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Brad McAfee

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Windows Server Disappearing Drive Issue

We have Windows Server 2019 installed on a latest generation Dell Optiplex.  (We needed server OS capabilities without the server hardware.)  

The machine has a SSD on SATA0 and HDD on SATA1.  They are both installed at the factory by Dell.  The SSD has the OS and HDD has the data storage.  No RAID.  Drives connected to board.

The installation completes without an issue.  We double check the BIOS and drivers from the Dell website and update.  The machine is setup and placed into service without issue.

After a few days, we find that the HDD is not showing up in Windows nor Disk Management.  We are of course shocked and reboot into BIOS.  The drive is showing fine.  We have enabled to report SMART error reporting.  It physically seems to be fine (not hot, making noise, et cetera).  

We return to Windows Server 2019 OS and the drive is back and working like nothing happened?

This has now happened twice -- the drive disappears out of the blue in the OS and a reboot makes it reappear.  

I'd be more than happy to replace the drive, but is it the drive?  OS?  Board?  SATA Port?  Other?
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David Johnson, CD
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If under warranty have dell replace the entire unit
Good advice above.  Also consider that workstation BIOS may possibly not be compatible with Server 2019.
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Member_2_231077

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Curiosity question: What's the PC being used for?

Is uEFI set up in the BIOS along with SecureBoot?
The OS and the data drive should be set up as GPT. Are they?

Dell has a habit of delivering PCs with the BIOS setting for the SATA ports at RAID. Flip it to AHCI. If this is the case a re-install of the OS will be required or there are blog posts out there that explain how to flip an existing OS from the RAID setup to AHCI if there is a desire to preserve the already installed OS.
check also if that drive is not set to conserve power  - and gets inactive
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Brad McAfee

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Nobus: All power saving is disabled.
Phillip: What is the best way to check UEFI/SecureBook and GPT settings?
andyalder: Yes I have tried that but I am going to try to move it to a different SATA port later this morning and will report what happens!
then test with other cables and ports