Fresh Windows 10 install on brand-new HP ENVY cg100 CTO (11th gen i7 2021 model) using new M.2

Greg, Thanks for the post however as it turns out, there was nothing wrong with the media.

Also if you read my first post, I mentioned that I tried Diskpart and nothing was listed.

It isn't an NVMe issue either.

Here's what it turned out to be:

11th Generation Intel systems (i5, i7, i9) and the chipsets that support them now REQUIRE RST (Intel's Rapid Storage Technology) drivers in order to install Windows. Microsoft Windows setup (20H2 or earlier) does not "see" the hardware on 11th gen systems. Furthermore, there is no provision for "legacy" or UEFI-recognized drives that do not natively use RST drivers, that is, non-intel made SSDs. (I'd hardly call the 'bleeding edge' Sabrent Rocket NVMe 4.0 a "legacy" SSD...)  That said, I found an article (link below) buried in HP's support site that explains what to do, however, the article isn't complete. I will note below what else is needed:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06983517

So the above page is very helpful and gets you on the right track however it mentions the F6 folder. What it does not say is that the F6 folder has two subfolders; x64 and VMD. While x64 seems like the logical choice it isn't the one you want. Select VMD and the driver that worked for me was the one marked 9aB. Also, make sure that your BIOS boot order is set with the USB boot device in second place, not first as logic may tell you... since once Windows setup boots the first time if the USB is first in BIOS Boot order, it will not be able to communicate with your new SSD and complete setup.

I presume that this will be the case for all 11th gen systems. It would make sense to me that, going forward, Windows setup should have the means to detect this, load the appropriate driver and move on with the setup since this is not a RAID setup, per se. Otherwise less experienced folks are going to have a heck of a time figuring this out.

Also note that I deconcatinated the factory-installed Optane SSD prior to removing it. This may also be required before installing a non-optane SSD. To do this you will need to either run Intel's RST application inside of Windows, or there may be a means to do it inside your BIOS (I had to use the app as my BIOS did not have the ability to do it.)

Jeff Miller
CTO & Systems Engineer, L2SI 

It's end of may 2021, may, 25 2021 to be precise. Tiger lake CPUs are out in the wild since october 2020. Yet here's me with asus UX425EA and intel 660p series nvme ssd with exactly the same issue. Microsoft doesn't include latest Intel RST drivers with support of intel's VMD technology into their distributions. Yes right now you can go create installation disk from their media creation tool 20H2, and it will not see intel ssd , which requires this VMD drivers. Only after you go to intel site and download their latest (at the moment) RST VMD with support of optan and RAID drivers