Windows 10: Lost M.2 drive

My Pc was lit up this morning & I was sure I had closed it down last night. moving the mouse reveals a blue ring but the screen remains black. I tried several attempts to recover but alas the PC and Win 11 installation doesn't see my old boot drive. I had to use an SSD as a boot drive but then the M.2 was greyed out! I made it a simple partition to make it visible. Is that the drive unusable without a Format and re-installation.Will buying a new key upset my old MS account? ThanksRobin

:)

 

Adapter for M.2 Drive

The adapter "steve108" listed is of the correct type.

You need one that supports a SATA M.2 drive, and the B+M slots. M.2 - Wikipedia

 

Struggling to Install Windows to an M.2 Drive

• MOBO: MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI
  
• CPU: 5600X
  
• RAM: 16GB 3600MHZ DDR4
  
• GPU: PALIT 980
  
• BIOS VERSION: E7C95AMS.2D0
  
• M.2 DRIVE: Crucial P3 Plus 2TB
  
• OTHER DRIVES: None
  

I am currently trying to install windows on my MIL's new m.2 drive in her desktop PC.

When in UEFI mode the bios does not recognise the M.2 as a boot device. It will let me install windows to it, just not boot to it. As soon as the installation reaches the restart stage it reboots the PC back to the boot drive asking if I want to install windows again.

In CSM/Legacy mode the drive is recognised as a boot device but windows will not install to it, stating that the hardware isn't supported.

I am sure I am missing something simple, any help and advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

M.2 SSD not being able to boot from it, windows doesn't recognise.

Ok, this is what happened after all the comments and suggestions, @dude: Thanx for the video, my mb had non e of those settings, it had the raid/option memory gene or achi. Can only choose one or the other. @Saltgrass, my settings did point out auto and enabled the pcie x4, gen 3. I did an bios flash as suggested, because my bios was not the latest version, after a reformat the m.2 was picked up, still cant install OS onto it as it states legacy not found, removed my dvd rom from the sata port to another, and the drive was found and installed. Only issue now is that it's still not my OS drive but it at least now works and is installed, but on the Intel rst drive the obtain memory gene option to enable is greyed out, and shows as disabled. However the program lists the M.2 and it is working 100%,. I installed overwhatch onto it, it performs perfectly. But will update the intel driver tonight and see if that makes any difference. Seems the bios flash enabled the settings listed by @dude that was not present pre-flash.

So the m.2 drive works. I can game off it and install omnto it. Can not install windows on it, gene memmory is enabled, pcie x4 is on and on auto detect, Motherbaord lists all the drives connected, motherboard ahs been updated to latest bios. After flash new settings became available, m.2 is now on memmory gene enabled not achi, windows os is enabled and fast boost is enabled, intel rst is installed and lists all the ssds and the m.2, however the m.2 on memmory gene is dissabled and the option to enable is greyed out. Will update the driver as Essenbe suggested of the m.2 and see if anything changes. Thank you all for the help, I can now atleast use my m.2