Fix SSD Not Showing Up in Windows 10 or 11(4 Methods)

Have you also experienced SSD not showing up in Windows 10 or 11? No need to panic. In this post, we can help you solve this problem easily by 4 effective methods and recover data from SSD if there is any important data on it.

Reasons for SSD Not Showing Up in Windows 10 or 11

The reasons why the SSD does not show up may be due to the following:

• No drive letter
• Not initialized SSD
• Outdated or corrupted drivers
• Incompatible file system
• Faulty SSD
• Memory issues with SSD
• Physical corruption

For whatever reason, if your SSD has stopped showing up in the system, you will not be able to access it.

How to Fix SSD Not Showing Up in Windows 10 or 11?

Method 1: Assign a drive letter

Sometimes your SSD  not show up in Windows 10 or 11 because the SSD's drive letter is missing or conflicting with another disk. You can resolve this issue by manually assigning a new drive letter to the SSD in Windows Disk Management. Please follow these steps to assign the SSD a new drive letter.

Step 1. Right-click on "This PC" > "Manage" > “Disk Management”.

Step 2. Right-click on the SSD disk and select “Change Drive Letter and Paths…”

Step 3. Click "Add" to add a new drive letter, or click “Change” if there is an existing drive letter. Then, select a drive letter from the list for the SSD and click "OK".

Method 2: Initialize SSD disk

A common reason for an SSD not showing up in Windows 10 or 11 is that it hasn't been initialized. Generally, the new SSD does not display on Windows, or the old SSD displays the "disk unknown not initialized" error.

You need to initialize the SSD disk but the subsequent formatting process will delete all the data automatically. If you have not backed up your data beforehand, you can download data recovery software MyRecover to easily recover data from SSD before initializing it.

Steps to recover data from SSD

Step 1. Download MyRecover on Windows 10/11, install and run it. Hover the mouse over the SSD saved deleted files before, and click Scan.

Step 2. It will run two advanced scanning methods automatically and display all the found files on your SSD.

Tip:✎Preview or filter date depending on Files Type, Size, Date, etc.

Type: Select the file type (Documents, Images, Videos, Audios, Mails, Webpages, Compressed files, etc.)

Date modified: Set the date (today, yesterday, last 7/30 days, etc.)

Size: Filter the file size (<128KB, 128KB~1MB, 1MB~ 512MB, 512MB above, etc.)

Step 3. After the scan is complete, you will see a list of data that MyRecover found on the SD card. Choose the files you want to recover and press Recover x files.

Step 4. You need to select a new location to prevent the recovered data from being overwritten.

Congratulations. Your data from SSD has been recovered!

After protecting your data from SSD, please follow the steps to initialize it:

Steps to initialize SSD disk

Step 1. Right-click on "This PC" > "Manage" > “Disk Management”.

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

Step 3. In the Initialize Disk dialog box, select the disk(s) to initialize. You can choose to use the Master Boot Record (MBR) or GUID Partition Table (GPT) partition type. Then click the “OK” button.

Steps to new simple volume

Step 1. After initialization, right-click on the unallocated space of your SSD and choose the “New Simple Volume” option.

Step 2. After setting the size and new drive letter of your SSD, click Format this volume with the following settings > Next.

Method 3: Format SSD

If the above methods do not resolve the issue, the file system may be corrupted or unsupported, marked as "RAW", "Free Space", or "Unallocated Space". At this point, you just need to format the disk.

Follow the steps below to format your SSD:

1. Right-click on the start menu and run "Disk Management".

2. Connect your SSD to the computer. Right-click on SSD and choose the "Format" option. Specify the desired file system, such as NTFS, during the formatting process.

Method 4: Reinstall the Drivers

Another situation may be that the disk driver is not installed correctly causing Windows 10/11 to not detect the SSD. Then follow the steps below to reinstall the drive:

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

Step 2. Find “Disk Drives” in the list of the storage devices connected to your PC.

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

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

Conclusion

Don’t worry about your SSD not showing up in Windows 10 or 11. You just need to follow the methods above to solve this issue. You can also recover lost data simply by using reliable and high-end data recovery software like MyRecover.

Regular backups and the use of reliable storage devices can reduce the risk of data loss. In the event of a disaster, you'll be able to quickly restore files from backups and get them back in no time

FAQs

1. Why is my new SSD not showing up in Windows 10/11?

If you have a new SSD and it doesn't show up in Windows Disk Management, it might be in an uninitialized state. You must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it.

2. My SSD is not showing up. Could it be a driver issue?

Yes, outdated or missing drivers can cause this issue. Visit the manufacturer's website to download and install the latest drivers for your SSD model, which may resolve the detection problem.

3. How to fix SSD not showing up in Windows 10 after Windows 10/11 update?

Drivers may become incompatible after an update. Reinstall or update the SSD driver. If the problem persists, please roll back the update or perform a system restore to where it was when the SSD was recognized.