SSD is not recognised by Win10 (or BIOS) every now and then.

Hey guys,

I have just had a WD SSD put into my laptop. It is not the M2 drive, but a secondary SSD. Every now and then ....it is not recognised. It is not even in Disk Management.

I have changed the SATA mode selection to ACHI and reinstalled Win10. I thought that the problem originally was that the SATa mode selection was set to Intel RST Premium, but after a restart I am having the same issue....the SSD has just disappeared. I have installed WD Dasboard to check for errors in the SSD, but it shows that everything is okay. I thought it was a connector issue or something, but it doesnt happen randomly while the SSD is in use. It normally happens after a restart.

This SSD was originally used as an external HD and I had to disconnec/connect it sometimes, because Win10 just didnt recognise it. Could this be some short of Win10 issue that it doesnt always recognise SSDs? Has anyone had the same issue and found a solution?

Thank you.

You might want to run a utility such as HD Sentinel that will show you any issues monitored by the SSD S.M.A.R.T data. It's entirely possible (very likely, actually) that the WD software would would already do that for you, but forgive me, I'm not familiar with that software.

Beyond that, if I had to take a guess, I would still be suspicious of some intermittant problem with the SSD since you note that it also had problems when connected as an external drive.

When used as an external drive, did you ever use it with any other computers and were there any difficulties there or only when connected to this laptop?

How often exactly are you experiencing difficulties? Is it often enough that it can be reproduced fairly easily?

The ssd must be compatible with the computer or the motherboard. It's like memory.
If you have built your computer, you should have a list of compatible ssd on the motherboard page which is not exhaustive.

For laptop and desktop computers from manufacturers if there is no compatible ssd list, you must then, with the reference of your computer, search for ssd compatible without problems with google all over the web and in the official forum from your computer.
This is what I did with my laptop to find a compatible nvme ssd.

For your problem you can try sata ports 1,2 and 3.

And try with fast startup disabled. Turn On or Off Fast Startup in Windows 10

itsme1 said:

The ssd must be compatible with the computer or the motherboard. It's like memory.
If you have built your computer, you should have a list of compatible ssd on the motherboard page which is not exhaustive.

For laptop and desktop computers from manufacturers if there is no compatible ssd list, you must then, with the reference of your computer, search for ssd compatible without problems with google all over the web and in the official forum from your computer.
This is what I did with my laptop to find a compatible nvme ssd.

For your problem you can try sata ports 1,2 and 3.

And try with fast startup disabled. Turn On or Off Fast Startup in Windows 10

HI. Thank you for your comment.

It is definitely compatible with my laptop, but somewhere during the boot process the BIOS fails to recognise the SSD. I have just turned off the "fast startup". I hope that will finally solve this issue. Thanks.

- - - Updated - - -

itsme1 said:

The ssd must be compatible with the computer or the motherboard. It's like memory.
If you have built your computer, you should have a list of compatible ssd on the motherboard page which is not exhaustive.

For laptop and desktop computers from manufacturers if there is no compatible ssd list, you must then, with the reference of your computer, search for ssd compatible without problems with google all over the web and in the official forum from your computer.
This is what I did with my laptop to find a compatible nvme ssd.

For your problem you can try sata ports 1,2 and 3.

And try with fast startup disabled. Turn On or Off Fast Startup in Windows 10

It doesn't work either with the Fast Startup off. It worked fine after a few restarts, but when the laptop rests for a night or so...the SSD is gone next day, and only changing the "SATA mode selection" to "INTEL RST" and then back to "AHCI" (after an unsuccessful boot) brings it back. It is extremely weird.

Do you even have Intel RST software / drivers installed? If you do, you might want to consider uninstalling it since it has reached end of life.

Elysium said:

It doesn't work either with the Fast Startup off. It worked fine after a few restarts, but when the laptop rests for a night or so...the SSD is gone next day, and only changing the "SATA mode selection" to "INTEL RST" and then back to "AHCI" (after an unsuccessful boot) brings it back. It is extremely weird.

Have you tried other sata ports?

Look on your motherboard which sata ports can be switched to IDE mode instead of AHCI (or raid), plug ssd into these ports and choose IDE mode. If it works, with ssd benchmark software see if the speed is good enough.

In the bios see if the fast boot option is disabled.

If you put the ssd in the pc from the usb without reformatting it, then reformat it in windows from the disk manager, and choose the GPT partitioning table.

If the ssd is still guaranteed, replace it.

itsme1 said:

Have you tried other sata ports?

Look on your motherboard which sata ports can be switched to IDE mode instead of AHCI (or raid), plug ssd into these ports and choose IDE mode. If it works, with ssd benchmark software see if the speed is good enough.

In the bios see if the fast boot option is disabled.

If you put the ssd in the pc from the usb without reformatting it, then reformat it in windows from the disk manager, and choose the GPT partitioning table.

If the ssd is still guaranteed, replace it.

Asus has confirmed that I can only have this hardware in my laptop:

So you are aware here are all the specifications for storage on this device:

Hard drive:
1TB 5400 rpm SATA HDD

Hard drive:
1TB 5400 rpm SATA HDD (FireCuda)

Solid state drive:
128GB/256GB/512GB PCIe® Gen3 x2 SSD

It is insane. Not the seller, not the PC shop guy were aware of my laptop's limitations. It is weird.

Thank you guys. I need to put back the old HDD then...no 1T SSD for this gaming laptop.