Question My WD SN520 is recognized by BIOS but the WD SN350 isn't ?

[eeprom]

I have two M.2 SSDs: a 128GB Western Digital PC SN520, and a 2TB Western Digital SN350 (both NVMe). I want to use the SN350 in an ASRock 970A motherboard but it's not detected by the BIOS, and I'm trying to determine if it's possible for me to fix this or not.

As far as I can tell, the drives are very similar, so I'm not sure why one would work but the other doesn't. These are the main differences that I'm considering as possible culprits:
- 128GB is PCIe Gen3 x2, 2TB is PCIe Gen3 x4
- 128GB is (I believe) M+B keyed, 2TB is M keyed
- 128GB is much smaller capacity, maybe this old board doesn't support 2TB NVMe

Here's what the motherboard spec has to say about the M.2 slot:

- 1 x M.2_SSD (NGFF) Socket 3, supports M Key type 2230/2242/2260/2280/22110 M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen2 x4 (20 Gb/s)**

**If PCIE4 is occupied, M2_1 will be disabled.
The M.2 socket does not support SATA M.2 SSDs.

Apparently the slot is Gen2 while my card is Gen3, but my understanding is that they are backwards-compatible.

There is nothing in the PCIE4 slot, and a GTX 960 in the PCIE16 slot.

I've tested the 2TB disk in another PC and it's detected perfectly fine, so I don't think the disk is busted.

The slot looked clean, but I blew compressed air in it anyway to no avail.

By every measure I can think of, this drive should have no problems working in this motherboard. Any ideas on whether I am mistaken, or what I could do to fix it?

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

an ASRock 970A motherboard

ASRock > 970A-G/3.1

ASRock Super Alloy; Supports Socket AM3+ / AM3 processors; Supports DDR3 2400+(OC); 2 PCIe 2.0 x16, 2 PCIe 2.0 x1, 1 PCI; Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™; 7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC1150 Audio Codec), ELNA Audio Caps & DTS Connect; 6 SATA3, 1 M.2; 2 USB 3.1 Gen2 10Gb/s (1 Type-A + 1 Type-C), 4...

asrock.com

is that the make and model of your motherboard? If so, what BIOS version are you on?

 

[eeprom]

Hi, thank you!

That is the motherboard I have. I updated the BIOS recently to version 1.20 which I think is the latest.

 

[Moonstick2]

Somebody who had the same issue.

You'd think that an NMVe drive should just work with the right specs, but my Asus motherboard page has a list of "Supported Devices" that includes a load of M.2 drives, suggesting those not listed aren't supported. Yet I've two WD M.2 drives, neither of which are listed while WD drives are, and they work fine.

It might simply be that your drive won't work with your motherboard for some arcane reason that you'll never find out. You've updated the BIOS, so all that's left is to contact ASRock for confirmation as to whether your drive should work, or exchange the drive for some other model, if you can?

 

[WednesdayThursdayFriday]

This worked for me for my Crucial M2: If you can't boot from a cloned m2 drive, this can be corrected by booting into Safe Mode which will load the correct drivers needed to boot Windows® normally.

Instructions here: https://www.crucial.com/support/articles-faq-ssd/ssd-not-booting-after-cloning

If you having trouble getting to the blue troubleshooting screen, you will need to have 3 failed boot attempts and then it should show.

 

[eeprom]

Thanks a lot for your input guys. It's really helpful to see another user with the exact same issue, I guess it is just an odd incompatibility. It is a pretty old board made when NVMe's barely existed I think, so it kinda makes sense there's some issues. I've upgraded to a new motherboard now and the drive is working fine.