Windows 10 Storage space keeps reporting a drive is disconnected

[RodBarnes]

I've created a three-drive, parity storage space under Windows 10. On an occasional, though not infrequent basis, it reports one of the drives is "disconnected". But the drive is, in fact, connected hardware-wise. The only thing that I've found that corrects this is to shut-down the computer and then start it. A restart does not correct this error. After the shut-down/start-up, it finds the drive and repairs the pool. It has now happened twice since installing Windows 10 just over a week ago.

I am wondering if this might be related to one of the drives being connected as a IDE "slave". I don't know why that would matter given there's nothing really different operationally between a slave vs master IDE but it is one thing I've noted. The motherboard supports six SATA2 ports though the BIOS allows for eight IDE connections. Here's how they're currently connected:

• 0 master - Boot SSD drive
• 0 slave - empty
• 1 master - CD/DVD
• 1 slave - Storage SSD drive
• 2 master - Storage SSD drive
• 3 master - Storage SSD drive
• 4 master - not supported by hardware
• 4 slave - not supported by hardware

Specifications:

• This is a clean install of Windows 10 x64, 8GB ram, E8400 Core Duo. BIOS is up-to-date.
• Boot drive is Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB.
• Storage Space is comprised of three Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB set for parity.

 

[ussnorway]

I am wondering if this might be related to one of the drives being connected as a IDE "slave".

IDE is a slow interface... I would assume first that the drive doesn't respond within the time limit WX expects from a ssd and is then marked as disconnected because of that.
You can test this by temp removing the other drives and running some speed tests on it as a standard ssd... if as I suppect, the drive now stays stable then you know its an interface issue.

Storage Space is comprised of three Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB set for parity.

kind of pointless putting ssd into this type of system... there is no speed increase and much more failure rate but it's your machine mate.

 

[RodBarnes]

kind of pointless putting ssd into this type of system... there is no speed increase and much more failure rate but it's your machine mate.

I think I'm missing your point: Are you saying that an SSD drive is a higher failure drive than a standard HD?

IDE is a slow interface...

Clarification: The motherboard has six SATA2 ports to which all the drives are connected. The BIOS presents these as IDE drives when viewed in the Standard CMOS config.

• SATA port 0 == IDE 0 master - Boot SSD drive
• SATA port 1 == IDE 0 slave - empty
• SATA port 2 == IDE 1 master -Storage SSD drive A
• SATA port 3 == IDE 1 slave -CD/DVD
• SATA port 4 == IDE 2 master - Storage SSD drive B
• SATA port 5 == IDE 3 master - Storage SSD drive C
• NO SATA port == IDE 4 master
• NO SATA port == IDE 4 slave

 

[bochane]

When an SSD gets older and has been used extensively for writing it gets slower. Than your SSD might be on the end of its live.
Another reason for an SSD to getting slower is when it becomes filled to near capacity.

Can you test the speed of that drive?

 

[RodBarnes]

@bochane Thank you, but these are brand-new SSD drives so I expect that is not a factor.

I can add that rearranging the drives has some apparent affect. I swapped the DVD to 0 slave and the third SSD of the storage pool to 1 master. So far, no additional episodes.

However, I've already done some study to get up to speed on ACHI and now understand the advantages of that interface. It wasn't clear to me before that these SATA were actually being treated as IDE, thus the representation in the BIOS. I'll be changing that soon and see what comes.

 

[RodBarnes]

Just closing the loop for history's sake: I ended up switching the BIOS to use AHCI and all seems well. With regard to the original issue, I don't know how much switch the drives around made a difference and how much moving to AHCI did. But, regardless, I'm not having the issue anymore and AHCI is definitely the better way to go since it supports complete SATA operation.

Issue closed.