M.2 not showing on boot menu.

[StevenT]

Hi after being on ASUS support for hours, spending a few hours at a friends I still cannot get the m.2 to show in the boot menu. When I plug in my other hard drive with windows the m.2 appears as a viable memory stick. I’m not really sure what to do my bios is fully updated and everything is plugged in correctly. This drive has m.2 slots and I used the first one. I’m not really sure what to do anymore ASUS straight up hung up on me after two hours of not being able to figure it out. I’ve never posted on here but my specs should show up. Any help is welcomed, my worst case scenario is that I just can’t use m2 to boot which kinda defeats the purpose of buying it.
The error I’ve received when trying to instal windows on the m.2 was a failure to create partition.
Thank you for your time.

 

[Deleted member 197986]

"This drive has m.2 slots and I used the first one. " - what is the card?
Formatted MBR or GPT? Windows will not install on GPT formatted.

 

[StevenT]

It’s a 970 Evo plus NVme m.2. I’ve installed windows on a buddies before and I haven’t had any issues thus far. I haven’t looked up much on what to do in terms of formatting because I haven’t had this issue before. I could try running a MBR formatting for it.

 

[ARF]

"This drive has m.2 slots and I used the first one. " - what is the card?
Formatted MBR or GPT? Windows will not install on GPT formatted.

Why? I have my USB install drive set to GPT with Rufus.
Haven't tried it yet, though.

So, further explanation, please. GPT USB drive won't install on MBR and will install on GPT SSD or HDD?

 

[TheLostSwede]

It’s a 970 Evo plus NVme m.2. I’ve installed windows on a buddies before and I haven’t had any issues thus far. I haven’t looked up much on what to do in terms of formatting because I haven’t had this issue before. I could try running a MBR formatting for it.

You want GPT, not MBR, but if the UEFI can't see it as a bootable device, you might simply be looking for the wrong thing.
Rather than the drive itself, the UEFI tends to show something a bit weird as the boot option, like a Windows something or the other (I can't remember what it says from the top of my head).
You also need to prepare a GPT enabled USB stick to install Windows from, as the default is still MBR afaik.
Try this:

How to Install Windows 11/10 on GPT Partition in 2025

Can't install Windows 11/10 on GPT partition? This page shows you how to install Windows 11/10 on GPT partition successfully in the easiest way. Try it when GPT partition style preventing Windows 10 Installation with the error message 'Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk...

www.easeus.com

 

[StevenT]

Can confirm my m.2 is GPT formatted. When I’m in my bios and I have my boot options pulled up the m.2 is simply not there. It is still in the bios as a storage device. I’m going to now check the formatting of the usb I’m using to install it.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I'd suggest using Rufus to create the bootable USB drive.
Some quick instructions here:

How to Create Bootable USB Drive of Windows 10/11 using Rufus?

Microsoft has refined the process of creating and setting up media for its operating system with Windows 11, building upon its previous efforts with

appuals.com

 

[StevenT]

Confirming my installation hard drive is set to MBR

 

[TheLostSwede]

Confirming my installation hard drive is set to MBR

Follow the instructions above to make one that you can install to a GPT partition with.

 

[StevenT]

Will do, thank you for your time I will post an update when I get results.

Hi it’s still not wanting to work. A side note I have no idea why that first drive pattern shows up. On my friends build it did not.

 

[Caring1]

It's the boot loader file, reserved partition for a GPT system, 16MB is the minimum size.
Odd name calling it Microsoft Reserved reserved it's a bit like saying ATM machine.

 

[Deleted member 197986]

Check this or this or this

 

[StevenT]

Check this or this or this

Hi thank you for these videos. I'm about to sleep I will reply with results tomorrow.

 

[lexx]

yep the diskpart clean disk to reset is norm the way to go (just make sure you select the correct disk make sure you do "list disk" first before doing "select disk x" or you will nuke the incorrect disk , Note the clean command does not ask it immediately does it)

when you go to install windows on the empty space just press next the setup will automatically create the 3 partitions (if it was booted via UEFI it be GPT, 2 partitions if MBR system was booted using legacy boot)

 

[StevenT]

So the craziest thing happen. I went to work for a few days and finally got time to get back too it. Booted it up and it installed without me doing anything. Other than reformatting the usb install to the m2 formatting I didn’t do anything else it just started working. Thank you for the help everyone.