Battlefield 6 Beta Installation Caused SSD to Disappear from System
As of the time of writing this, I installed the beta roughly 24 hours ago via the EA app. I then tried to launch it to adjust my in-game settings and then wait for the beta, but upon doing so I was met with an error that there was an error. I turned off my computer and the following day turned it on to try opening the beta again, but was met with an error message of "Install filepath not found." So I opened my file explorer to see that the drive that I installed the Beta on, my (P:) drive, was missing completely. Other games also installed on it were missing, and my computer could not detect it. Written below are the issues I identified via the event manager and the troubleshooting steps I have already taken. I have never had this issue before, and the only significant change was installing the Battlefield Beta.
Incident Summary
Date of Issue: August 6, 2025
System: Windows 11 (x64)
Component Affected: Intel NVMe M.2 SSD (previously assigned as Drive P:)
Suspected Software Involved: Javelin Anti-Cheat (Battlefield 6 Beta)
Description of the Issue
Following the installation of the Battlefield 6 beta via the EA Launcher, and subsequently via Steam, which installs Javelin anti-cheat, my internal Intel M.2 NVMe SSD (formerly drive P:) is no longer detectable by the system.
After rebooting the system the next day, the drive completely disappeared and is no longer visible in:
Disk Management
Device Manager
BIOS/UEFI
wmic diskdrive
diskpart
Observed Event Logs (collected 08/05–08/06)
Time Event ID Source Message
16:14:45 51 Disk An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk4\DR4 during a paging operation.
16:14:45 157 storahci Disk 4 has been surprise removed.
16:14:47 8194 VSS Volume Shadow Copy Service error
16:15:14 7026 Service Control Manager The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) did not load: dam
Event ID 51 - Disk Paging Error
“An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk4\DR4 during a paging operation.”
What this means:
Windows attempted to use your Intel drive for paging (virtual memory), but the request failed at the I/O subsystem layer. This occurs after drivers are loaded and the OS is making active use of the disk.
Why it points to a kernel-level issue:
Paging is a kernel-managed operation that occurs in Ring 0, the most privileged level of the OS.
If paging fails due to device non-responsiveness, the system logs this under Disk with Event ID 51, suggesting that the kernel could not successfully complete a memory-mapped I/O request.
If this was just a file system error or corrupt sector, the drive would still be visible in Disk Management. The fact that it disappeared after these events implies something interfered with kernel-level access to the storage driver stack.
Event ID 157 - stoahci -Surprise Removal
“Disk 4 has been surprise removed.”
What this means:
Windows detected that the drive was disconnected — but not by user action or proper shutdown. This message comes from AHCI or NVMe controller drivers, not from user space.
Why it points to a kernel-level issue:
This happens at the storage stack layer, a part of the Windows kernel architecture.
A “surprise removal” suggests the OS lost communication with the drive’s PCIe lane or NVMe controller, which may be due to:
PCIe bus being soft-disabled by a kernel driver
The drive being locked, powered down, or hidden by a low-level anti-cheat or firmware bug
The error comes from storahci.sys, a Microsoft kernel-mode driver for AHCI and NVMe — if that driver can't complete the I/O handshake, something is breaking communication at the kernel level.
Event ID 8194 - VSS Failure
“Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error calling routine CoCreateInstance. hr = 0x80040154.”
What this means:
The Volume Shadow Copy Service couldn’t instantiate a required COM object to snapshot volumes. This COM call is used when accessing, backing up, or restoring partitions.
Why it points to deeper issues:
The timing of this VSS error immediately after the disk disappears suggests that the system was trying to access a volume (your Intel drive), but couldn’t instantiate necessary components because the drive no longer existed at a low system level.
VSS runs as a system service but relies on kernel-mode disk access. If the driver stack beneath it has collapsed or a disk has been programmatically removed, VSS fails with this type of error.
Event ID 7026 - dam.sys Boot Driver Not Loaded
“The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) did not load: dam”
What this means:
dam.sys (Disk Arbitration Manager) is a boot-critical driver that helps Windows detect, assign, and mount disks at startup.
Why this is critical:
If this driver fails to load, some or all storage devices may never be initialized.
Kernel-level anti-cheat drivers can hook or delay critical boot services to detect tampering — if improperly implemented, they can interfere with early-stage disk driver loading.
The failure of dam.sys coinciding with paging and disk errors strongly implies the system’s ability to enumerate the drive was broken at boot, not just post-boot in user space.
Why This Points to Kernel-Level Interference or Failure, Not Just Drive Death.
Timing: The events occur immediately after a reboot, where Javelin anti-cheat was recently installed, which operates at Ring 0.
Symptoms: A typical failed SSD might degrade (SMART warnings, slow reads) — mine vanished instantly, which is consistent with firmware or kernel manipulation.
dam.sys failure + paging errors + controller removal = a catastrophic collapse in the disk driver stack, likely triggered by:
A misbehaving kernel-mode module (like anti-cheat)
A power or PCIe-level instruction that deactivates the controller
A blocked or corrupted boot path
Trouble Shoting Steps Already Taken
Verified drive is not visible in BIOS
Reseated the M.2 drive physically
Booted into Safe Mode (still missing)
Ran SMART scan tools — the drive does not enumerate at all
Attempted Javelin removal via manual inspection and PowerShell
All other drives and system components function normally
Please Advise on
Whether Javelin anti-cheat may persistently block or disable storage devices at the kernel level
Whether this SSD model is known to be incompatible with recent anti-cheat hooks
Any recovery tools or firmware resets available to bring the drive back online
I have the .evtx files with the system and application logs to identify where the issues happened, but the uploader does not allow me to add them.
Any help is greatly appreciated. I've been a long-time fan and player of EA games, and this has never happened to me before. I want to enjoy the new game, but if it causes hardware or software failure, then other players should know as well, so it can be fixed by the team. Buying a new drive is also not ideal either.
cm edit; title edit
