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> M.2 NVMe vs SATA

> HDMI Voltage Bleed

Unexplainable Data Loss

I have an HP Elitebook that is currently fitted with a 2.5-inch SSD as the main Windows 7 drive, and a 1TB mSATA that contains working files and a majority of VirtualBox images as both VHD and VDI files.

I have recently swapped out the 2.5” SSD with another one and installed Windows 10 on it, which has gone very smoothly apart from one issue: When I swap back to the Windows 7 SSD I notice that I have lost some VDI files completely, and others have been corrupted.

I have managed to recover some of the lost files from backups and have tried the swap again, and the same thing keeps happening.

What is causing this, and is there anything I can do to stop this? At some point, I will permanently swap the Windows 7 SSD out and use the Windows 10 one, but I’m concerned about data loss on my mSATA. Any help is most appreciated.

Stuart Mackey

THE DOCTOR RESPONDS: The Doc posits the theory that the dual-boot setup is the problem. If the problem only occurs after shutting down Windows 10, then it appears that the file-system on your data drive isn’t being unmounted properly, resulting in file corruption. Have you run disk checks on the drive? If problems are found (and subsequently repaired) it would confirm that diagnosis.

If the diagnosis is confirmed, then there’s one possible reason: Fast Boot. Windows 8.1 and 10 both utilize this to speed up startup by only performing a hybrid shutdown that combines classic shutdown mechanisms with hibernation. Try disabling Fast Boot in Windows 10 to see if this fixes the issue: Select “Additional power settings” under “Settings > Power & sleep.” Click “Choose what the power buttons do,” followed by “Change settings that are currently unavailable,” then untick “Turn on fast start-up (recommended)” and click “Save changes.”