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My new M.2 NVMe SSD is not recognized as UEFI Hard Disk after installing Windows 10

Anonymous
2021-04-11T16:11:40+00:00

Hello everyone,

I have recently bought a new M.2 NVMe SSD to install Windows 10 on, but after installing Windows from a USB created with the Windows Media Creation Tool (I have also tried with Rufus), the NVMe SSD is not recognized as a UEFI Hard Disk resulting in Windows being unable to finish the installation. 

  • I have updated the BIOS to the latest version (that is not a beta)
  • I have disabled CSM and Secure Boot
  • I am booting the UEFI OS USB Hard Disk
  • I have disconnected all other hard disks and devices
  • I have been performing a clean install following Greg's guide (so many times with small variations...)
    • Everything works fine until the installation is complete and the system needs to restart. This is where the Windows installation starts all over again. And yes, I have tried to remove the USB right before the system restarts. This will result in booting directly into the BIOS.
    • I have looked up the NVMe SSD in the boot order in the BIOS, but it is not there. It is however visible in legacy mode if CSM is enabled.
    • When booting Windows on my SATA SSD, I can see the NVMe drive having an EFI partition and also windows files on it.
  • I have also tried to clone Windows 10 from another hard disk, but unsuccessfully as my other hard disks have sector sizes of 512 and my NVMe SSD has a sector size of 4096.
  • I have tried to install Windows using a Recovery Drive, but the installation will freeze at 30% and result in an error explaining how windows was unable to install the recovery and no changes have been made.
  • The Troubleshooting tool has also been tested without any luck.

Some information:

Motherboard: MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC

BIOS: MSI Click Bios (version: 7B85v1C)

SSD: WD Black SN750 NVMe SSD

The drive can be formatted and used to store files just fine, but I would really like to boot from it. I am running out of ideas though.

Any help or feedback would be much appreciated!

Best regards,

Christian

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Install and upgrade

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-04-23T05:04:39+00:00

    I decided to fill in a complaint and use the warranty of the product, which was no problem at all. I installed the new SSD the same way I have tried so many times before, and it worked! 

    @Slance & @Saltgrass - Thank you very much for your time, patience and help! It is very much appreciated, even though we were doomed from the beginning with this one. :-)

    Conclusion: Hardware fault, new one worked perfectly! If you are experiencing similar issues, follow these steps and/or look in this thread for troubleshooting methods.

    1. Set your BIOS to UEFI startup (Not CSM or UEFI + Legacy)
    2. Set your boot priorities to: 1: UEFI Harddisk 2: UEFI Hardisk USB
    3. Turn off your computer and disconnect all hard drives but the M.2 you intent to install Windows on
    4. Plug in your installation media (USB)
    5. Turn on your computer and wait for the installation to begin
    6. When choosing your non-allocated hard disk, click next. You don't have to click "new", the installer will create the correct partitions automatically (if there is not a hardware fault on your M.2 SSD......)
    7. Let the installer restart once the installation is complete and you should be good to go

    Good luck!

    10+ people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2021-04-12T13:34:08+00:00

    Hi,

    In a way it seems like the NVMe drive has been Initialized as a "MBR" (Legacy) drive and not a "GPT" (UEFI) drive..

    If you can access the drive in windows, go to Disk Management, right click the drive, and select Properties..

    Hardware Tab.. Again select the drive, and then again Properties... Volumes Tab... Populate..

    This is to determine if the drive id MBR or GPT..

    You could also use an admin command prompt and run DiskPart to look for a "MSR" Partition...

    Enter diskpart... Then List Disk... The window will have a GPT column with a Asterisk if the drive is GPT...

    Have you tried finding a driver from WD that you could add to your Installation Flash Drive ?

    You would simply extract the files if needed and copy\paste them to a new folder on the flash drive.. Then browse to them when the screen for drivers appears...

    10+ people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2021-04-11T17:59:24+00:00

    An NVMe drive needs the UEFI Bios to have a driver during the install.  If for some reason you did not install it that way, but as Legacy, it would not have access to that driver.  

    Another situation might be you installed it but your configuration requires a SATA driver.  If that were the case, you would have needed to add that driver during the initial install.

    I will go look at your board, which M.2 slot did you place the NVMe drive?

    8 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2021-04-11T18:46:59+00:00

    Hello Saltgrass,

    Thank you for your reply! It is possible I am installing it wrong or without the needed driver. I do, however, find it difficult to know what my configuration is and what driver I need to install it correctly. 

    The SSD is installed in the M2_1 slot, but I have also tried in the M2_2 slot with the same result. 

    Thank you in advance,

    Christian

    7 people found this answer helpful.
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  5. Anonymous
    2021-04-12T00:21:08+00:00

    Hi,

    Your boot device with UEFI Bios would be "WindowsBootManager"... Not a actual drive..

    Because you have two drives with a EFI partition it may be confusing the boot.. You might try temporarily removing\unhooking the 1TB drive and see what happens...

    Also.. Look in MSCONFIG...BOOT Tab.. You may see Windows 10 listed twice.. If so, you might try switching the Default to the other installation..

    6 people found this answer helpful.
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