Windows 10/11 USB setup doesn't recognize M.2 drives, but Linux Mint does.
Windows 10/11 USB setup doesn't recognize M.2 drives, but Linux Mint does.
He bought an Asus x515ea with an Intel 670p M.2 drive and Windows 11. He wanted to experiment with Linux and chose Mint as his first choice. After learning the basics over a month, he planned to switch back to Windows 10 or 11 and try different Linux distributions. However, when reinstalling either OS, the Windows installer didn’t recognize the M.2 drive at all—it seemed like the laptop had no storage option. He brought it to me for inspection, and I noticed something unusual: the Intel M.2 chip featured Optane technology. This made me realize he might need to download Windows drivers to see it work. I discovered the Intel support page was outdated, as the SSD/Memory division had been sold to another company. I reached out to ASUS, but they pointed me back to the same non-functional driver pages. Now I’m unsure what to do—should he get a new M.2 drive?
I've faced the same problem, but my drive was on a SATA SSD. I installed the OS while using an external USB adapter. The laptop recently got a BIOS update—maybe try that if you haven't: https://www.asus.com/supportonly/x515ea/helpdesk_bios/. Also look into BIOS settings for any special configurations that might affect the drive.
Bios transitioned from version 307 to 314 (latest) previously, but we appreciate your feedback. EDIT!!! The problem was related to Bios/UEFI, so I disabled a feature called VMD. Windows now recognizes the M.2 drive. Issue resolved.