Windows 10: New M.2 NMVe SSD recognized but not usable

Alright folks, I usually manage on my own but here I'm starting to lose my mind, and I'm not familiar with PCI express stuff. Any help is appreciated.


I built my own PC some years ago, here are the relevant specs :

Windows 10 x64 on Samsung 850 EVO SSD 256GB with 1 TB HDD for random files.

Gigabyte H170-D3HP Motherboard, Link to motherboard specs


and I just bought a M.2 NVMe SSD :

Newegg page

WD Product info


What I know as of now !


It seems like the new SSD is seen by both my BIOS and Windows.




It seems like the drivers are up to date, and the website doesn't provide any relevant downloads. Maybe I'm missing a BIOS setting see included screenshots, sorry for poor camera quality.


The Western Digital dashboard shows the SSD, as well as the Device Manager, but not the Disk Management.







It seems like there is no allocated space on the SSD.




As you can see in the screenshots, there is a "populate" option in the device properties, but it doesn't change anything from what I can tell.





Also, there is the "Bus Number 0, Target Id 0, LUN 0" that is interesting.





I'm aware that some motherboards will disallow some SATA ports if M.2 is connected, however, as per my motherboard manual, it shouldn't be an issue here, and I see it in device manager which suggests it's working, and a Windows issue.


If I can provide anymore information, it would be a pleasure.


Maybe I'm being super dumb here, as I said I have no clue about this new-gen SSD stuff.


I just want space to be able to install big softwares on this.


Thank you for your time.

:)

 

Disabling Optane and Installing NMVe SSD

I've been trying to disable the IBM Optane RST in my system in preparation to installing a 1 TB NMVe SSD in the M.2 slot

With no success. I'm new to Windows 10 and all the fancy-schmancy gizmos like Optane RST memory and the like so....

My biggest hurdle seems to be disabling the Optane and switching the mechanical harddrive over to ACHI

Here are some screen pix of my system's bios.... showing specifically the SATA and Optane related parts. BIOS is latest & greatest

















And as an afterthought, do I need need to turn off boot protection?





I also tried Mr Brink's tutorial steps on ACHI turn on after installing to no avail

(Enable AHCI in Windows 8 and Windows 10 after Installation)

 

M.2 SSD card

How do I get my Gemini laptop to recognize the M.2 SSD card

 

M.2 SSD no longer being recognized

Is the M.2 disk recognized on BIOS?
If it isn't, it's probably a hardware problem and you should as for a new in warranty.

If it's recognized on BIOS it's probably a corrupted software.
Boot from a Win 10 installation disk, launch a cmd window (Shift+F10) and type:
diskpart
list volume (take note of the letter assigned to your windows in the M.2 drive)
exit
sfc /scannow /offwindir=X:\windows /offbootdir=X:\ (replace X with the drive letter found with list volume)

My recommendation is to create a utilities disk Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk