Why is the BIOS failing to recognize my hard drive (SSD)

[dvdrttr14]

I tried to add my wife as another user on this laptop.  Everything went fine until I didn't have a taskbar on her screen (I do on my screen).  Since she'll (essentially) be the only user, I decided to wipe the laptop and do a clean install just for her.

When I tried that, I get to the point of installation antwd the system says there is no hard drive in the system.  First, I tried two other good hard drives and they gave the same message.  So I went back to the original hard drive.  It boots fine into my screen, and into her screen (except no taskbar on her screen).  

So I decided to do a clean install on the hard drive that I know works.  It's giving me the same error ... no hard drive available when I reach that installation point!  The same drive that boots if I'm not trying to boot from an install USB drive!

I downloaded and installed the latest BIOS update and all this occurs after I did that.

Any ideas??   Thanks.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

I have zipped up and attached the Intel storage controller drivers below, that are needed for Windows to find the drive on PCs with Intel 11th gen and newer core processors.

The attached file is good for both W10 & W11.

Copy all of the files in both folders in the attached file to a USB flash drive.

Have the flash drive and your Windows installation media plugged into USB ports.

Boot from the W11 installation flash drive.

When you get to the screen where no drives can be found, click on the Load driver option, browse to the flash drive with the storage controller drivers on it.

If you check the box, it will only include the compatible driver.

Click Next, and W11 should install.

[dvdrttr14]

Thanks for your help, and for giving me the zip file.  Everything installed correctly once I had that information.

Thanks again.

Dave Ritter

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome,  Dave.