SATA SSDs Shown in BIOS are Not Recognized by Windows 11

Dear Jacob_385!

Welcome to the Microsoft Community!

Don't worry. I will work with you to resolve the issue.

Based on the information you provided, I understand that your Windows 11 cannot properly recognize the SSD you installed, but you can normally recognize your new SATA interface SSD in the BIOS. This may be related to your BIOS settings being configured incorrectly. Sometimes, your BIOS settings may be set to the old IDE compatibility mode. This may cause the new SSD not to show up in the disk management of Windows 11. The solution here is to change the SATA mode to AHCI.

The steps listed here may be different on your computer, but they can give you a relatively general understanding of the process. Check the support or FAQ section on the manufacturer's website to find the exact steps.

1. Turn off your computer and then turn it back on. When the display lights up, press the Del, F2, or F12 key or the relevant key of the system manufacturer to enter the BIOS setup.

2. Find and click Storage, and then select the Storage Options entry.

3. Now, set SATA emulation to AHCI mode and save the changes.

4. Once completed, boot Windows 11 and the SSD should now be recognized. If it is still not listed, proceed to the following method.

Disclaimer:  Microsoft provides no assurances and/or warranties, implied or otherwise, and is not responsible for the information you receive from the third-party linked sites or any support related to technology.  

If you are going to modify BIOS Settings, please back up all your personal files first to ensure you do not lose data.  

Update SSD Drivers

1. Open the Search menu in the taskbar search box, enter Device Manager in the top text field, and click the relevant search result.

2. Double-click the Disk drives entry to expand and view the problematic SSD

3. Right-click the unrecognized SSD and select Update Driver from the context menu.

4. Next, select Search automatically for drivers from the two options in the Update Drivers window.

5. Your computer will now scan the best driver available on your system and install it to the SSD.

We have also shared some strange solutions for new SSDs that cannot be recognized by Windows normally. You can refer to whether they are applicable to your current situation:

New SSD is Not Detected in Windows 11 and Windows 10 Disk Management | Dell US

Disclaimer: Microsoft provides no assurances and/or warranties, implied or otherwise, and is not responsible for the information you receive from the third-party linked sites or any support related to technology. 

The above are my preliminary judgment of possible factors and solutions. If you still don’t work after trying the above solutions, we may need to communicate further, because online communication may not be able to diagnose the specific cause for you immediately, and the specific situation may even be related to the specific settings of your motherboard.

Thank you for your patience and support!

Best regards,

Yang.Z - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Thank you for the prompt response!

I looked into my motherboard, and it seems that IDE isn't even an option for my board. And the drives are listed as AHCI drives. The drives are also not listed in the Device Manager. As far as I can tell, the Drives aren't listed in Windows at all, anywhere.

I've replaced SATA and power cables, tried 3 different drives (all Samsung EVO), and I've tried multiple SATA ports as well. There doesn't seem to be a lot of configurations available in BIOS, but I did enable hot plugging, just to test if plugging in a drive while the computer was on would get it to work. It didn't, but Windows did play a tone that indicated it saw the drive being connected and disconnected.

I also verified that all of the Sata ports were enabled in BIOS. This was done in the same place I enabled hot plugging for testing.

I connected the drives to my old PC, and they came right up. I then reformated them through Bios, and the old PC asked to initialize them, but I did not. I moved them to the new PC, and they were still not being seen. I then went through the same Bios reformatting in the new PC, just in case the new Bios helped, but they are still not being seen.

I enabled Hot Plugging for the SATA ports to try and see if that could help with troubleshooting, and I found that the 2 Events would occur every time I reconnected an SSD. Could these be a cause? I tried disabling the Device Setup Manager, but that didn't help. I also found this community thread that covered the error message.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/metadata-staging-failed-result0x80070490-for/73130c25-0414-4925-8368-ee42c731d554

Warning Event:
=============================================================================
Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager/Admin
Source: Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager
Date: 9/30/2024 5:41:25 PM
Event ID: 122
Task Category: None
Level: Warning
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: PirateChest
Description:
Access to drivers on Windows Update was blocked by policy
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager" Guid="{fcbb06bb-6a2a-46e3-abaa-246cb4e508b2}" />
<EventID>122</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>3</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x4000000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2024-09-30T22:41:25.4752082Z" />
<EventRecordID>6341</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="2004" ThreadID="2628" />
<Channel>Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager/Admin</Channel>
<Computer>PirateChest</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
<EventData>
</EventData>
</Event>
=============================================================================

Error Event:
=============================================================================
Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager/Admin
Source: Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager
Date: 9/30/2024 5:41:25 PM
Event ID: 131
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: PirateChest
Description:
Metadata staging failed, result=0x80070490 for container '{D35D1FF2-7C63-11EF-803A-806E6F6E6963}'
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager" Guid="{fcbb06bb-6a2a-46e3-abaa-246cb4e508b2}" />
<EventID>131</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x4000000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2024-09-30T22:41:25.5248595Z" />
<EventRecordID>6342</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="2004" ThreadID="2628" />
<Channel>Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager/Admin</Channel>
<Computer>PirateChest</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="Prop_ContainerId">{D35D1FF2-7C63-11EF-803A-806E6F6E6963}</Data>
<Data Name="HRESULT">2147943568</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>
=============================================================================