Question NVMe M.2 SSD not detected in BIOS!

[Kamerun]

Finished building a brand new desktop the other day, with all brand new parts including a MP510 NVMe M.2 SSD in my MSI PRO Z690-A motherboard. It turns on fine and, to my knowledge, there’s no OS on the SSD. But when I look through BIOS, it isn’t detecting the SSD. I have the SSD installed in the M.2 slot on the motherboard and the motherboard had no problems detecting an old HDD from a previous computer.

I found a website guide (https://driveshero.com/how-to-activate-m2-ssd-in-bios-msi/) that suggests I enable M.2 on my motherboard though BIOS, and I tried to follow it to the letter, but there is no “M.2 Genie” option anywhere in BIOS, at least none that I could find. It’s a brand new, unformatted SSD.

When I tried to use Rufus to get Windows ISO on a usb, the boot from the USB worked but Windows ISO refused to install because it couldn’t find any storage devices.

I’ve been trying for almost three nights to get this to work, and I’ve had two friends help me troubleshoot. I’m at my wits end, any help whatsoever would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Since you're able to go into BIOS, what BIOS version are you on for your motherboard? You should use Windows Media Creation Tools to fabricate your bootable USB installer and then proceed to install your OS in an offline mode.

I have the SSD installed in the M.2 slot on the motherboard
Your board has 4x M.2 slots, which one have you populated?

On second thoughts;
Please list the specs to your build like so:
CPU:
CPU cooler:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Monitor:
include the age of the PSU apart from it's make and model. BIOS version for your motherboard at this moment of time.

 

[Kamerun]

Howdy Lutfij! Thanks for responding,

CPU: Intel Core i7-14700K LGA1700
CPU cooler: iCUE H100i RGB ELITE 240mm Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI Intel PRO Z690-A WIFI
Ram: x2 16GB Vengeance DDR5 DRAM (5600MHz)
SSD/HDD: MP510 NVMe Gen3 x4 M.2 SSD
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070
PSU: CX Series CX750 ATX PSU (Brand New)
Chassis: Corsair 3000D Airflow
OS: None/Unknown!
Monitor: Acer, don’t have the box anymore to give more detail!

Since you're able to go into BIOS, what BIOS version are you on for your motherboard?
BIOS Ver: E7D25IMS.AA0. Since I don’t have a disk drive, I haven’t been able to download the drivers from the disk that came with the motherboard.

Your board has 4x M.2 slots, which one have you populated?
So far, just M.2_1, which the motherboard says is supported only for M.2, not SATA, whereas all the others say they support both (I think?)

You should use Windows Media Creation Tools to fabricate your bootable USB installer and then proceed to install your OS in an offline mode.
This has been suggested by the two friends in question, using both the normal Windows Media Installation Tool via USB and also through a tool called Rufus to create a Windows ISO, neither of which was successful because BIOS can’t detect a driver/device. I can’t initialize the SSD because my old motherboard is so old it doesn’t recognize M.2 SSDs, but the new motherboard also doesn’t recognize it…

Maybe I did something wrong?

 

[Big Daddy 23]

Hi, I have the same problem with a Gigabyte X570S Aero G motherboard. I installed a 2TB Samsung 980 Pro Nvme m.2 SSD into the M2A_CPU slot when I built the PC and this was recognized by the BIOS and Windows 11 without any problem. I recently installed a second 2 TB Samsung 990 Pro Nvme m.2 SSD into the M2B_SB and this has not been recognized by the BIOS. I've gone over all of the advanced settings within the BIOS and have not found any obvious change to correct the problem. I've checked to see if the card is seated properly. There is a note in the manual regarding conflicts with PCIe cards and the M2C and M2D slots, but I'm not using those. The manual also says that the M2B_SB slot can only be used for PCIe drives, but that is what I installed.

There is a chance that the card or MOBO are faulty, but I suspect that there is some other more basic problem with my BIOS setup. Any suggestions are welcome.

 

[Kamerun]

Found the solution to the original problem: the MP510 NVMe M.2 SSD was not comparable with my MSI PRO Z690-A motherboard (probably should have looked that up a month ago!), so I went for a Corsair MP600 PRO instead, which was only detected after moving it from the M.2_1 (CPU) slot to the M.2_2 slot - why this worked I still have no clue. Once I updated my motherboard drivers, everything else on the pc worked perfectly fine.