Solved! New SSD is seen in Device Manager, but not as unallocated space and can't use or format

[fastguy108]

I just bought a SK hynix P31 SSD MCIe NVMe M.2 1TB drive and want to replace my current startup 250 GB SSD (Samsung). I got an external enclosure as well, both to clone the existing boot drive first to the new bigger SSD and then to house the old SSD. Device Manager sees it, but only as present with unique drive letter, not as formatted or as Unallocated Space, therefore I can't do anything to format or use it. It also is seen in File Manager, but I can't format it there either.

How to move forward?? Thanks

Never seen this before and google no help so far.

https://ibb.co/qJ2DMJY

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[AlHuneke]

Try to following to set it up. However, you should be using clone software to copy the old system. AFAIK, that software will set up the new drive. You can't clone a drive just by copying files. One you get the data cloned, you can use the following to clean up the old drive. Proceed with great caution and make sure you have the right drive selected. These are some notes I make for my own use so use at your own risk!

Clean a disk (hard drive or USB stick)

• Type "Cmd" into the search box on left end of command bar and click on "Run as Administrator"
• Type "Diskpart" at the command prompt. Spend a little time with Help to gain a basic understanding of the commands. Typing a wrong command can lead to complete loss of system partitions!
• Enter "list disk" to determine the disk number of the disk of interest. Probably will never be disk 0!
• Enter "select disk N" where N is the number of the disk of interest.
• Enter "detail disk" to help confirm the proper disk is selected.
• Enter "clean all" to clear all info from the disk. This will take a LONG time (could be many hours or even days!). You can leave off the "all" to not actually erase the disk data but clear the disk setup info which effectively makes any data unreachable. This option is very quick.
• Enter "convert gpt or mbr" to make the disk type what you want. USB sticks should generally be MBR for general data storage. May need to be GPR to be bootable.
• Enter "create partition primary"
• Enter "format fs=$$$ quick". If HD, likely will use NTFS. For stick:
• • Use FAT32 for best compatibility
  • Use NTFS if only used with Windows and advanced features needed (e.g. security)
  • Use exFAT if copying files greater than 4GB,
• Enter "active" Not sure this is needed. Try it without first.
• Enter "assign" to give the USB or drive a letter name
• Exit

 

[rgd1101]

windows 10/11? check storage spaces

 

[fastguy108]

Try to following to set it up. However, you should be using clone software to copy the old system. AFAIK, that software will set up the new drive. You can't clone a drive just by copying files. One you get the data cloned, you can use the following to clean up the old drive. Proceed with great caution and make sure you have the right drive selected. These are some notes I make for my own use so use at your own risk!

Clean a disk (hard drive or USB stick)

• Type "Cmd" into the search box on left end of command bar and click on "Run as Administrator"
• Type "Diskpart" at the command prompt. Spend a little time with Help to gain a basic understanding of the commands. Typing a wrong command can lead to complete loss of system partitions!
• Enter "list disk" to determine the disk number of the disk of interest. Probably will never be disk 0!
• Enter "select disk N" where N is the number of the disk of interest.
• Enter "detail disk" to help confirm the proper disk is selected.
• Enter "clean all" to clear all info from the disk. This will take a LONG time (could be many hours or even days!). You can leave off the "all" to not actually erase the disk data but clear the disk setup info which effectively makes any data unreachable. This option is very quick.
• Enter "convert gpt or mbr" to make the disk type what you want. USB sticks should generally be MBR for general data storage. May need to be GPR to be bootable.
• Enter "create partition primary"
• Enter "format fs=$$$ quick". If HD, likely will use NTFS. For stick:
• • Use FAT32 for best compatibility
  • Use NTFS if only used with Windows and advanced features needed (e.g. security)
  • Use exFAT if copying files greater than 4GB,
• Enter "active" Not sure this is needed. Try it without first.
• Enter "assign" to give the USB or drive a letter name
• Exit

Thanks.
I'm not to the stage of cloning yet, I know I have to use software for that, and I don't have one researched yet. If it would format the new drive too, bonus, so I'll search.

Are you suggesting to use this process on the new drive before cloning though? I could see it might work. I'm just puzzled over the status of seeing the drive but no Unallocated Space assigned, or anything, which just halts the normal channels for formatting.

 

[fastguy108]

windows 10/11? check storage spaces

Only the original SSD shows up there, not the D drive HDD even.

Thanks.
I'm not to the stage of cloning yet, I know I have to use software for that, and I don't have one researched yet. If it would format the new drive too, bonus, so I'll search.

Are you suggesting to use this process on the new drive before cloning though? I could see it might work. I'm just puzzled over the status of seeing the drive but no Unallocated Space assigned, or anything, which just halts the normal channels for formatting.

Diskpart does not even see the new drive, only the two previously installed drives, So this will not seemingly help. Still need a way for the system to see the space on the new drive.

Also downloaded Macrium Reflect to clone the drive, and it does not see the new drive either, only the original 2 drives.

 

[rgd1101]

Only the original SSD shows up there, not the D drive HDD even.

not disk management.
storage spaces

 

[fastguy108]

not disk management.
storage spaces

Yeah I understood - nada
found the D drive but the E doesn't even show here and would be another 1TB
https://ibb.co/p1rjsg9