M.2 SSD Not Detected in BIOS - HP 250 G7 8th Gen i5

[leomonzondev]

I'm facing an issue with my HP 250 G7 laptop (8th Gen i5) where the M.2 SSD is not being detected in the BIOS

I've tried:

- Updated to win11
- Legacy support disabled
- Downloaded the last version of RST Optane v17.11.3
- Updated BIOS to F.45

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Can you explain what you are trying to do?

If your notebook originally came with a 2.5" drive and you added a M.2 NVMe SSD, the notebook will not boot from the NVMe SSD unless you remove Windows from the hard drive.

If you temporarily disconnect the 2.5" drive, the Windows boot manager will automatically switch to the NVMe SSD and it will become the boot drive.

[leomonzondev]

The M.2 NVMe SSD doesn't appear anywhere, so I can't use it to install anything. Typically, when adding a new drive, the common practice is to check it in the Windows Disk Manager. However, it doesn't appear there. The next step is to check in the BIOS, but it also doesn't appear there, only shows the HDD

Would the SSU Log be helpful in identifying any problems?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Since the notebook has an Intel 8th gen core processor, it supports M.2 NVMe SSD's so that isn't the problem.

Have you tried booting the W11 installation media with the hard drive disconnected and tried to install W11 on the SSD?

When you get to the part that asks 'Where do you want to install Windows,' can you or doesn't Windows see the drive then either?

Something is not right if you can't initialize the disk in Windows disk management or it doesn't show up when you try to install Windows on it.

The fact that it doesn't show up in the BIOS as a bootable device is not all that unusual.

[leomonzondev]

I tried what you suggested, and swapped the M.2 with another laptop. I identified the issue; the M.2 itself doesn't work. Thanks for your help.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.