E: drive has disappeared

I shut my PC down normally after my last session today.
A few hours later, I tried to boot it back up, and now Dropbox is throwing an error saying it can't open because the shortcut is missing.
I attempted to open a simple .txt file—basically my daily planner and notes—which has a shortcut on the desktop while the actual file lives on my E: drive. Same problem: it says it can't find the path.
When I check "This PC," it shows the C: drive, but the E: drive has completely vanished. A restart didn't fix a thing.

I've been Googling for solutions. I went into Disk Management -> Action -> Rescan Disks, but nothing new popped up.
Checked Device Manager -> Disk drives, and all I see is the SSD listed.

I haven't touched any hardware. My C: drive is an SSD, whereas the E: drive is just a standard hard drive. The machine is about five years old, running Windows 10.

Any ideas on what else I should try?

Sounds like I ran into the same thing. That cable probably just slipped a bit loose from the motherboard—hardly noticeable, but enough to mess things up. Try unplugging it and plugging it back in properly.

Benjamin Brooks2 said:Sounds like I ran into the same thing. That cable probably just slipped a bit loose from the motherboard—hardly noticeable, but enough to mess things up. Try unplugging it and plugging it back in properly.

Yeah, I meant the power cable right on the drive itself.

I shut my PC down yesterday and left it sitting for about two hours. When I fired it back up, everything seemed perfectly fine. It's been another day now, and honestly, everything is still running just as expected...

quietridge92 said:I shut my PC down yesterday and left it sitting for about two hours. When I fired it back up, everything seemed perfectly fine. It's been another day now, and honestly, everything is still running just as expected...

Man, seriously—back up all your files right now. Your disk controller might be on its way out. One of these days, you're gonna hit that power button and nothing's gonna happen.