15-cc507la laptop not recognizing M.2 SSD

[trentcreek]

So this came with a SanDisk x400 m.2 2280

I bought a Western Digital Black SN750 NVMe to replace the low capacity SanDisk.

First, I cloned the old one twice from two different cloning software using a USB adapter for the WD one.

Both attempts seemed to clone just fine. Each time I would put the drive in, it would keep showing "no boot device found."

I then tried booting a USB stick with the Windows install media. Windows was not seeing the drive either.

Next, I got the latest firmware ( released 2 JAN 2020) then tried the Windows install media on USB stick again.

Yet again, no drive seen.

Anything else I am missing on this?

Thanks!

[banhien]

@trentcreek 

I can't find the specs of your machine but from the manual of the whole series (page 2) it says it supports M.2 SATA 3 SSD's. Now, you installed  Western Digital Black SN750 NVMe M.2 SSD.

SATA 3 and NVMe controllers are 2 different things, using different protocols therefore it won't work.

Regards.

[trentcreek]

Thanks for taking the time to respond @Banhien

The product number is 1GR18LA#ABM

It is my understanding M.2 is a form factor connector which uses the PCIe bus, and the SATA and NMVe controllers  would be on the devices themselves, communicating through that PCIe M.2 connection.

Plus the connector in the laptop is a NMVe connector type, not the SATA type. See example below.

So the drive I bought, looks like the one on the top, while the old one looks  more like the bottom one.

The connector fits the new drive perfectly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVM_Express#M.2

Am I incorrect?

[erico · Accepted solution]

The reason it is not recognized is that your notebook is only compatible with SATA III (6 Gb/s) SSD types, not with NVMe like the one you have installed.

I suggest that you return it and get a replacement SATA3 3d D NAND 2280 format SSD.

Reference source. See the second page of the datasheet.

https://www.sandisk.com/content/dam/sandisk-main/en_us/assets/resources/enterprise/data-sheets/X400-...