7 Easy fixes to SSD not showing up in Windows 10

Solid State Drive (SSD); The faster, thinner, and newer, younger brother of the Hard Disk Drive.

These storage units have made browsing faster and easier for people. But what if your SSD does not show up in your Windows Explorer or the Disk Management? You may not be able to access anything on the drive.  

Easy fixes to SSD not showing up in Windows 10

Why is my SSD not showing up?

When you are unable to see the SSD on your File Explorer, Device Manager, or Disk Management, there are a number of possible reasons why this happened.

  1. You installed a new SSD, which has not been initialized.
  2. No partition has been made
  3. The System can not recognize the partition
  4. You cannot see the Drive letter when it is partitioned
  5. The Partition is hidden.
  6. The SSD is not detected by the Windows OS
  7. You may have driver software issues

Types  of SSD Not Showing Up in Windows Disk Management or File Explorer

The SSD not showing up is not a singular problem. It can be divided into four sub-issues, as there are different ways that this might affect your user experience. You may have come across one of these problems, related to the SSD not showing up on your computer:

  1. The SSD does not show up because the drive letter is not present or has conflicts with other drives. When the SSD is placed in the system, it will be allotted a single storage drive in the system. These storage devices assign a drive letter, as a name. When this drive letter goes missing or clashes with another drive’s letter, it cannot be identified by the Operating System. You can give a new letter to the SSD through Windows Disk Management, to solve this issue.
  2. The SSD might not show up because the initialization has not been done. If you have a new SSD installed on your computer, it is essential to initialize it so that you can start storing things in it. If you have an existing SSD and you wish to add another one, you have to initialize the SSD for it to be detected by the OS. The firm or dealer who sold you the computer, will initialize the disk and perform an SSD partition if you request them to.
  3. Your SSD file system is not recognized or supported by the Windows OS. There are chances that the SSD’s file system is corrupt. The Windows OS checks the integrity of this during installation or initialization and fails to recognize it, thus causing the ‘SSD not showing up’ issue on your PC.
  4. Disk driver issues can cause your driver to go missing. Some disk drivers can not function properly or have not been installed on the computer correctly. Re-installing the disk driver that is responsible for the SSD can help fix this issue. 

Missing SSDs and SSD malfunctioning

If your previously existing SSD does not function the way it used to. There are chances that you are heading towards facing an SSD failure. If your SSD fails to startup along with the Operating System, it means that you could possibly have corrupt data stored in it. 

Your system can freeze repeatedly or run slowly, even when the SSD is present, causing discomfort to the user.

The SSD can be converted to a read-only drive from a read & write hard disk, which means that you can only see what is present inside the disk but not make changes to its components. This is a symptom of a failing drive.

You may even hear clicking noises emerging from your CPU cabinet. This is not ideal as this is a symptom of the SSD’s failing head part. You may be losing your SSD motor if you hear screeches from inside the CPU case. 

If your Solid State Drive fails, it will cause temporary data loss, but you should be able to recover SSD and recover lost files with the help of a data recovery tool or technical support. 

Note: Any aggressive sound from your computer is something you have to look into, immediately. There are plenty of great hard drive data recovery tools online.

Steps to save your Solid State Drive from failing

Because we care for our readers and the devices they use, we have added this little bonus panel that will help you check if your SSD is in any danger. You simply have to run a CHKDSK scan or the WMIC scan to monitor the SSD’s health and integrity.

  1. CHKDSK – The Check Disk Scan is used to test the integrity of the files on the SSD drive. You simply have to open Command Prompt as an administrator and type in     “CHKDSK <drive letter>/” and hit Enter. 
image 2157

This scan will take place after the system restarts. By the end of this scan, the computer will be rid of possible corrupt files and your SSD drive life will be extended for a period of time. 

  1. Windows Management Instrumentation Command (WMIC) – To use this utility, you need the Windows Installation Media on a USB drive or a CD/DVD. Insert this in your system and restart it. Open Command Prompt and type in “wmic”, first. Press Enter and then, you’ll see the command expanding. Now, type in “diskdrive get status”.
type in “diskdrive get status”.

This is another scan that will look into the performance of the SSD.  

7 Best Methods to resolve SSD not showing up in Windows Disk Management or File Explorer

There are a number of methods to make sure that your SSD is detected. We curated these solutions, by looking at measures that can fix the possible reasons that caused this problem. This is what you can do to fix SSD not showing up in Disk Management or Windows Explorer. 

1) Initialize your SSD

Here are the steps to initialize a new SSD:

  1. Hold the Windows + R key on your keyboard to launch the Run tool.
  2. In the Open field, type in compmgmt.msc and hit the Enter key.
In the Open field, type in compmgmt.msc and hit the Enter key
  1. If you have not initialized your SSD before, you will see a little dialog box that says “You must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it”. 
  2. Click on the Disk Management option, on the left.
Click on the Disk Management option, on the left
  1. Locate the SSD which has to be initialized, right-click on it and choose Initialize Disk.
  2. The Initialize Disk window opens. In this, you have to choose the disk which has to be initialized and select between MBR or GPT. The Master Boot Record and the GUID Partition Table (MBR or GPT) are different ways to partition the SSD.

This is to fix the new SSD not showing up in the Disk Management issue, caused by not initializing the SSD. 

2) Perform a Partition Recovery

You can recover data that was lost during SSD partitions, to fix the SSD not showing up in your Disk Management and File Explorer. These SSD data could be the key to restoring your SSD back to your Windows Explorer. If you wish to try this, you will need a data recovery software. 

3) Expose SSD Partitions

You might need to unhide the SSD partition, to solve the new SSD not showing up in the Disk Management issue, on your PC. 

This is what you have to do:

  1. Open the Run utility (Windows + R keys), type in diskmgmt.msc and click OK
Open the Run utility (Windows + R keys), type in diskmgmt.msc and click Ok
  1. If you have hidden a partition before, you’ll be able to see it. Right-click the hidden partition and choose Change Drive Letter and Path… 
Right-click the hidden partition and choose Change Drive Letter and Path...
  1. In the dialog box that appears, select Add to provide a drive letter for the hidden partition.
  2. Click Ok, when you are finished. 

4) Troubleshoot hardware issues with the SSD or Hard Disk

Like every other problem having a troubleshooter, there is one for fixing the new SSD not showing up in Disk Management error.

Here’s how:

  1. Open the Control Panel. You can search for it in the search bar on your Taskbar. 
  2. In the Control Panel search bar, type in Troubleshooting and you will see the Troubleshooting settings on the top. Open it.
In the Control Panel search bar, type in Troubleshooting
  1. Click on the View All option on the left panel, choose Hardware and Devices
Click on the View All option on the left panel, choose Hardware and Devices
  1. Click on the Next button and do as instructed.
  2. Once the troubleshooting is finished, select Apply this fix to solve the SSD not showing up. 
  3. You will have to restart your computer and see if you get your SSD back on the Disk Management. 

5) Update the Storage Controller and controller drivers

The system has to recognize the drive, in order to make arrangements for new hard drives. For this, you need the latest IDE ATA drivers and the Motherboard storage controllers and these are the steps to obtain them:

  1. You need to be connected to the internet. Then, open the Device Management through the Run tool (Windows + R) by using the command devmgmt.msc
open the Device Management through the Run tool (Windows + R) by using the command devmgmt.msc.
  1. Open the Storage Controllers; option and right-click on the Controller and choose Update Driver Software
Open the Storage Controllers; option and right-click on the Controller and choose Update Driver Software
  1. In the window that appears, select Search automatically for updated driver software
  2. This will make the device manager look for updates. You will have to install them on your computer. 
  3. Apply the above steps for the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers.
  4. Restart your computer for the changes to be saved.

6) Assign a drive letter for the new drive

You can assign a new drive letter for the drive to fix the SSD not showing up in the Disk Management issue. 

Here are the steps:

  1. Right-click on This PC app and choose Manage, in which you have to select Disk Management in the Storage menu. You can also open this with the command compmgmt.msc in the Run tool or through the Control Panel.
  2. You will be able to see all the partitions on the hard drive. You should see a hard drive without a drive letter. This is your missing SSD. 
  3. Right-click on it and select Change Drive Letter and Paths.
Right-click on it and select Change Drive Letter and Paths
  1. Select Add and choose a drive letter from the drop-down menu. Click on the Ok button to save changes. 
Select Add and choose a drive letter from the drop-down menu. Click on the Ok button to save changes.

7) Changing the SATA controller mode

The SATA controller (Serial ATA) is the mode that determines the way the hard drive or SSD communicates with the Windows OS. If we change this, you should be able to fix the new SSD not showing up in Disk Management or the Device Manager. 

  1.  Restart the computer and press F2 and F10, together, to boot up the BIOS window.
  2. Go to the Advanced menu, locate the SATA controller settings and click on it.
  3. Click on the SATA port, to which your hard drive is connected, and press the Enter key.
  4. Save the modifications you have made and click on Exit to quit the module. Restart your computer and see if the SSD is detected. If this does not fix the SSD not showing up on your PC, keep trying it until it works.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is my SSD not showing up?

There are many reasons why you have the SSD not showing up error on your computer. But most cases have reported that the SSD was not detected issue is mostly caused by problems in the driver. This issue can also come up because of mistakes made during the SSD partition. 

How do I get my computer to recognize my new SSD?

The new SSD is not shown in Disk Management, and Windows Explorer is giving you an error. In other words, your SSD hasn’t been initialized yet. Set up the drive so that the new SSD can be seen.

How do I find my SSD on Windows 10?

Open the Run tool and run dfrgui to launch the Disk Defragmenter. You can find the SSD or the HDD, in the Media Type column. 

How do I get my m2 SSD to show up?

Your m2 SSD is not showing up mostly because of driver issues. If you update driver software on your PC, you will notice that the m2 SSD shows up once again. But if you have attached a new storage device, you have to initialize SSD for it to become visible and accessible. 

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