Question New SSD Not Showing Up

Jul 30, 2020
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Hello! I bought a new SSD the other day to replace a failed HHD that was used for storage. I spent all day yesterday trying to get the new drive to just show up, but to no avail. I'm not the most computer savvy person, but I did as much troubleshooting as I could, and even had two friends who work with computers help me. One suspects that it may be a motherboard issue, which I really hope it's not. Below I'll detail my computer specs and what I've tried so far. As a note, I had a family member build my computer for me 5 years ago, so I'm not 100% sure of the components, but I'm going to list what I can surmise from System Information. I can update stuff if I have it listed wrong.

Specs:
  • OS: Windows 10 (64bit)
  • MB: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H-A (rev. 1.0)
  • New SSD: Crucial MX500 1TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal
    • I'm certain this is also my main drive, but at 500GB.

What I've Done So Far (In approximate order):
  • After removing the old HHD, I hooked up the new SSD. New drive does not show up in Disk Management, or anywhere else. Used a new cable for this.
  • Tried plugging in the new SSD via USB, and THIS works. I was able to format it this way and everything, so the drive itself is fine.
  • Plugged the drive back in internally. Still doesn't show up.
  • Tried every SATA port. Also tried with the old cable. Nothing.
  • Tried updating every driver. Nothing.
  • A friend recommended I check in BIOS. Drive does not show up there either.
  • Another friend recommended I try updating my firmware.
    • The CD that came with it does not work. When I try to run the EXE off it, it says something to the effect of "an admin has blocked access". This is the same even when I run the EXE as admin.
    • I tried downloading the firmware update from the website directly. It gives me "This app won't run on your PC".

At this point I'm at a loss, and not in a financial position to replace any other parts or even have someone come and try and fix it. I was lucky enough to get some birthday money from my parents to afford the new drive. My computer works fine otherwise. I would very much appreciate some advice of other things I could try, especially if you've had a similar issue. I tried searching other threads before posting but couldn't quite find an answer.

The only other thing I can think of is when I was in System Information, it says my locale is Japan. I'm based in the US. I feel like this is something I might have changed at some point, but in settings it's all set to US. That could just be a strange thing, but I used to do troubleshooting at my old job and sometimes the issue was resolved by something weird and unrelated, so I figure it couldn't hurt to mention.
 
Jul 30, 2020
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The new drive is a 2.5" MX500, 1TB?
The current OS drive is a 2.5" MX500, 500GB?

Connect it all up and show us a screencap of your Disk Management window.

Yes, that is the new drive. I wasn't sure what bits were relevant, so I just directly copied that info from the Amazon listing where I purchased it. I'm also assuming my current OS drive is the same one because they look exactly the same, except I know my OS drive is only 500GB.

And this is what Disk Management shows.
 
Jul 30, 2020
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So, the new drive does not appear.

Either it is 100% broken, or not connected properly.

It does not appear in Disk Management...does it appear in Device Manager?

It does not appear in Device Manager either, there is only one drive listed.

Maybe the new drive is defective? But then I don't know why it showed up when I plugged it in with one of these.

I'm hoping the error is on my end and I just plugged it in the wrong spot. But the new drive is plugged into a SATA port. Genuinely asking, but that is where it goes, right? Are there different kinds? I didn't see anywhere else where I could have plugged it in, and admittedly I lost track of where I originally unplugged the HDD from because I had a difficult time getting it out.
 
Jul 30, 2020
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I realized something important I may have missed as I was trying the cables.
After watching another "how to install" video and looking at my OS drive, does the SSD need a secondary cable? It's not only the SATA cable, correct? I'm hoping the resolution to this issue is just my newbie mistake o_O
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
I realized something important I may have missed as I was trying the cables.
After watching another "how to install" video and looking at my OS drive, does the SSD need a secondary cable? It's not only the SATA cable, correct? I'm hoping the resolution to this issue is just my newbie mistake o_O
Yes.
SATA data cable to the motherboard, SATA power cable from the PSU.