Why is my NVMe Drive Undetected During Windows 10 Installation/set-up?

Hi Elias Al-dallal

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

Based on your description, I understand that the NVMe drive was not detected during your Windows installation. I know exactly how you feel!

I see that you have tried a lot of troubleshooting efforts, even connecting the NVMe drive to another computer, but neither Disk Management nor third-party software can detect the drive.

I suspect this may be due to some of the following reasons.

1. the problem may be due to improper BIOS settings.

In the BIOS, make sure the M.2 slot is enabled. Some motherboards may ship with certain slots disabled by default or set to compatibility mode, which can affect NVMe drive detection.

SATA mode should be set to AHCI instead of IDE mode.AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) provides better support for modern storage devices such as NVMe drives. (You have already configured this case)

2. If the system does not have the drivers required to install or be able to recognize an NVMe drive, especially during a Windows installation, the drive may not be detected. While Windows 10 typically has built-in support for NVMe drives, specific drivers may better support certain models.
3. The drive was previously used as an operating system disk and may have suffered data or controller damage during use due to power loss, thermal damage, or other issues. If the drive has physical damage or logical failures, it may not be recognized even when connected in another computer.
4. If the NVMe drive is not properly installed (e.g., not fully inserted into the M.2 slot), it will not be detected by the motherboard. Even if it appears to be inserted, poor physical contact can cause detection failure.
5. Your motherboard may have compatibility issues with a specific model of NVMe drive, even if it is the same brand. Check the compatibility of your motherboard and drives to make sure there are no known issues or limitations.
6. If more than one storage device is connected to the system, this may cause a conflict in boot order or drive detection under certain circumstances. The system may prioritize other drives and ignore NVMe drives based on settings.

I will give you some suggestions and troubleshooting options to hopefully solve your problem or find out what is causing it! However, this is the first time I've replied to this question, so please understand and provide more information in your reply (pictures would be great!). Thank you very much!

Option 1: Check and adjust the BIOS settings.

1. We first check whether the motherboard can detect the NVMe hard disk in the BIOS, and make sure the brand, model and capacity are correct, otherwise it may not be recognized correctly.
2. Check the M.2 slot settings.

Find the option about “Advanced” or “Storage Configuration”.

Check if the M.2 slots are enabled, e.g. in the “M.2 Configuration” or “Storage Devices” option, make sure the corresponding slots are “Enabled” in the ‘M.2 Configuration’ or ‘Storage Devices’ option.

3. Set the SATA mode to AHCI (you've already tried this, but I'll describe it for the sake of program integrity)

Under the “Main” or “Advanced” menu, look for “SATA Configuration” or “Storage Configuration”. Under the “Main” or “Advanced” menu, look for “SATA Configuration” or “Storage Configuration”.

Change the “SATA Mode” option to AHCI if it is not currently in that mode.

3. If the Secure Boot option is available, make sure it is disabled in the Boot menu. Sometimes Secure Boot prevents unauthenticated hardware from initializing.

After checking the relevant BIOS settings, save and exit. If necessary, we can reset the BIOS to its initial state and then reset it again to avoid problems caused by conflicting settings.

Option 2: We make sure to download and load the NVMe driver.

1. We can start by visiting Samsung's official website and downloading the latest version of the NVMe driver that corresponds to your hard disk model.

Please note: Please try the latest version of the driver as a priority, assuming the problem still exists, we can try some known older and more compatible versions.

2. We can use some third-party external Windows installation media maker tools, such as Rufus and so on, to make a new USB installation media.

The third-party tool will allow us to configure the built-in Windows PE and automatically install the drivers during the installation process as much as possible.

3. Extract the downloaded NVMe drivers and copy them to the root directory of the boot USB drive to ensure easy access during the Windows installation process.
4. Insert the USB drive into the computer and boot into the Windows installation program.
5. When you reach the “Where do you want to install Windows” screen, click “Load Driver”.

Browse to the USB drive, locate and select the NVMe driver file to load.

Option 3: Use Diskpart to check and format the drive.

1. We start by entering WinRE and formatting the drive with the help of external Windows installation media.

(1) First, create a Windows installation media.

(2) Connect the created installation media to the computer.

(3) Boot the computer and set the Windows installation media as the first bit in BIOS.

(4) Save and enter, the computer will enter the Windows installation program

(5) Click Next, and then click “Repair Computer” in the lower left corner.

(6) On the “Choose an option page”, click “Troubleshooting”.

(7) “Advanced Options”

Under “Advanced Options”, select “Command Prompt”.

2. We will try to format the hard disk via Diskpart utility from the command prompt interface.

(1) Start Diskpart at the command prompt.

diskpart

(2) List the disks and find the one you need to modify.

list disk

(3) Select the target disk

select disk X

Change X to the actual disk number.

(4) Check the drive status

attributes disk

(5) Clear the disk

clean

(6) Convert to GPT

convert gpt

(7) Creating a new partition and formatting it

create partition primary

format fs=ntfs quick

(8) Exit Diskpart

exit

Option 4: I see that you seem to have inserted the NVMe drive on another computer and it is still not detected by Disk Management and 3rd party hard drive tools.

I suggest you also synchronize this issue with Samsung's branded after-sales or technical support team, who are more familiar with their branded products and may have had other users report similar issues. Perhaps they have already written a fix or a more customized solution, and it would be best to have Samsung-branded after-sales or technical support staff assist in troubleshooting the problem remotely or offline.

I sincerely hope that the above information and programs will help you! Please feel free to contact me (Photos related to the question would be great!).

I look forward to hearing back from you. 

Best Regards

Arthur Sheng | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Have done that and the issue still persists unfortunately

Hello,

Please go to your BIOS and try to change the disk mode from SATA to AHCI and see if that works.

Hope to hear back from you.

Hello,

Could you give me your NVMe drive specs? You might have to load drivers before Windows can detect it.

Hope to hear back from you.

Hello,

It is a Samsung 980 PRO (250GB)

Hello,

Could you give me your NVMe drive specs? You might have to load drivers before Windows can detect it.

Hope to hear back from you.