happening is fixable in some manner.

 

[Richj444]

When the M.2 showed back up though, All my games and apps were gone, but nothing else.

Out of curiosity, what else is on the drive. Your OS?