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Sandisk Extreme SSD stops being recognized after a while

Anonymous
2024-07-03T12:15:05+00:00

Good day,

I've got a Sandisk Extreme external SSD which I use for periodic data backups (as cold storage), thus is lays around on my shelf most of the time.

With the recent Windows update (Windows 11 Education Version 23H2 OS Build 22631.3810) I've noticed that after a couple hours of my PC being idle, if I plug in my SSD, it does not get recognized. In the file Explorer, the device shows up and the drive letter is assigned, but the drive is inaccessible with the error message "Access is Denied". Here's how the drive shows up in various other areas:

  • "Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions": "Volume: Z/, File System: Unknown"
  • "manage-bde -status Z:" (the drive is Bitlocker protected): "ERROR: The volume Z: could not be opened by BitLocker. This may be because the volume does not exist, or because it is not a valid BitLocker volume."
  • "chkdsk Z:": "The type of the file system is RAW. CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives." - of course, since the drive is still locked.

Oddly enough, rebooting the system and then plugging in the device makes it readable, thus neither the drive, USB Port, Driver or cable are corrupt. The drive also works flawlessly on other PCs.

I've attempted setting the volume in diskpart to be inactive, as this seems to have worked for another user on the forums, but this command gets rejected as the drive is external.

I assume this is a Windows bug and there's no way to fix it myself. Please don't give me the basic troubleshooting steps I've seen all over the forums, I'm an expert myself and already tried all of them to no avail.

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-07-03T16:35:45+00:00

    Hello, I’m Virginia, a fellow user like yourself.

    Sorry to hear you’re experiencing problems. May I ask which Windows 10/11 build are you running - 22H2 (Win 10/Win 11) or 23H2 (Win 11)?

    I understand you’re having problems with a usb drive, Don’t worry as I’ll do my best to assist you today.

    Right click on start & choose powershell/terminal with admin & type/copy & paste these cmds one at a time then click Enter:

    SFC /SCANNOW
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup 
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
SFC /SCANNOW

    Yes the Sfc cmd is run twice.

    Also check to see if USB ports are set to sleep after a certain time - this is done via the old control panel>Power options>Change power options (next to the set power plan)>change advanced power settings>Find USB settings & click on the + to open>click on usb selective suspend settings & choose never/disabled.

    And check under device manager>USB>double click on USB ports/hubs then choose Power management & deselect allow the computer to turn off this device.

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2024-07-03T12:23:31+00:00

    Ok so here's a further weird observation: after uninstalling both USB drivers responsible for handling the drive:

    • SanDisk Extreme 55AE SCSI Disk Device and
    • Samsung MZVLB512HAJQ-000000

    and restarting the PC without the drive being plugged in, and then plugging in the drive, ends up reinstalling the SanDisk driver but not the Samsung driver, and the drive remains inaccessible.

    Restarting again while the drive is plugged in reinstalls the Samsung driver and then the drive is accessible.

    Ejecting the drive now and plugging back in allows it to be accessed, but a couple hours later this is no longer the case.

    I'm suspecting a faulty Samsung driver?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2024-07-03T18:11:56+00:00

    Please read the original post, it already contained all the tried options including chkdsk, different cables, different ports, bitlocker and checking the drive letter assignment and further analysis with diskpart.

    With all due respect, I'm a system admin myself and have tried all the regular options, as mentioned above: "Please don't give me the basic troubleshooting steps I've seen all over the forums, I'm an expert myself and already tried all of them to no avail."

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-07-03T16:53:27+00:00

    I’m sorry to see that you’ve marked my reply as not helpful. Please note we’re not Microsoft but fellow Windows users like yourself & as we cannot see the problem/s first-hand we can only make suggestions for you to try which may or may not work.

    I would still try it in case the problem is not with the drive but Windows. However if you’ve already tried this even though there’s no mention, I apologise.

    What about the other setting I mentioned?

    Have you downloaded a fresh driver from SanDisk/Samsung?

    Another thought is that the drive is failing. Have you run chkdsk on the drive?

    Are you using the original cable which came with the drive? can you try another cable?

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-07-03T16:46:49+00:00

    Good day Virginia and thanks for the reply,

    since we are dealing with an external drive, neither the system file checker nor using the dism tool have any relevance, and neither one of them allows solving the issue. My Windows image is fine as well, there are no corruptions found.

    The USB ports are also not going to sleep, as evident: "In the file Explorer, the device shows up and the drive letter is assigned".

    As mentioned previously, the build is 23H2.

    It seems to be a driver issue.

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