Why M.2 SSD Not Showing Up? Fix Now with Reasons

Last week, my friend bought a new M.2 SSD. Sadly, once he plugged it in, it wasn’t showing up. I did some research and came up with solutions. So just like my friend, are you also wondering why your M.2 ssd not showing up? The most common reason could be the driver remaining unformatted.

There could also be other reasons that might need fixations accordingly. And so, we have come up with content that gives you a detailed process on how to fix this issue for good.

M.2 SSD Not Showing Up [Reasons and Solutions]

We will start with a table that gives you a brief idea of the problems that could lead to a drive not showing up. This table will also include solutions but in brief. The in-depth detailed solutions step by step comes right after this table.

Probable Reasons	Possible Solutions
Driver not formatted	Format it by running the dialog box
M.2 SSD not showing in BIOS	Open the Device Manager and uninstall the channels one by one
M.2 SSD not showing in Device Manager/ M.2 SSD not showing in Disk Management	Go to Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool and restart your device.
M. 2 SSD not showing in BIOS gigabyte	Switch to CSM mode and reboot.

M.2 SSD Not Showing Up In Windows 10/11

You plug your SSD drive right in your windows but notice that it is not showing up. That is because the drive is not formatted. In that case, just follow these simple steps:

• Hold the Windows key and R key on your keyboard. Pressing them together will launch the run dialog box.
• Type disk mgmt.msc into the dialog box and press Enter. Windows will bring you a list of all the drives it detected. Now take a look if any of these drives are labeled raw or unallocated.
• In case your disk is not initialized, right-click on the drive and initialize it. We recommend using GPT as a partition tool. So once you detect the unallocated disk, you gotta format it. But make sure you don’t format the wrong drive as it will erase everything once you format it mistakenly.
• Now right-click on the selected drive and select New Simple Volume. Name your drive in the labels section. Click Next and Finish to format. Your new drive will finally show up in My Computer.

Fix M.2 SSD Not Showing Up In BIOS Boot Property MSI/ASUS

If you are unsure about your BIOS key, search with model no. Fix this issue following these steps:

• Now go to the Storage Section of the BIOS and check whether your inserted drive shows up. If it does, restart into windows.
• And then, follow the above steps mentioned to open up the dialog box in windows. Type tevmgmi.msc and press Enter to open up the Device Manager.
• On the top, you will see the Ide Ata controller. Expand its drop-down menu, and right button click on a channel. Click Uninstall Device. Do the same for all channels one by one.
• Once you complete this, restart your device.
• Now Check if the drive shows up.
• Now go to the Storage Section of the BIOS and check whether your inserted drive shows up. If it does, restart into windows.
• And then, follow the above steps mentioned to open up the dialog box in windows. Type tevmgmi.msc and press Enter to open up the Device Manager.
• On the top, you will see the Ide Ata controller. Expand its drop-down menu, and right button click on a channel. Click Uninstall Device. Do the same for all channels one by one.
• Once you complete this, restart your device.
• Now Check if the drive shows up.

Also Read: How to Recover Data from SSD Laptop- Still There Is a Hope!

If after following these steps, still your m.2 SSD not showing up in bios boot priority, the drive could turn defective. In that case, try plugging your device into another port or another PC.

If it doesn’t show up in disk management/device manager

When your SSD doesn’t show up in Disk Management,

• Go to the Windows Memory diagnostic tool. This is a tool that lets you check your RAM.
• Click on that, and there comes a small bar. Click on Restart and Solve the problem. This is gonna take a while.
• After your device restarts, your SSD file will hopefully show up.

M.2 Not Showing Up In File Explorer/BIOS Gigabyte

If you are having a Gigabyte motherboard and your drive isn’t showing up in the Boot:

• Go to Settings.
• Make sure you are on the non-advanced window. And switch to CSM mode.
• Save and Exit.
• Now get back to BIOS. Go to Advanced and then Settings.
• Go to Boot, and there will be plenty of options. Just click on one and check if your drive shows up.

M.2 Not Showing Up In ASUS BIOS

In case your SSD is not showing in ASUS BIOS settings:

• Consider checking Storage Specification for your motherboard model on its official website.
• Once you select the model, go to its Product Specification or User Manual and hit on Storage to check.
• Finally, unplug and replug the SATA connections for your hard drive.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

This section is gonna cover all your queries regarding the m.2 not visible on your device. This is a random issue happening to most of us, so people come up with these frequently asked questions. I thought of sharing a few here:

Conclusion

There you go! We hope that following these steps, you will be able to get rid of the m.2 SSD not showing up. However, if these steps don’t work out, unfortunately, consider calling a professional to seek his help. Your drive could also turn defective, so make sure to check that as well.

You Can Also Read:

• Why SSD Not Showing Up In Disk Management Windows 7? Fix It
• What to Do After Cloning Hard Drive to SSD Avoiding Further Issue
• How Long Does BIOS Update Take- Explained with Top 5 Models and More