Fix SSD Not Showing Up in Windows 10/11 [2023 Tips]

4 Ways to Fix SSD Not Showing Up on Your Windows PC

Don't panic if your SSD not showing up on your computer. There are four common cases, and check the corresponding solution below to get rid of the issue with ease.

Are your hard drives, new or old, internal or external, not showing up in File Explorer or Disk Management? Follow along to learn how to fix the hard drive not showing up in Windows 11/10/8/7 without losing data.

SSD Not Showing Up on My Computer 

"I recently installed a Samsung SSD on my Windows 10 computer, but I find it not showing up under My Computer where the other hard drive is present. Is there any way to display the SSD?"

New SSD Not Showing Up in Disk Management

"I got a new M.2 SSD from Intel. When I connected it to my PC, it did not show up in the File Explorer or Disk Management. I don't know where goes wrong. Please help."

The above user stories tell the same thing that happens to a Solid State Drive (SSD) - your drive does not show up as other connected hard drives. In Windows 10 and earlier Windows operating systems, an external storage device not detected issue would throw people into frustrating situations. They can't add files and content to the SSD, nor can they access its existing data. Therefore, the biggest concern is how to fix the 'SSD not showing up' problem quickly and easily.

Here, we list four cases of SSD not showing up in Windows 10 or 11, and you can try to fix the issue accordingly. Download EaseUS data recovery software when necessary to recover SSD data from an inaccessible/formatted Solid State Drive.

Case 1. SSD Not Showing Up Because the Drive Letter Is Missing

Sometimes, your SSD does not show up because the drive letter of the SSD is missing or conflicting with another disk, and the Windows OS cannot recognize it. You can solve this problem by manually assigning the SSD a new drive letter in Windows Disk Management.

To assign the SSD a new drive letter, follow these steps.

Step 1. Right-click on "This PC", and select "Manage". Under the Storage section, click "Disk Management".

Step 2. Right-click on the SSD partition and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths…".

Step 3. Among Add, Change, and Remove, click the "Change" button, and then select a drive letter from the list. Click "OK" to confirm.

You can also choose to fix NVME/M.2 SSD not showing up with a professional disk repair service. We provide you with an effective manual disk repair service. You can repair your SSD errors with simple clicks. Contact EaseUS data recovery services and get help as soon as possible.

If you prefer a video tutorial to fix SSD not showing up in Windows 11/10/8/7, you can watch this video to fix SSD, hard drive, and USB drive not showing up.

• 0:23 Run diskmgmt.msc command
• 0:41 Initialize the SSD
• 1:20 Incorrectly plugged in
• 1:51 Change m.2 SSD type
• 2:50 Check the BIOS

Case 2. SSD Not Showing Up Because It is Not Initialized

If you get a new SSD and it won't show up in Windows Explorer, it's likely in the "uninitialized" state. You must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it.

Also, if an old SSD shows the "disk unknown not initialized" error, the reason is the same. In these two situations, to fix the problem, you can try to connect the SSD to another working computer to check if it reports the same error. Otherwise, you will need to initialize the SSD in Windows 10.

To initialize an SSD, follow these steps.

Step 1. Open Disk Management on your computer. 

Step 2. Find and right-click the SSD you want to initialize, and then click "Initialize Disk".

Step 3. In the Initialize Disk dialog box, select the disk(s) to initialize. You can select whether to use the master boot record (MBR) or GUID partition table (GPT) partition style.

Case 3. SSD Not Showing Up Because the File System Is Not Supported

You need to think further if the above two methods do not work. One assumption is that the file system has corrupted or Windows does not support the current file system.

As investigated, the relevant file system issues are mainly displayed as "RAW", "Free space", or "Unallocated space". To fix the file system issues, reformatting the disk would be enough.

Note: Disk formatting will completely erase data on the disk. If you didn't create a data backup before, download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for FREE to recover data from the formatted SSD.

Step 1. Scan the SSD

Open EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, select the SSD where you lost data, and click the "Scan" button.

Step 2. View the results

When the scanning finishes, find lost SSD data by using the "Filter" and "Search" options after checking the "Deleted Files" and "Other Lost Files" folders.

Step 3. Recover SSD files

Select desired data and click the "Recover" button to get back lost SSD files.

Case 4. SSD Not Showing Up Because of Disk Driver Issues

Another possible situation is that the SSD is detected but not displayed in "My Computer". This is because the disk drive is not installed correctly. So, you can try to reinstall the SSD driver to check if this helps fix the SSD not detected issue. 

Step 1. Right-click on "This PC" and select "Manage". Under the System Tools section, click "Device Manager".

Step 2. Go to Disk drives. It should list the storage devices that you have connected to your PC.

Step 3. Right-click the SSD and choose "Uninstall device".

Step 4. Remove the SSD and restart your system. Try to connect the SSD again to check if Windows 10 detects the SSD as normal.

Conclusion

SSD, and any other form of storage media, are prone to mechanical failure and physical damage. You need to make advanced plans to safeguard the data on these storage drives. Making a backup is always a wise decision. It's never too late to take action to save a copy of hard drive data to another safe location, like a backup drive, cloud, or network drive... To make a whole backup of your hard drive, EaseUS Todo Backup Free can help you out.

To summarize, we analyzed four cases and offered appropriate fixes regarding SSD not showing up in Windows 10 or 11. We recommended two assistive tools in the middle and the final repair process.

1. 1. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard - to recover lost data from inaccessible and formatted hard drive/partition.
2. 2. EaseUS Todo Backup - to back up a hard drive/partition.

SSD Not Showing Up FAQs

To conclude the guide, we have selected some of the most asked questions about SSD not showing up problems in Windows. These questions and their answers are.

1. Why is my SSD not showing up?

Driver issues are one of the major reasons. Like a hard drive, the SSD is often detected but not showing up in My Computer because the disk driver is not installed properly. So, you can try to reinstall the SSD driver to check if it helps fix the issue.

2. How do I get my new SSD to show up?

If you get a new SSD and it won't show up in Windows Disk Management, it's likely in an uninitialized state. You must initialize a disk before the Logical Disk Manager can access it.

3. How do I fix SSD not detected in BIOS?

To get BIOS to detect the SSD, you need to configure the SSD settings in BIOS as follows.

• Restart your computer, and press the F2 key after the first screen.
• Press the Enter key to enter Config.
• Select Serial ATA and press Enter.
• Then you'll see the SATA Controller Mode Option.
• Save your changes and restart your computer to enter BIOS.