[SOLVED] Weird NVME Issue

[robuk360]

Hi Everyone,

I'm having a strange NVME issue and cannot figure it out. I recently purchased a WD SN850 1TB as a second drive for my PC, but I cannot get it to be recognised in Windows at all. Not in Device Manager or Disk Management. It is shown in the BIOS and as a drive and I can install to when running a windows installer from USB. I did try a Crucial NVME and got the same results, but an older Samsung NVME drive workes fine. The WD is acting the same as the Crucial drive, both show in BIOS, visible to installers and can format both from BIOS. Motherboard is MSI X570 Tomahawk Wifi.
Windows does have the Samsung nvme driver installed as the primary NVME is a 970 Evo. I've tried removing the driver in Windows, Safe Mode, changing driver from Samsung to Standard NVME, but each time I remove it I can no longer boot into windows or safe mode, only a restore will get things running again. So I suspect a driver issue maybe. I have also swapped around the drive on the motherboard to elimiate slot issues, but I get same results, Evo boots fine in either slot, any other brand is seen in BIOS but not in windows.

Any help would be appreciated, I reallly do not want to have to reinstall windows and set everything up again.

Rob.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

make sure you have the latest BIOS and all motherboard drivers offered by MSI.
you can also try installing Western Digital drivers, may help Windows detect the drive.

when troubleshooting drive placement;
did you have both drives installed but slots switched(970 in M.2_2 & WD in M.2_1),
and the 970 was still detected and booted?

if not;
many boards still need BIOS settings properly set to run more than a single M.2 drive.
if M.2_2 is not detected in the OS when M.2_1 is populated,
you may need to alter BIOS device settings.

M.2 slots can also be affected by SATA connections.
read your motherboard manual regarding M.2 installation and see exactly what parameters are needed for multiple M.2.

 

[robuk360]

Update, Repartitioned the drive in Ubuntu and formatted to NTFS. Still not seen in Windows 10. Beggining to think it has something to do with those Samsung drivers, I've just updated the Samsung driver to the Windows standard NVME driver and the 21H1 update is available. So doing to install that, hopefully it will forget about the Samsung driver. I also tried installing the Samsung driver agai

 

[robuk360]

make sure you have the latest BIOS and all motherboard drivers offered by MSI.
you can also try installing Western Digital drivers, may help Windows detect the drive.

when troubleshooting drive placement;
did you have both drives installed but slots switched(970 in M.2_2 & WD in M.2_1),
and the 970 was still detected and booted?

if not;
many boards still need BIOS settings properly set to run more than a single M.2 drive.
if M.2_2 is not detected in the OS when M.2_1 is populated,
you may need to alter BIOS device settings.

M.2 slots can also be affected by SATA connections.
read your motherboard manual regarding M.2 installation and see exactly what parameters are needed for multiple M.2.

Thanks for the reply. I've already installed the latest BIOS and Drivers for the Motherboard. I tried to find the WD NVME driver before, but had no luck, do you have a link? I did install the WD Dashboard, but that cannot see the drive either. I've had the 970 in both slots and it works in both. Originally it was in M2.1 and the WD in M.2_2, but they are now swapped.
I read about changing device settings the in the BIOS, but I cannnot see any settings for either of the M.2 slots to set modes etc.. Even under advanced. I'm of the understanding the X570 chipset doesn't have the issue with SATA connections. M2._1 shouldn't have that issue anyway as it is NVME only and that is the slot the WD is now in.

I'm still don't understand why no other brand will work, except Samsung. It must be something to do with the Samsung NVME driver, which I cannot unistall with breaking the system. I tried to reinstall the driver, but it won't even run the exe.

I'm running out of ideas.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

It must be something to do with the Samsung NVME driver, which I cannot unistall with breaking the system. I tried to reinstall the driver, but it won't even run the exe.

if it is under "Disk Drives", than it should be there.

if the driver you are referring to is under "Storage Controllers";
and your motherboard uses a type of Samsung based NVMe controller than it should have the Samsung related driver installed.
if not, than it may be the issue.
most systems i've dealt with lately just use the MS Standard NVM Express Controller.

a fresh install of Windows may be the only way to repair the issue.
or if you have System Restore points from before the whole mess started, try returning to one of those.

 

[robuk360]

if it is under "Disk Drives", than it should be there.

if the driver you are referring to is under "Storage Controllers";
and your motherboard uses a type of Samsung based NVMe controller than it should have the Samsung related driver installed.
if not, than it may be the issue.
most systems i've dealt with lately just use the MS Standard NVM Express Controller.

a fresh install of Windows may be the only way to repair the issue.
or if you have System Restore points from before the whole mess started, try returning to one of those.

The drive is not showing in Device Manager. As far as I am aware teh MSI x570 Tomahawk Wifi doesn't have a Samsung NVME controller. The driver was installed for the Samsung NVME drive and not the controller, replacing the MS driver. I have changed the driver to the MS driver, by updating the Samsung driver and selecting the Windows driver. If I try and uninstall the Samsung driver the system won't boot. I have tried removing the driver after updating the samsung driver to the MS driver, but it still breaks windows boot. This driver must be the issue as if I put in an old 250GB Samsung NVME I have it works right away, but not the crucial or WD. All drives are seen in the BIOS.

Unfortunately the driver has been installed a long time, I don't have a restore point to before when it was just teh MS driver.

 

[robuk360]

Does anyone know how to remove the Samsung NVME driver? I went into device manager and updated the Samsung NVME driver, selecting the Standard MS driver. Which changed it . But when I uninstall the samsung NVME driver/software , using "Apps and Feature" it removes the driver and the MS Standard NMVE controller from Device manager. When the systems reboots, windows won't load and boot loops. Even safe mode doesn't work. Only way around this is to system resotre to this morning. Which restores the Samsung NVME driver. I beleive if I can get this driver removed and use the standard windows driver my WD drive will work, along with the Crucial drive.

I tried to remove the samsung driver in safe mode, but the uninstaller fails every time.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

Does anyone know how to remove the Samsung NVME driver?

a fresh install of Windows may be the only way to repair the issue.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

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[robuk360]

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

I'd really like to avoid a reinstall due to all the applications/data I have on it. Fingers crossed I can find another way. Maybe I'll just have to buy Samsung drives as they work haha.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

I'd really like to avoid a reinstall due to all the applications/data I have on it.

should really get started on backing up your personal files and getting up-to-date installers for any applications purchased outside of the Google or Microsoft Stores.

it is inevitable that eventually hardware upgrade(s), issues like you're currently facing, or OS corruption will cause need for those files to be restored.