NVME M.2 SSD detected in BIOS - not detected in Windows 10 x64

Question

Hi,

I purchased an PNY CS3030 2TB M.2 NVME SSD disk which I installed in my system. My BIOS can see it just fine under my NVME Configuration menu options, and also the BIOS function to do a controller test for this disk passes without a problem.

However, in Windows 10 x64 (up to date) I am unable to see the disk in Device Manager, or Computer Management / Disk Management section - meaning I can't initialize and format the drive.

This is a second NVME disk in this system. My first one which is also the boot/system disk is a Samsung Evo 970 Plus (also seen in the BIOS, right next to the PNY) and functions properly in Windows.

System specs:

AMD Ryzen 3900X

Asus X570 Pro - BIOS version 1405 (latest available as of this time)

32 GB DDR4 3600MHz Patriot Viper 4 (4x8GB)

Disks:

• Samsung Evo 970 Plus 500 GB M.2 NVME
• PNY CS3030 2TB M.2 NVME
• 2x WD Blue 10EZEX SATA 7200RPM 1TB drives configured in RAID0
• 1x WD Blue 320GB SATA 7200RPM

GPU: Sapphire RadeOn RX560

Power: Corsair RM1000x

OS: Windows 10 x64 Home

As said, all other disks work fine. Initially I was thinking this to be a driver issue of some sort, since the BIOS can see the PNY just fine but Windows can not. I also made sure I installed the latest available chipset and SATA drivers (I know its NVME, but still.. ) from my motherboard manufacturer: ASUS, at https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/PRIME-X570-PRO/HelpDesk_Download/

I do not think the PNY is deffective, otherwise my BIOS would not detect it, and it would also not pass the BIOS' NVME controller tests.

Ideas?

Answer 1

It's common for some motherboards to disable sata ports in order to make the m.2 port work. On mine specifically out of 6 ports it disables 2 aSATA ports if an nvme is connected, and if you use a m.2 sata ssd you lose an addition sata port

Answer 2

I managed to fix the problem.

In short:

I had to reinstall Windows 10 and did this with both the nvme drives installed on the motherboard. Unlike some other posts I've read here and elsewhere about the Windows setup only seeing one drive at a time. Somehow for me this was not an issue with both installed but I guess this really depends on your choice of motherboard manufacturer and chipset type.

Going in a bit more detail, I can't really understand why an installed Windows OS was not able to detect and use an additionally placed nvme drive, as opposed to the Windows setup.

I spend a lot of time checking and playing with different BIOS settings, removing additional components (an additional RAID0 array, USB devices, etc.) but in the end nothing really helped - until my last option was to reinstall.

Just one additional note: I had a small issue during the Windows setup that was not related to my nvme topic. For some reason the setup process was always "stuck" on 11% at the "Preparing files.. " section (something like that). I had to really disconnect all external equipment again and finally figured out this was due to my wireless Logitech mouse that uses a USB receiver. So hopping through the setup using a keyboard only did the trick (although if you have a spare wired USB mouse lying around that would likely work as well).

Again, your mileage may vary depending on your chosen hardware, but I can say that the above worked in my case.

Answer 3

I'm having the same issue right now with a new machine and new installation.  Everything was working fine until I renamed the SSD drive. After that windows was never able to access the drive again. I can see and test the SSD drive (Crucial P1.M.2 NVMe 1GB )  in the BIOS, but windows refuse to access it via Disk Manager, DiskPart, etc. To test, I tried to reinstall the windows, and voilá...there is it, the drive 0 ( my HHD) and drive 1 ( SSD ) on the install options.

Answer 4

I went through the same scenario as you, and after trying everything and even installing the NVME on a PCIe riser card, there was no joy. Disk manager was a no go, and a couple other utilities for disk/partition/volume fixes didn't work either. I reinstalled Windows and I finally received a tiny bit of joy joy; however, the system saw the drive, but would not allow any changes such as partitioning, creating a volume or assigning a drive letter. I removed the riser and disk and tried it once again on the second M.2 slot. It disappeared. BTW my other two HDD's disappeared as well until the NVME was removed.

Here's my rig:

Downloaded latest Windows X and reinstalled w/o success.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600

RAM: 16GB Corsair DDR4 2X8 3000

MOBO: ASUS TUF X570 PLUS Wi-Fi

GPU: ASUS ROG Strix 5700

Primary SSD: Intel 660p 1TB

Secondary SSD: Intel 660p 512GB

Third/Fourth HDD: Western Digital 512GB 64MB Cache 7200 RPM

Riser: Speedbyte PCIe Adapter w/cooler

I am in the process of returning the SSD drive and I am debating whether or not to stick with a traditional HDD. If you have any other information, please reply. Otherwise, thank you for the informative post that convinced me that I was nuts.