Windows 11 Install Won't Recognize Installation SSD

Add me to the list of folks that don't understand HP's version of the English language. The specs on my Windows 11 HP Envy Desktop TE01-3197c say:

One Intel 670P Series 1 TB SSD included. Expansion slots: 2 M.2 (1 for SSD, 1 for WLAN); 1 PCIe x16; 1 PCIe x1

I take that to mean there is one open slot for a second M.2 SSD. I bought a 2TB WD Black SN770 SSD for my second SSD. Cracked the case open and lo & behold, no second "expansion" slot. Decided to just replace the 1 TB with the 2 TB.

Loaded up a USB drive with a Windows 11 ISO directly from Microsoft. When arriving at the installation page to pick a drive; there are no drives available due to a lack of drivers. Head over to WD support page and states all drivers must come from Windows, no manual drivers available. SSD was seated properly in slot but I removed and reinserted anyway.

Called WD, spent about 4 hours with Level 2 support tech. He says not a lack of a driver but a Windows bug. Nonetheless, he worked with me. Got disconnected after the first two hours, then he called me back. Got disconnected after another two hours and still awaiting a callback.

Tried the ISO on two different SanDisk USB thumb drives, 16GB & 64GB. Ran the BIOS quick check on the SSD; no issues. Loaded a SSD driver from the HP web site on a thumb drive but installation wouldn't recognize it.

Any solutions? Thanks.

What you're missing is the Intel RST storage driver for your SATA controller.

If you're unfamiliar with integrating drivers into the ISO, the quick answer is go into BIOS and disable RAID mode for the SATA controller. Now booting into the ISO will see your SSD.

I was about to post something similar to "garlin", although I'd have been less positive.

If you can set the drive controller to AHCI (rather than RAID), that should help.

Some laptops required the RAID setting if they included an Intel Optane drive as a cache drive, but that doesn't apply to the TE01-3197c, apparently.

This is what I found in BIOS. Nothing adjustable. Am I missing something? Thanks.

BIC said:

Expansion slots: 2 M.2 (1 for SSD, 1 for WLAN)

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what is unclear about this. Only one of those M.2 slots is for storage. The other M.2 slot is for the WiFi adapter (WLAN = Wireless LAN). They spell it out quite clearly.

I forgot to mention I previously tried the "Load Driver" with the following HP storage files from a thumb drive:

iaStoreAC
iaStorAC.sys
iaStorAfs.sys
RstMwEventLog.dll
RstMwService
sp145341

No drivers were found for "Load Driver."

OEM's hate you.

1. Download the Intel RST 19.x driver installer.

2. Extract the drivers to a folder:

3. Copy folder "SetupRST_extracted\production\Windows10-x64\15063\Drivers\VMD" to your USB drive

4. Load Driver from this distribution.

For "Load driver" to work, you need to have access to the .inf file.

If you are going to be reinstalling more than just once, for example, on a regualr basis, you could also consider injecting the driver into your Windows image.

I don't spot a BIOS manual for the TE01-3197c.

It really doesn't have a provision to choose AHCI mode for its HDD controller? (I'm accustomed to desktop PCs. I have a laptop, but 11 on it was an upgrade over 10, rather than a clean install.)

Some of the newer models apparently lack the option. I have no idea why MS doesn't solve this problem by rolling a slightly older VMD driver into W11. If they provided an older driver by default, it would solve the missing driver problem and still allow experienced users to replace the included version with a more current driver.

I have hp supplied win10-11 rst drivers vmd and nonvmd.
RSTVMD 19.5.0.1037
RST 18.36.2.1023
just unzip it
hp-rst-winpe10-11.zip