Question SSD not detected by BIOS, but is by Windows. Anyone have ideas?

[Innsomnimaniac]

Okay, so I'm not entirely sure where this would go forums wise. It started out as a problem with an SSD that just got over-complicated.

Here's the story, I had an issue with the SSD in my ASUS laptop. After trying to restart it one time, it wouldn't boot up. After a couple of days of straight troubleshooting (off and on due to having to work), I figured out the SSD failed. So, I found a good replacement and ordered it. After I received it, I installed it, and the Windows installation detected it just fine, but when it rebooted to go into the setup, it just boots into BIOS, which doesn't detect the SSD as a boot option.

I made an actual Windows environment bootable USB drive and booted Windows on the laptop from that, and even within that Windows boot, it detects the SSD. Even the SSD toolbox (Intel since it's an Intel SSD) detects it as well.

I've done all kinds of Googling, and can't find any definitive answers on the issue I have, and short of sending it to ASUS (which I want to avoid if I can), I found this website while Googling, and thought I'd ask and see if anyone here may have any ideas on what I could try to get the BIOS to detect the SSD.

I'll be happy to give any details of anything if that would help diagnose and possibly fix the issue.

 

[jimmysmitty]

What is the model of the laptop?

Is it booting in UEFI or legacy mode? If you installed in legacy but is set to boot to UEFI it will not see it as it will show up as Windows Boot Manager (normal for 10).

 

[Innsomnimaniac]

It is a ROG G501JW. This particular one uses NVMe not SATA. I made sure to get what it supported. As for how it boots, I installed in UEFI mode, pretty much what the default BIOS was. I didn't change anything before installing the drive or Windows.

It's more of the BIOS doesn't see it's even there at all (or at least that I can tell), yet Windows itself sees it. ASUS said possible BIOS corruption. However, I'm not entirely sure of that, considering if that were the case, the board would be bricked. Right?


Also, I know this is completely random and off topic, but I love your avatar.

 

[jimmysmitty]

BIOS corruption doesn't mean it would be bricked. I would say try an reflash with the latest BIOS and see if that helps.

If not then I would run it through Asus support and see if they can help.

And thanks. Moss is my spirit IT person.

 

[Innsomnimaniac]

Question about that, so, if the BIOS I have is the latest, how do you reflash with the same version? I tried doing it, and it wouldn't let me because it said it was too old. Both what it has and what I tried flashing showing identical details.

Is there a way to do it other than the EZ Flash in BIOS or the ASUS Windows Flashing utility if they both say the same thing?


--
And, I'd be more like Roy, in all honesty.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Those are the only two methods I know of.

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?11438-How-to-downgrade-your-Bios-using-Winflash

You can try that although I would be very careful as there does run a risk of bricking the system, but to be fair flashing a BIOS always does.

 

[Innsomnimaniac]

Yeah, since the BIOS holds all info for booting. I'm confident enough to try it if it doesn't look too complex. However, if I read through the method, and I don't feel comfortable enough, I probably won't. I'll just see if ASUS would be able to do it.

 

[jimmysmitty]

From that thread it looks simple but I wish you luck.

 

[Innsomnimaniac]

Thanks for all the help! I'm off work today, so I'm looking into it now.

 

[Innsomnimaniac]

Okay, so I did the BIOS reflash, and still boots to BIOS, still doesn't detect the SSD, Windows on the USB drive still does detect it as an internal drive.

However, I did try both UEFI and Legacy installs, trying CSM first, it said something about it couldn't install Windows and to make sure the controller was enabled in BIOS. Not sure where it's talking about, since everything in the BIOS is as it should be.

 

[jimmysmitty]

CSM is designed by Asus for legacy support. Legacy BIOS did not support NVMe drives, that is a UEFI specific feature so it makes sense that it didn't work.

At this point I would contact Asus support. The drive should be visible in the BIOS.

One thing though, are you leaving Secure Boot on or off when doing this? I wonder if that is conflicting somehow as once you install Windows you would then see Windows Boot Manager as a boot option in the BIOS.

 

[Innsomnimaniac]

When I did UEFI I used default BIOS settings. Which would mean secure boot was on. And, with the USB drive that I have Windows installed on shows the Windows Boot Manager through that, but not on the SSD.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Try it with Secure Boot disabled and see if it turns out any different.

 

[Innsomnimaniac]

No changes even that way. I'm honestly stumped at this point.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Yea I have never seen this. Normally BIOS will see it as a drive and then once Windows 10 is on it will see a Windows Boot Manager as the bootable option but thee is still a screen that will show the drive information.

I would try Asus support to see if there is some setting or possibly, hopefully not, something wrong with the system.

 

[Innsomnimaniac]

I'll try that. The fact that Windows sees it means the controller is fine, however, the BIOS not seeing it is really strange. Hopefully the system isn't damaged. But, if that is the case, I plan on building a desktop fairly soon anyway, I'll get a MB that supports M.2 SSDs so this 1TB I got won't go to waste.