M.2 SATA SSD not recognized

[magnusen]

I purchased an M.2 SATA III SSD Samung 860 EVO to add to my laptop (HP ENVY 17-u292cl).  I was able to successully open the case and get it installed, even though the motherboard connector is an "M" type and the drive connectoer is a "B & M" type.  It fits but doesn't look right. 

It is not recognised in BIOS/UEFI nor the OS.  According to the product manual, this is a compatible drive.

Even changing the Secure Boot Mode options will not allow the device to be recognized.

Please help!

[chuckmo]

It looks like either the BIOS has disabled the m.2 port or it only accepts white-list SSDs

My HP laptop service manual shows a list of NVMe SSDs as replacement parts. I have tried both Intel 760p and Samsung PM961. None of them could be recognized.

[erico]

You may have to prep the drive with Diskpart and create a GPT volume before it is recognized.

Are you using the recovery media to install the operating system?

Which specific options did you change in the BIOS?

[Huffer]

I am not sure which Manual you are looking at but this is the Manual for your laptop:

Manual

It is not listing any NVME/PCIe disks as compatible and it also is only listing certain specific SATA based disks as compatible. We have not seen much by way of problems with SATA disks however. 

Also all M.2 slots have two chambers and look like they were designed only for "M" keyed disks but 3-prong B + M disks fit fine and should work in such slots. 

[magnusen]

http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/860evo/

The 860 EVO is SATA III, not NVME/PCIe.  According to the manual referenced, this is a match which is why I purchased it.

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

Yes I understand. My point is the Manual does not say any and all SATA-III M.2 disks will work. It lists specific HP Part numbers and if you ordered one of them from HP you would not get a Samsung Evo 860 as the recommended part. Having said that we have had several users report success with the 860 on HP models set up to use SATA-III M.2 disks and SATA M.2s have not had as many issues as NVME/PCIe disks which have had all kinds of issues...particularly Samsung 960 disks. 

Take out any other disks and set the boot to legacy and see if the system sees the M.2. 

[magnusen]

Thanks for the feedback!

From the manual, here is the tricky part:

Support for the following solid-state drives:

● 512-MB, M.2, SATA solid-state drive supporting triplelevel cell (TLC)

● 256-MB, M.2, SATA solid-state drive supporting TLC

Unfortunately, the 860 EVO is MLC, not TLC.  Go here and scroll waaaay down to the M.2 specifications.

http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/860evo/

I already sent the M.2 drive back and ordered a classic 2.5" SATA to replace the 7200 RPM HDD.  Maybe someday I'll supplement the main 2.5 SSD with a compatible M.2.

[Dennis32]

What was the final outcome?

[magnusen]

I just tried a Crucial MX500 500GB M.2 2280 (recall, I have a HP ENVY 17-u292cl). 

According to ALL documentation I found, this one should have worked.  The only reason it wouldn't work (by anecdotal evidence on this HP User forum) is because I bought it at Costco, and the M.2 port is disabled on units they sell.

These were all NO GO in the M.2 port:

Samsung M.2 250GB 960 EVO

Samsung M.2 500GB 860 EVO

Crucial M.2 MX500 500GB

I was able to replace the stock HDD with a Samsung 860 500 GB EVO 2.5 inch SATA III.  So, I have SSD in the laptop, but not 1TB I was aiming for.

[erico]

Did you try using the Diskpart utilty at the command line to see if the BIOS recognized the presence of  an M.2 SSD?