Question HP laptop doesn't see M.2 NVMe SSD ?

Jun 23, 2023
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HP 17-by4025nr laptop no longer sees it's original 256GB Nvme M.2 drive in BIOS. Win 11 installer does not see it and neither does Diskpart. I had to remove the M.2 from the HP. Cleaned and formatted NTFS with DISKPART, using default allocation, on another PC, using USB adapter. CHDSK showed no errors. All looked good so I put it back in the laptop.

But it doesn't show in Win 11 Installer, BIOS or DISKPART. No changes to BIOS. Worked before reformat. Works with USB adapter in the other PC. What could be the problem?
 

Misgar

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Mar 2, 2023
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Has HP quietly and silently updated the BIOS in your laptop? I normally get a prompt on my HP laptop offering a new BIOS. This is unlikely to have caused the problem, but who knows?

If you have a different (compatible) M.2 drive, try it in the laptop. If it doesn't work, then maybe the laptop's motherboard has "gone bad".

Is the 250GB drive M-slot or B-slot (or both)?
 
Jun 23, 2023
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Thanks for the response, Misgar. The BIOS is one rev down from the latest available from HP. There is one M slot. I've tried MBR and GPT with active, primary partitions. Block size is 4096. I've reformated several times . It works fine as a USB storage device on my desktop.

One thing I haven't tried is partitioning the M2 and putting Win Installer on it. If unsuccessful, I'll try another M2. Though I know it's possible the M port is bad, I think it's highly unlikely.

Thanks again. I welcome any more suggestions you or anyone may have. I'll post the results later.
 
Jun 23, 2023
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Finally got Windows to load to nvme m.2 drive, though drive not seen in BIOS. Downloaded Intel RST drivers exe from HP. Extracted files from exe and copied to Win Install media, then loaded those drivers to enable the nvme drive c: when prompted during Win Install. All seems good now.