NVMe M.2 Upgrade Failing

[DaveM36]

Hi, i have an issue that is driving me up the wall and i hope someone can help me figure this out.

i purchased a Lexar NQ 790 NVMe M.2 1TB for my HP Pavilion dv0607na, which is a massive step up from the trash 128GB NVMe that it came with. i want to clean install windows.

I've got windows 11 all prepared on a USB flash drive, i installed the NVMe, popped the USB in and started the install process as normal, BUT, windows fails to detect my new SSD, in the BIOS under configuration, UEFI, Intel Rapid Storage Technology, nonRAID devices - my M.2 is listed, but for whatever reason windows is not seeing it. i have also tried running diskpart when the windows install starts to format the SSD but even diskpart doesn't detect it.

i have been looking for days online for a solution, the web is filled with pointless posts, apparently lexar don't give drivers, intel don't include drivers and windows doesn't include any generic drivers, I've read basically everything but any solutions to this problem. as everything windows 11 is pretty much M.2 now you'd at least expect a standard driver to get you started during the windows install from Microsoft.

I'm at a total loss now, i thought it was being a Gen 4 but its not as my mobo supports it according to the HP schematic for the board. can someone PLEEEEEEEEEASE tell me the solution for this? it already has a 128GB M.2 in it so common sense says to me it would use the same driver?? am i missing something?!

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

You need to install the Intel storage controller drivers that I zipped up and attached below so W10/W11 can see the drive.

Read through the discussion and use the same driver I attached below, but it seems like it will be easier for you to install the storage controller driver if you copy just the 5 files in the F6 VMD folder to your USB flash drive.

Solved: Re: Bios not detecting new M.2 NVMe Hard drive - HP Support Community - 8915386

[DaveM36]

😳 wow so there IS a way to fix it! I’m currently on my iPhone so I can’t download the driver yet, but I’ll defo try this later tonight and I’ll let you know how it goes. I did download 2 drivers for Lexar SM and SN series SSDs but even they didn’t show up on the usb during the install. It was a long shot I know but I was hoping one of them worked. Thanks very much for your reply 😁 I’ll be in touch soon.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Fingers crossed.

[DaveM36]

Hello again. Good news it worked. The first driver I selected and my M.2 was seen instantly. I got an 8TB NVMe for my new gaming pc too which only has a normal Samsung SSD installed. After this experience I’m keeping those drivers on hand just incase. Thank you very much for your help my friend it’s very much appreciated.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.

The drivers I attached are good for PCs with the Intel 11th - 13th gen core processors.

Your notebook's processor is a member of the Intel Tiger Lake processor family which includes the 11th gen core processors.

Intel® Pentium® Gold 7505 Processor

[DaveM36]

Noted. My pc should be fine then it’s running the Intel Core i9 13900k. I built it just 9 months ago but like my laptop it needs a fresh install of windows. I’m currently running the KMS which isn’t ideal. I’ll get that done this week at some point and thanks to your help I know it’ll work no problem now.

like most probably I just assumed an M.2 would be auto detected like an SSD or HDD during a windows install. We all find out the hard way though 😂 big thanks again you’ve saved me a massive headache.