[SOLVED] Windows 10 Disk Management can't see Samsung SSD but BIOS and Device Manager can

[Tony Henrich]

I have a new Samsung 860 EVO SSD. On one computer I disconnected a working hard drive and connected the SSD. The SSD shows up in the BIOS and Device Manager under disk drives in Windows 10. But it doesn't show up as a device at all in Disk Management. Therefore I can't format it, initialize it or do anything on it. I ran the Windows Memory Diagnostics. I ran Samsung Magician and it can't see the drive. Diskpart utility can't see the drive. I uninstalled the drive in device manager and rebooted. Still not visible but it's visible again in device manager.

I get the same exact behavior on another machine also. Both machines support SATA3.

I am not sure if the SSD is faulty or what. If it's visible in BIOS and Windows device manager, it seems to me that the drive is 'alive'.

Any suggestions on how to proceed with this further?

 

[karenjoly]

Can you try the drive in another machine ?

 

[Tony Henrich]

Can you try the drive in another machine ?

I already mentioned that I tried on another machine.

 

[smorizio]

download the samsug software see if it sees it. may need a secure erase on the drive to fix any issues.

 

[Tony Henrich]

It seems there's a bug where Windows 10 doesn't recognize the SSD if it's not formatted. I used a third party tool formater and then it showed up in Disk Management.

 

[androbourne]

Yes. There is a bug for sure. Search the forums and you will see many of these threads in the recent months. I have troubleshooted many of these myself as well.

Tony's suggestion should work.

 

[Tony Henrich]

download the samsug software see if it sees it. may need a secure erase on the drive to fix any issues.

I already said that I used Samsung Magician and it can't see the drive. Can't erase the drive if the software can't see it. Anyway, I posted my answer that worked.

 

[karenjoly]

You used a third party tool formater ? So this app recognized the same drive we have been discussing, installed as we have seen, enumerated by the bios and device manager but not DM ?

 

[stdragon]

It seems there's a bug where Windows 10 doesn't recognize the SSD if it's not formatted. I used a third party tool formater and then it showed up in Disk Management.

If a physical drive has been enumerated by the OS as an attached device, it will show up in Disk Manager. It does NOT have to be formatted to show up in the list. The drive does have to be formatted however to be assigned a drive letter in Windows Explorer.

In the start menu search bar, type mmc.exe to open up the Microsoft Management Console. Now choose File --> Add/Remove Snap-in --> Disk Manager (click add button), then OK. Now click the newly added Disk Management object to view all attached disks. From there, you can managed disks and their partitions as well as format.

Alternatively from an elevated CMD (command prompt run as administrator) , you can run the DISKPART command.

DISKPART

list disk

select disk # (where # is the disk number you want to select)

clean

NOTE: the "clean" command will blow away all partition data on the selected disk!!! You do so at your own risk of loss of data - intentional or not!

 

[Tony Henrich]

You used a third party tool formater ? So this app recognized the same drive we have been discussing, installed as we have seen, enumerated by the bios and device manager but not DM ?

Yes exactly. AOMEI Partition Assistant was able to see it and fix it. I used some other partition apps and they couldn't see it.

 

[Tony Henrich]

It seems there's a bug where Windows 10 doesn't recognize the SSD if it's not formatted. I used a third party tool formater and then it showed up in Disk Management.

If a physical drive has been enumerated by the OS as an attached device, it will show up in Disk Manager. It does NOT have to be formatted to show up in the list. The drive does have to be formatted however to be assigned a drive letter in Windows Explorer.

In the start menu search bar, type mmc.exe to open up the Microsoft Management Console. Now choose File --> Add/Remove Snap-in --> Disk Manager (click add button), then OK. Now click the newly added Disk Management object to view all attached disks. From there, you can managed disks and their partitions as well as format.

Alternatively from an elevated CMD (command prompt run as administrator) , you can run the DISKPART command.

DISKPART

list disk

select disk # (where # is the disk number you want to select)

clean

NOTE: the "clean" command will blow away all partition data on the selected disk!!! You do so at your own risk of loss of data - intentional or not!

Do people just not pay attention to what my original post said!!? This is the 3rd reply where someone tells me to try something when I *specifically* mentioned I did that already!! I said I already used the diskpart utility. If diskpart can't see the drive, I can't do anything with it. Can't clean it.

My whole post is about the drive not showing up in Disk Management and you're telling me how to use it!

Google the keywords BIOS 'Disk Management' drive and there are a ton of people mentioning drives that show in BIOS but not in Disk management including many posts in Tom's Hardware, It's a common issue. I also already mention how I solved it.