Solved M.2 SSD is no longer detected by windows after windows update

[techperplexed]

I have windows 7 installed on a Samsung EVO 970 M.2 SSD. it has worked flawlessly for well over a year now. This afternoon as I was waiting for my kids to get home from school I decided to install the latest Windows updates. I believe there were only 5 of them. the cumulative security roll up, malicious software removal tool and a few others. They downloaded fine and installed and asked to restart my computer. So i did.
But when the computer restarted I was greeted with an error message that read:

I checked the Bios and the Drive is listed there, but windows no longer recognizes it. I tried repairing the drive with the install disk but it tells me the repair program is not compatible with my version of windows. Any help is very much appreciated as I have some important documents on there. And before anyone asks, no I do not have a back up to load. I will going forward though.

 

[Snick]

You need to go to disk management
and bring m2 online.
Happens with SSDs sometimes too.
cmd
diskmgmt.msc
find your drive
if it is offline
click on it left side

online whatever
ok
should be visible in Computer now.
Bill

 

[Megahertz07]

I have windows 7 installed on a Samsung EVO 970 M.2 SSD.

I checked the Bios and the Drive is listed there, but windows no longer recognizes it. I tried repairing the drive with the install disk but it tells me the repair program is not compatible with my version of windows.

This happens if Windows was installed on your M.2 SSD as UEFI-GPT and you're booting the installation disk as Legacy-MBR or vice-versa.
Other reason can be that your installation disk doesn't have the MVMe drivers. Is your installation disk the same used to install Win 7?

 

[techperplexed]

Thank you for the quick replies. The only way I can get to a command prompt is the installation disk will load files and ask if I want to install windows, or repair windows. At this point I hit shift +f10 and it gives me a prompt at x:\Source. Entering diskmgmt.msc gets me a "dikmgmt.msc is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program, or batch file.

Being over a year ago since install I believe It was cloned using Samsung software, and I do recall having to get nvme drivers for windows 7. Also I recall setting the drive as gpt.

I went to samsung to get the nvme drivers and put them on a flash drive, but I cant seem to access them with the options I have.

 

[techperplexed]

If I install windows on the hdd, would I then be able to install the nvme drivers to once again detect the ssd? And then just set the ssd as the new boot drive?

 

[Megahertz07]

It is diskmgmt.msc not dikmgmt.msc. But it's no available under WinPE/

If your drive is UEFI-GPT you MUST boot the installation disk as UEFI, not legacy.
Once you boot from the installation disk, if ask for a driver, load the MVMe drivers (Must be *.inf, *.cat, *.sys)
Open a CMD window and type:
diskpart
list disk (see if you can see the disk and it it's GPT)
list volume (to see all partitions. Do you see the Windows and EFI fat32 partition?)
exit

Report

 

[techperplexed]

Dikmgmt.msc was a typo as I'm on my phone and have chunky fingers typing on my phone. I can assure you I tried diskmgmt.msc...any how as I said earlier I downloaded the nvme files to a flash drive however there were no options available to access them. I did run diskpart and all I saw was the hdd drive I use for data it was gpt format. What ended up working was I did a diskpart clean all function on that drive to completely erase everything on it as it only had games stored on it. I could easily get those back. I reinstalled windows on that drive and reinstalled the nvme drivers which allowed me access to the ssd and the files I needed. I ha e since backed those up and am good to go. Thanks to all of you who have replied and helped me out. I must say, I'm a bit hesitant to install anymore updates from windows update though. I'll mark this thread as solved.

 

[Megahertz07]

For the updates, use Simplix.
MS releases SP2 for Windows 7