Helios 500 Internal Storage Drive "Disconnecting"

Acer Predator Helios 500 - the internal storage drive (D:) is disconnecting all of the sudden. Will attach a screenshot when it happens again. I don't remember dropping the laptop or anything like that - the workstation has been delegated to studio use only. Acer Care Center Disk Checkup says the Status is "Good". Windows 10 Disk Management says the drive has a "Healthy Primary Partition". CHKDSK and Error Checking via Drive properties does not show any errors. Optimize and Defragment option runs okay with no hiccups.

Decided to follow this tutorial https://ph.answers.acer.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/60687/~/hard-drive-installation-instructions-for-predator-helios-500-laptops
Opened up the laptop to clean the contacts and check the actual SATA cable. Will observe again but I didn't see anything wrong, no damage or anything via visual inspection - the contacts were fit snugly - nothing seems to be out of place or disconnected.

When the "Disconnection" issue happens - after a ReBoot - the system finds the Hard Drive again. I'm trying to determine where else may I look to help troubleshoot if
1) Is it a hard drive issue (hardware problem)?
2) Can it be a SATA cable problem?
3) Can it be a Driver issue? Or a Windows update that's messing with the system?
4) Anything else that could be causing this?

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks.

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Ja_Ba

Hi, I am having the exact same issue now. Did you ever find any solution or cause? Thanks in advance

bdumaguina

Ja_Ba said:

Hi, I am having the exact same issue now. Did you ever find any solution or cause? Thanks in advance

I cleaned the contacts of the SATA cable with a combination of compressed air and contact cleaner. I could not replicate the error again. Although the machine is a backup to main machine - so it does not get daily use. But when I do use it - it don't get the error anymore after the cleanup. Hope that helps. Good luck!