Event ID 157 "Disk # has been surprise removed"

Hello my name is Bob Golding and I would like to share information on a new error you may see in the system event log. It is Event ID 157 "Disk <n> has been surprise removed" with Source: disk.  This error indicates that the CLASSPNP driver has received a “surprise removal” request from the plug and play manager (PNP) for a non-removable disk.

 

What does this error mean?

The PNP manager does what is called enumerations.  An enumeration is a request sent to a driver that controls a bus, such as PCI, to take an inventory of devices on the bus and report back a list of the devices.  The SCSI bus is enumerated in a similar manner, as are devices on the IDE bus.

 

These enumerations can happen for a number of reasons.  For example, hardware can request an enumeration when it detects a change in configuration.  Also a user can initiate an enumeration by selecting “scan for new devices” in device manager.  

 

When an enumeration request is received, the bus driver will rescan the bus for all devices.  It will issue commands to the existing devices as though it was looking for new ones.  If these commands fail on an existing unit, the driver will mark the device as “missing”.  When the device is marked “missing”, it will not be reported back to PNP in the inventory.  When PNP determines that the device is not in the inventory it will send a surprise removal request to the bus driver so the bus driver can remove the device object.

 

Since the CLASSPNP driver sits in the device stack and receives requests that are destined for disks, it sees the surprise removal request and logs an event if the disk is supposed to be non-removable.  An example of a non-removable disk is a hard drive on a SCSI or IDE bus.  An example of a removable disk is a USB thumb drive.

 

Previously nothing was logged when a non-removable disk was removed, as a result disks would disappear from the system with no indication.  The event id 157 error was implemented in Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 to log a record of a disk disappearing.

 

Why does this error happen?

These errors are most often caused when something disrupts the system’s communication with a disk, such as a SAN fabric error or a SCSI bus problem.  The errors can also be caused by a disk that fails, or when a user unplugs a disk while the system is running.  An administrator that sees these errors needs to verify the heath of the disk subsystem.

 

Event ID 157 Example: