[SOLVED] new intel 660p m2 drive in z97 gaming 5 not found

[Feralmetal]

Title says it all, I tried to install a new intel m2 ssd, the 660p 2 tb model into a slightly older motherboard, as far as i could tell it should be compatible so long as the sata 5 and 6 slot is free, which is currently the case.

In my bios i cannot see it in board explorer or as a currently active drive and the m2 slot says theres nothing in there, however I can see it in the boot priority menu and I can force boot to it, anyone know why this would be the case? I also tried to see if windows could see it and make a new partition but with no luck.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Your Z97 motherboard most likely has an M.2 2.0 x 2 10 GB connection , therefore the 660p isn't compatible , it's spec is 3.0 x 4.....SORRY not compatible.

 

[Feralmetal]

damn, really? I tried finding out if it was compatible beforehand but it wasnt clearly stated as far as i could find

 

[Feralmetal]

if thats the case would the western digital blue wds200t2b0b be compatible?

 

[popatim]

Is the motherboard in UEFI -only mode?
OS installed in UEFI mode?

Booting from an M2 has certain pre-req's. but the motherbd vendor should have this listed in their manual.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...05967/memory-and-storage/enthusiast-ssds.html
https://tinkertry.com/how-to-boot-win10-from-samsung-950-pro-nvme-on-superserver

 

[Feralmetal]

I'm not looking to use it as a bootable drive, just as additional storage, unfortunately it won't even recognize it as that, but I could see it listed as a forced boot drive, no where else so it's detecting it in some basic form

 

[Astralv]

I had this issue with Asus, unfortunitely I dont remember details, but there was setting in BIOS that I had to change- something like PCIE to be changed to some mode... Sorry- that's all I remember.

 

[Feralmetal]

Yea tried searching for a number of settings but didn't see anything mentioning the m2 slot, nor is it mentioned in the manual

 

[popatim]

Try installing the NVME driver. You proabably want the SetupNVME.exe version.
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/do...-Windows-Drivers-for-Intel-SSDs?product=35125

I still beleive the issue is that the motherbd doesn't pass the drive beacuse it hasn't loaded the driver yet so windows isn't picking it up either. Windows Installation program does because it already loads the driver.

 

[Feralmetal]

Try installing the NVME driver. You proabably want the SetupNVME.exe version.
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/do...-Windows-Drivers-for-Intel-SSDs?product=35125

I still beleive the issue is that the motherbd doesn't pass the drive beacuse it hasn't loaded the driver yet so windows isn't picking it up either. Windows Installation program does because it already loads the driver.

holy crap the driver trick actually worked, thank you for that! Strangely though, I can see the drive normally in windows explorer, however regardless if its mbr or gpt, its still not appearing properly in my bios, I wasnt planning on using this drive as my main OS and just for high speed storage, but it is a little concerning, will I have compatability issues down the road because of this or is it just a quirk due to my motherboards age?

In case this makes a difference I am updated to the newest bios, but the latest version was released in 2016 so I doubt ill see any more updates.

Also would it be recommended to run this as MBR or GPT ultimately, I am still using windows 7 ultimate in the meantime.

 

[popatim]

Bios wont see it until IT loads a driver for it (into itself strangely enough)
You could have also ran windows 10 setup which I believe would have gotten the bios to load a driver for it as well; with all other drives disconnected and meeting all the other uefi requirements of course.