[SOLVED] NVME M.2 SSD detected in BIOS - not detected in Windows 10 x64

[Mr.Bassman]

Hi,

I purchased an PNY CS3030 2TB M.2 NVME SSD disk which I installed in my system. My BIOS can see it just fine under my NVME Configuration menu options, and also the BIOS function to do a controller test for this disk passes without a problem.

However, in Windows 10 x64 (up to date) I am unable to see the disk in Device Manager, or Computer Management / Disk Management section - meaning I can't initialize and format the drive.

This is a second NVME disk in this system. My first one which is also the boot/system disk is a Samsung Evo 970 Plus (also seen in the BIOS, right next to the PNY) and functions properly in Windows.

System specs:

AMD Ryzen 3900X

Asus X570 Pro - BIOS version 1405 (latest available as of this time)

32 GB DDR4 3600MHz Patriot Viper 4 (4x8GB)

Disks:

- Samsung Evo 970 Plus 500 GB M.2 NVME

- PNY CS3030 2TB M.2 NVME

- 2x WD Blue 10EZEX SATA 7200RPM 1TB drives configured in RAID0

- 1x WD Blue 320GB SATA 7200RPM

GPU: Sapphire RadeOn RX560

Power: Corsair RM1000x

OS: Windows 10 x64 Home

As said, all other disks work fine. Initially I was thinking this to be a driver issue of some sort, since the BIOS can see the PNY just fine but Windows can not. I also made sure I installed the latest available chipset and SATA drivers (I know its NVME, but still.. ) from my motherboard manufacturer: ASUS, at https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/PRIME-X570-PRO/HelpDesk_Download/

I do not think the PNY is deffective, otherwise my BIOS would not detect it, and it would also not pass the BIOS' NVME controller tests.

Ideas?

 

[clutchc]

Try moving your boot SSD to that 2nd M.2 slot (and put the new SSD in the first slot), reset the boot order in BIOS and see if the slot works. See if you can boot again using the 2nd slot.

 

[popatim]

Does it show up in diskpart?

 

[geofelt]

Have you installed the samsung nvme driver?
It is supposed to improve performance for the samsung device, but it may conflict with the pny device.
Possibly there is a special driver for your pny ssd.

 

[Mr.Bassman]

Thanks for the above comments. I checked PNY, but there are no separate drivers available. Also the answer other questions: no it does show up in diskpart, it is like the disk is completely invisible to the OS - but shows in the BIOS.

But I managed to fix the problem.

In short:

I had to reinstall Windows 10 and did this with both the nvme drives installed on the motherboard. Unlike some other posts I've read here and elsewhere about the Windows setup only seeing one drive at a time. Somehow for me this was not an issue with both installed but I guess this really depends on your choice of motherboard manufacturer and chipset type.

Going in a bit more detail, I can't really understand why an installed Windows OS was not able to detect and use an additionally placed nvme drive, as opposed to the Windows setup.

I spend a lot of time checking and playing with different BIOS settings, removing additional components (an additional RAID0 array, USB devices, etc.) but in the end nothing really helped - until my last option was to reinstall.

Just one additional note: I had a small issue during the Windows setup that was not related to my nvme topic. For some reason the setup process was always "stuck" on 11% at the "Preparing files.. " section (something like that). I had to really disconnect all external equipment again and finally figured out this was due to my wireless Logitech mouse that uses a USB receiver. So hopping through the setup using a keyboard only did the trick (although if you have a spare wired USB mouse lying around that would likely work as well).

Again, your mileage may vary depending on your chosen hardware, but I can say that the above worked in my case.