Is the hard drive shown in my computer's startup menu?
Is the hard drive shown in my computer's startup menu?
Here are your PC specs: Motherboard is MSI Z790 GAMING PLUS WIFI. CPU is Intel i7-12700K. RAM is 32GB Corsair Vengeance. GPU is Gigabyte RTX 4070. I have a Samsung SSD 860 EVO for my main drive and a Samsung 980 PRO NVMe for the M.2 slot.
The problem is that my M.2 SSD won't show up in the BIOS boot menu, but it does appear when I open File Explorer. I've used this SSD for years just to move my operating system onto it, so lots of files are saved there already. I did partition the drive as well.
I tried moving my OS from the old SSD to the M.2 using different methods via bootable media:
1. Made installation media on the Microsoft site and added an ISO to a USB drive.
2. Used Rufus to add the Windows 11 ISO onto the USB stick.
3. Tried making installation media for Windows 10, but drivers weren't available then so I had to download them for my motherboard first before installing.
In all those attempts, even though both drives are recognized by File Explorer and can save files, nothing works in the BIOS boot options. The system keeps asking me to choose between two versions of Windows on different drives and wants me to pick one, but when I select the M.2 version, removing the USB and restarting makes it go into a boot loop instead.
I checked the BIOS and confirmed that the M.2 drive is not in Boot Options. Sometimes I enter Windows by using the old SSD instead of the new M.2, but the M.2 still isn't recognized for booting even though File Explorer knows about it.
I re-formatted both drives and tried starting over with a different option. Honestly, I'm completely stuck trying to figure this out because it took me all day doing other things while staring at my computer. My only hope is that the M.2 drive is actually broken. But if it were really faulty why would File Explorer recognize it so easily and allow files to save into it?
That doesn't work when moving your Windows OS from one hard drive to another.