A processing device in a host computer system receives an instruction to write data to a storage device coupled to the host computer system and store a copy of the data in a cache of the host computer system. The processing device initiates a write operation to write the data from the cache to the storage device and detects that the storage device is disconnected from the host computer system during execution of the write operation. In response to detecting that the storage device is disconnected, the processing device may suspend execution of at least one of a virtual machine or a process that issued the first instruction. After determining that the storage device is reconnected to the host computer system, the processing device can resume the write operation to continue writing the data from the cache to the storage device. The processing device may further cache read data requested from the storage device so that the virtual machine can continue to access the read data from the cache in the event that the storage device is disconnected.