Issues setting up Windows 10 on a fresh SSD

[kingofmars]

Hi, hopefully I don't make myself look like a complete idiot with this and I appreciate any help in advance.

I'm working on a friend's laptop because it stopped recognizing its SSD, and I have a completely fresh one I'd like to install Windows 10 on. Unfortunately, when running the installer, it doesn't recognize that the SSD exists at all. When I looked into it, I read that oftentimes laptops with 11th gen Intel can have that issue, and that if the controller settings are set to VMD that changing it to AHCI can help with the Windows installer detecting the SSD. There were countless responses saying this fixed the issue people were having, but I can't figure out changing it to AHCI. The commenter who proposed this solution mentioned finding AHCI drivers and putting them on the same flash drive the Windows installer is on, which I would love to do, but I can't find them to save my life.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and I may need some "explain like I'm 5" treatment because it's been a decade since I've done any of this for work and I feel wildly lost and out of touch. Thank you very much.

[tk_srq]

@kingofmars,

HP notebooks don't have a setting to change VMD to AHCI.

If your notebook has an Intel Core 11th-13th gen processor, follow the steps below to install Intel RST storage drivers that the installation setup needs to detect the storage drive.

1. Create a Windows installation usb drive with Microsoft Media Creation Tool, which tends to be trouble free during the IRST driver installation, compared with ISO file-based installation usb drives.

2. Download Intel RST driver from the link below. Run it as administrator and follow the on-screen instructions to perform the driver extraction.

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp146501-147000/sp146929.exe

3. Go to C:\SWSetup\sp146929. Double click the sp146929 folder and copy the F6 folder to the root directory of a Windows installation usb drive. The F6 folder contains IRST drivers which the installation setup needs in order to detect the storage drive.

4. Connect the usb drive to the notebook and boot the system from the usb drive. When asked where to install Windows, click on Load Driver -> Browse -> the usb drive in the window that opens -> the F6 folder -> OK.

5. Multiple .inf driver files may be displayed. Select one and click Next. If no driver files are displayed, uncheck the box on the bottom left corner of the screen to display drivers. Find and select an 'iaStorVD.inf ' file and click Next to load the driver.

6. The storage drive may be displayed with 'unallocated space.' Click Next to proceed the installation.

If your notebook doesn't have an Intel Core 11th-13th gen processor, provide the full model number or product number of your notebook.