HP 15 f271wm can't find SSD on win10 install

Hi there
@Gilligan8

The chances are the HDD is not formatted correctly -- for EFI boot the HDD needs to be GPT.
If you can boot say a recovery disk / dvd/USB (KYHI's one is excellent -- its on the forum)

now in Windows Command mode from the recovery disk

1) DISKPART
2) List Disk
You should now see HDD's

3) select disk nn where nn is the HDD in the laptop
4) clean
5) convert gpt
6) create partion efi size=100
7) format quick fs=fat32
8) create partition primary
9) format quick fs=ntfs
10) exit

Now re-boot laptop -- it won't be succesful as there's no OS installed yet but it should see the HDD.
If you can see the HDD now install windows

If you still can't see the HDD then boot up one of your linux distros / live distros that can see the HDD.
now as root or sudo on the linux console type the following

1) lsblk this should show you hdd's as /dev/sdx
2) mkfs.ext4 (or xfs) /dev/sdx -f. (use the base sdx not say sdx1 which is another partition on the HDD - you want to format the whole HDD for this test.

This will create a Linux file system -- the purpose of this is to see if the computer can write to HDD -- if it can't the HDD is faulty so you will have to return it. We don't need to install Linux just test that the HDD is writable with a proper file system.

If it works -- re-boot the kyhi recovery disk and re-format again with the commands I listed under diskpart.

Ensure of course that boot mode is efi - I assume that's already done. Disable any secure boot stuff as well -- not sure if people use that any more but if it's there disable it.

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
@Gilligan8

The chances are the HDD is not formatted correctly -- for EFI boot the HDD needs to be GPT.

That is a very widely perpetuated myth. UEFI does NOT require GPT partitioning.

Hi there
@NavyLCDR
I think you might have mis-understood -- or pehaps my post was confusing -- I think though for EFI boot you do need an EFI partition and usually it's done with gpt HDD.

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
@Gilligan8

The chances are the HDD is not formatted correctly -- for EFI boot the HDD needs to be GPT.
If you can boot say a recovery disk / dvd/USB (KYHI's one is excellent -- its on the forum)

now in Windows Command mode from the recovery disk

1) DISKPART
2) List Disk
You should now see HDD's

3) select disk nn where nn is the HDD in the laptop
4) clean
5) convert gpt
6) create partion efi size=100
7) format quick fs=fat32
8) create partition primary
9) format quick fs=ntfs
10) exit

Now re-boot laptop -- it won't be succesful as there's no OS installed yet but it should see the HDD.
If you can see the HDD now install windows

If you still can't see the HDD then boot up one of your linux distros / live distros that can see the HDD.
now as root or sudo on the linux console type the following

1) lsblk this should show you hdd's as /dev/sdx
2) mkfs.ext4 (or xfs) /dev/sdx -f. (use the base sdx not say sdx1 which is another partition on the HDD - you want to format the whole HDD for this test.

This will create a Linux file system -- the purpose of this is to see if the computer can write to HDD -- if it can't the HDD is faulty so you will have to return it. We don't need to install Linux just test that the HDD is writable with a proper file system.

If it works -- re-boot the kyhi recovery disk and re-format again with the commands I listed under diskpart.

Ensure of course that boot mode is efi - I assume that's already done. Disable any secure boot stuff as well -- not sure if people use that any more but if it's there disable it.

Cheers
jimbo

Hey Jimbo, thanks for that thorough response.

Unfortunately, most of that has been attempted already.

I have it as a GPT format now, done via gparted on a Linux boot disc, and it does NOT show up under diskpart when in the windows 10 installer.

I'm 100% confident that the disk is not faulty but I will be swapping it out again to verify.

Only thing that sucks is that this laptop is a pain to get to the HD so I hate swapping this around for the 3rd time.

bro67 said:

Try the drive in another computer. if it works, then we are dealing with a laptop issue. If not, it is a SSD issue.

I tried a different brand and it came up.

Gonna try a few more M500's, I have like 5 or 6 of them.

So far 3 of them all working, won't get seen. Pretty crazy.

Just an update.

Stuck a different brand drive in there and it worked fine.

Put those Crucial disks in a desktop I was going to install 10 on and they showed up no problem in the installer.

So it was never the disks but the controller/windows 10 installer combo.