Disk Drive Keeps Disappearing

ARAMP1 said:

I'll format it and assign it a letter and it will go for a week or so and then just fall offline. I've done this a few times.

Why are you reformatting the drive if all it's doing is disappearing? That makes no sense.

And are you absolutely sure the drive isn't being filled with data before going offline? Especially since you're recording surveillance video.

Also, did you check the software itself to insure it's properly setup to manage your drives storage usage for surveillance needs?

ARAMP1 said:

Re-assigning a drive letter and re-setting up the drive.

You don't need to reformat a drive to re-assign a drive letter. Trust me, I've re-assigned drive letters on active drives plenty of times under all manor of Windows OSs. Never needed a reformat, never lost data.

ARAMP1 said:

As far as I can tell, it's set up like all the other drives.

I asked about the surveillance software, not the drive.

To reiterate my statement... you do not need to reformat a HDD/SSD drive to change / re-assign a drive letter. Once the drive is formatted, you can change the drive letter as many times as you like. Here's a video - How to assign a drive letter in Windows 10.

As to why your issue... that's the mystery. A few guesses though....

The cable to the drive could be faulty?
The drive itself could be faulty?

There also the possibility the drive could be losing the assigned drive letter. Be aware that when an drive looses it's drive letter it will "disappear" from Windows Explorer but will be seen in Disk Management as a drive without a drive letter. Also, the drive will (typically) still be formatted and re-assigning a drive letter will bring the drive to life (seen in Windows Explorer). Thus why you don't need to reformat the drive (unless of course the drive shows as unformatted (unallocated)).

All that said, if you re-assign a drive letter make sure it's not a letter used by any drive. That includes portable drives you plug into USB ports. Also double check the power and SATA connections to the drive. Disk Check the drive for errors.

Let me know.

@ARAMP1,

What are you going to do?

Kinetik999 said:

Hello, i have the exact same problem, just bought a 4tb drive and randomly it dissapears, all data and partitions gone, just like if i was installing a brand new drive! I have done everything i can think of and it just keeps happening! Any thoughts?

Manually (re)-assign a drive letter, like X, Y or Z as a test (unless you've already manually allocated that drive letter to another device - external or internal).

Commonly occurs when there's a clash of drive letters between externally connected devices. Whilst Windows should auto assign the next drive letter available (usually in alpha order) as external drives are attached, sometimes 2 device drive letters may clash, and one device has to lose out.