dad trying to build a computer with his son...and having SSD problems

Hi,

I am trying to help my son build a computer, and we are running into the following issue...

Build is completed (I think), and when booting with the Windows 10 Boot USB attached, I get to the screen where it wants to know what disk I am going to install Windows on...but no disks appear as available.

I went into the BIOS to find options, and the disk does not appear there either.

Lastly, I tried the Diskpart route, and the disk also does not appear there.

I am using the Asrock B550 Phantom Gaming 4/ac, and the SSD us a WD Blue M.2 2280. I have place the SSD in the Hyper M.2 port.

I have inspected the SSD and M.2 slot, all seems ok there.

After reading online documentation regarding this specific SSD, WD states that their internal SSD cards do not come partitioned, so I am wondering if this is causing my disk to not appear anywhere. If so, I can't figure out how to partition.

Any help is appreciated...this project that we undertook is proving to be troublesome...I feel we are close, but might have missed something in the process.

What's the background on the Win 10 install media? Where from? Will it boot and appear ready to do as you want on some other PC?

Is that WD M.2 2280 an NVMe drive?

Does your motherboard support booting from an NVMe drive?

Is any of this new equipment.....could be DOA?

Typically....you would not have to partition anything. The install media would do all of that as a matter of course.

Is the BIOS set to defaults? Or?

What's the background on the Win 10 install media? Where from? Will it boot and appear ready to do as you want on some other PC? Downloaded from another computer using the windows media creation tool...appears to be ok when viewing on currently operating computer.

Is that WD M.2 2280 an NVMe drive? It is actually a SATA drive, which is something that I have been eyeing is possible issue. I am not sure if the Hyper slot supports sata...I am looking for another M.2 slot to try the SSD in, to see if it works...I am reviewing the motherboard specs now to try to figure out where another M2 slot is.

Does your motherboard support booting from an NVMe drive? This I am not sure.

Is any of this new equipment.....could be DOA? Yes, all brand new, and yes, possible.

Typically....you would not have to partition anything. The install media would do all of that as a matter of course.

Is the BIOS set to defaults? Or? Currently, set to default.

Some of my answers might seem lacking, as I am not familiar with some of the deeper terminologies of how this work...my desire to do something with my kid has slightly outweighed my understanding of how to accomplish said task :)

below is what I find at Asus for that board.

I don't know "Hyper M2" from Adam, but it appears to be RAID related.

I'd avoid it at least for now.

Find the other M2 port mentioned below.

- 1 x Hyper M.2 Socket (M2_1), supports M Key type 2260/2280/22110 M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen4x4 (64 Gb/s) (with Matisse) or Gen3x4 (32 Gb/s) (with Renoir)**
- 1 x M.2 Socket (M2_3), supports M Key type 2242/2260/2280 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x2 (16 Gb/s)**



* M2_3 and SATA3_5_6 share lanes. If either one of them is in use, the other one will be disabled.

** Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks

ignatzatsonic said:

below is what I find at Asus for that board.

I don't know "Hyper M2" from Adam, but it appears to be RAID related.

I'd avoid it at least for now.

Find the other M2 port mentioned below.

- 1 x Hyper M.2 Socket (M2_1), supports M Key type 2260/2280/22110 M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen4x4 (64 Gb/s) (with Matisse) or Gen3x4 (32 Gb/s) (with Renoir)**
- 1 x M.2 Socket (M2_3), supports M Key type 2242/2260/2280 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x2 (16 Gb/s)**



* M2_3 and SATA3_5_6 share lanes. If either one of them is in use, the other one will be disabled.

** Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks

Thanks for replying. There are 2 version of this B550 gaming motherboard...and it looks like my version only comes with the 1 M.2 slot:

ASRock > B550 Phantom Gaming 4/ac

bobbybattles said:

Thanks for replying. There are 2 version of this B550 gaming motherboard...and it looks like my version only comes with the 1 M.2 slot:

ASRock > B550 Phantom Gaming 4/ac

Could be.

The manual I looked at 2 minutes ago says the other M2 port is near the bottom of the board, way away from the CPU, running right to left.

To the right of the CMOS battery.

https://download.asrock.com/Manual/B...Gaming%204.pdf


Model I looked at may not be your model, if there are 2.

ignatzatsonic said:

Could be.

The manual I looked at 2 minutes ago says the other M2 port is near the bottom of the board, way away from the CPU, running right to left.

To the right of the CMOS battery.

https://download.asrock.com/Manual/B...Gaming%204.pdf


Model I looked at may not be your model, if there are 2.

Right. When looking in my manual, there is basically nothing to the right of the CMOS battery except the screws. No port.

That said, because my SSD is SATA, and from the looks of the specs description on the motherboard page, it seems I might have the wrong thing...

"- 1 x Hyper M.2 Socket (M2_1), supports M Key type 2260/2280/22110 M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen4x4 (64 Gb/s) (with Matisse) or Gen3x4 (32 Gb/s) (with Renoir)*

*Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks"

Can you exchange?

If so, go for the other with dual ports.

Maybe even exchange the M2 SATA for M2 NVMe, since the board supports NVMe boot.

I have a WD Blue SN 550 NVMe; using it only as an external data drive in an enclosure. 500 GB; no issues; only paid 55.

You likely would not notice the speed difference between NVMe and SATA, but if you're going to exchange the board, maybe do both. Just an idea.

You could likely use an add-in card that fits in the PCIe slot to use your current M2 2280. Drive mounts on the card; card fits in the slot. Probably 20 bucks. May be better than exchanging the motherboard, but it's another piece of hardware along with possible issues. I use one without incident.

There may be some way to get current M2 working on the "hyper" port, but I know jack squat about that.

Yep, need to exchange the SSD for NVMe.