[SOLVED] M.2 drive showing in boot override menu, but nowhere else

[jbrighton]

I recently bought a Crucial P3 500GB M.2 drive, and installed it in the M.2 slot of my motherboard (Asus B450F Gaming II). I've also got three SSD drives installed in SATA ports 1, 2 and 3.

I had to move the GPU from PCIe slot 1 to slot 2, as the M.2 slot uses eight of the PCIe lanes from the first slot.

The computer boots up without a problem, but the M.2 drive isn't showing. I checked in the BIOS settings and couldn't find it anywhere, until I noticed the boot override menu at the bottom of the boot menu screen. It is listed there as CT500P3SSD8. But otherwise it's nowhere to be found, including under the boot menu on the same screen. I loaded the default settings, but to no avail.

What is going on here?

 

[SkyNetRising]

I had to move the GPU from PCIe slot 1 to slot 2, as the M.2 slot uses eight of the PCIe lanes from the first slot.

You did not have to do that.

You have to install graphics card in PCIE_x16_1.
And M.2 NVME drive in M.2_1 slot (motherboard has two M.2 slots for SSDs).
Only then graphics card can run in x16 mode.

If you install graphics card in PCIE_x16_2 slot, it runs in x4 mode instead.

but the M.2 drive isn't showing. I checked in the BIOS settings and couldn't find it anywhere
What is going on here?

It should be listed under NVME drives.

In windows check Disk Management and
Windows Storage Spaces (Control Panel\ Storage spaces).
If NVME drive appears in storage spaces, then remove it from pool and delete pool.

 

[jbrighton]

You did not have to do that.

You have to install graphics card in PCIE_x16_1.
And M.2 NVME drive in M.2_1 slot (motherboard has two M.2 slots for SSDs).
Only then graphics card can run in x16 mode.

If you install graphics card in PCIE_x16_2 slot, it runs in x4 mode instead.

It should be listed under NVME drives.

In windows check Disk Management and
Windows Storage Spaces (Control Panel\ Storage spaces).
If NVME drive appears in storage spaces, then remove it from pool and delete pool.

OK I'll have to try again. I did try to install the drive in the other M.2 slot, but for some reason the screw didn't grip. Not sure why, as I used one of the screws that were holding the heatsink and SSD down in the other slot.

Strangely enough the drive is showing in the device manager under Windows, but not in the Explorer.

I'll check those other locations that you mentioned.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Strangely enough the drive is showing in the device manager under Windows, but not in the Explorer.
I'll check those other locations that you mentioned.

Empty drive will not appear in File explorer.
You have to partition, format it and assign a drive letter first.

 

[jbrighton]

Empty drive will not appear in File explorer.
You have to partition, format it and assign a drive letter first.

Thank you, that makes sense. There wasn't anything in WIndows Storage Spaces. But I've detected the unformatted drive in Disk Management.

F: (BIIOOS) is just the flash drive that I used to update the UEFI. Not sure why there's an unallocated partition.

Disk 3 is an old system drive that I added today when I became frustrated about the M.2 drive not showing, as I needed to move some Steam games from C:. I think I tried to unsuccessfully merge the partitions in the past. It's not a big issue though, as I'll be able to move everything over to the M.2 drive once it works, and then do a low level format.

 

[jbrighton]

It's working now. Can't test the GPU performance right now, as it's taking ages to move around 400GB of games to the drive. But if I find that the framerate has dropped I'll try the other M.2 and PCIe slots tomorrow.