When installing Windows on a new computer or doing reinstallation, sometimes issue of drives not showing can be encountered. This happens even though drives or storages exist.
This problem can occur during the initial windows setup when trying to select drive for the installation.
There are several factors can contribute to this issue, such as hardware conflicts, driver problems, or incorrect BIOS settings. We will go through comprehensive guide to troubleshoot and resolve this problem.
Table of Contents:
1. Check Physical Connections
The first step is to verify that all physical connections of the drive storages and the motherboard are secure.
Loose connections or faulty cables can prevent drives from being detected during installation. Ensure that the power and data cables connecting to both drives and motherboard are firmly attached. If using a SATA drive, consider trying a different SATA port to rule out a faulty port.
2. Configure BIOS/UEFI Settings
BIOS or UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) settings play a crucial role in detecting and initializing storage devices.
a. Enable AHCI/RAID Mode
If using modern SATA drives, set the SATA mode to AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) or RAID if you intend to use RAID configurations. Legacy IDE mode can cause compatibility issues with newer drives.
b. Check Boot Order
Ensure that the drive containing the Windows installation media is set as the primary boot device. If not, the system might boot from a different device, leading to missing drives problem.
c. Secure Boot and Compatibility Support Module / CSM
If you encounter issues during UEFI-based installations, try disabling Secure Boot temporarily and enable the Compatibility Support Module to allow legacy hardware compatibility.
3. Download and Install Intel RST driver
If you are using SSD, you may need to install Intel VMD (Volume Management Driver) which may not be included in the Windows images.
This driver can be downloaded from Intel website.
After driver is downloaded, open Command Prompt and run below command to extract and copy the files to installation media drive. First you may need to use cd command to change to the directory of the SetupRST.exe location.
SetupRST.exe -extractdrivers F:\SetupRST_ExtractedAbove command assumes the extract location is at F:\SetupRST_Extracted.
Once extracted, re-run windows installation.
At the windows setup and choose storage. Click Load Driver and browse to the extracted location, and click OK.
In Select driver to install window, select the first option. For example. Intel RST VMD Controller 467F (…), then click Next.
The drives or storages should be shown now.
4. Verify Drive Health
Faulty or damaged drives can lead to installation issues. Before proceeding, it's essential to verify the health of your storage devices.
a. Test on Another System
Connect the drives to another computer to see if they are detected correctly. If not, it might indicate a hardware problem with the drives
b. Use Diagnostic Tools
Many manufacturers provide diagnostic tools that can help identify potential issues. Run these tests to assess the health and integrity of the drives.
5. Clear and Reset Disk
During Windows installation process, it is possible that the disk partitions are not recognized correctly. In such cases, clearing and resetting the disk can resolve the problem. Before proceeding, ensure that you have already made a backup of the disk drives content.
i. Open Command Prompt by pressing Start and type Command Prompt. Right Click and Run as Administrator.
ii. Type “diskpart” and press Enter to launch the DiskPart utility.
iii. Enter “list disk” to view all detected disks. Note the disk number of the one you want to install Windows on.
iv. Then use the command “select disk X” (replace X with the disk number) to choose the target disk.
v. Type “clean” and press Enter to clear the disk.
vi. Create partition using “create partition primary” command.
vii. Format partition using “format fs=ntfs quick” command.
viii. After format process completed, type “exit” to leave the DiskPart utility.
