Laptop's HDD completely missing in Windows 10

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oyobembe

New Member
I have a Laptop with an internal SSD and HDD, and the later is completely missing, by trial and error I have concluded that a customized GamerOS Preset might be the cause so I'm posting here to see if anyone know any solution.

Before you tell me to try one of various easy and common solutions I'll leave what I've already tried and didn't work out: HDD doesn show up in the File Explorer, Driver Manager (Even after updating every driver), Disk Manager or DiskPart, and I know it's not a physical problem to plug and unplug it because said driver shows up perfectly on a Live Debian 12, and works as intended after I shredded the disk and formatted to try and see if the HDD was physically broken, so the only thing problem left must be the preset, because after reinstalling the customized Windows, I was using basically stock with a couple scripts and mods to try and tame windows' Updates, telemetry and various junky shenanigans, and the drive was there and working.

The preset that I'm using is at the end of this thread (https://www.ntlite.com/community/in...and-center-wont-budge-laptop.3829/#post-37925), be aware that this is a completely different computer and not the same as this thread.
 
GamerOS does nothing to prevent disk drives from being recognized. Normally it's an issue with missing or incorrect drivers.

A quick test for driver dependency is make an ISO from a clean copy of Windows. Boot from the ISO, and stop at the first screen. Open a CMD window with shift-F10, and run diskpart. Does an unmodified WinPE recognize your HDD?
 
It is still not recognized, which if anything is more baffling since this implies that the only clue I had left, my custom ISO with GamerOS preset, is no longer a clue and therefore I have no idea what in the world is happening.

Again just to be clear, I've booted into a Live Debian and the disk is recognized there using lsblk, fdisk, parted and mkfs, all of them worked, and I succesfully formatted the drive to ext4 and ntfs, and copied some test files to double check, so It can't be a physical issue.
 
I suspect it's missing the correct Intel RST driver. Linux distros by default tend to include more drivers than Windows out-of-the-box, it's because Windows Update is expected to find missing/newer drivers for you.

GamerOS like many of its kind, disable WU to blocked unwanted changes to the image.
 
That might not be the issue, because after a fresh install of windows, and installing the correct driver, directly from the Laptop's manufacturer website, the driver is still invisible.

As an added sidenote I've noticed some very weird things like, every fresh install, sometimes the audio driver is missing and impossible to install, this time it was not.
 
Still completely missing, I did use the media creation tool to made the bootable usb but I don't think that makes any difference, and yes I made sure to install every single update, and the driver is still invisible to Windows.
 
You haven't shared any specific details on the laptop or drive model. If you search the long GamerOS thread, users aren't complaining about unrecognized drives. So it's apparently limited to your HW config.
 
It's an Acer Predator PH517-51, but yeah pretty much if even using stock windows doesn't work, obviously it's not a GamerOS problem, and I didn't thought about HW because the Drive works normally in a Live Debian, so I'm still pretty lost, even though I am very thankful for all your support.
 
Acer's OEM driver is an older Intel RST 16.0.1.1018 version, running in AHCI mode. You can try adding the f6flpy-x64 drivers to both boot.wim & install.wim, and see if the 2nd drive is visible.
 
I got SetupRST(18.7.6.1010.3) for myself and i cant extract with 7zip, just the exe on the download page, no zips :mad:
 
I got the Zip from Acer's website, I can't share if from here because it's too big, however I have no idea what "Adding the drivers to both boot.wim & install.wim" means, I did add the drivers from the zip to the rom but perhaps I've added them wrong because yet again the driver is not visible.
 
1. Extract the Intel Storage drivers ZIP file to a local folder.
2. Load the image. From NTLite's Drivers page, add the f6flpy-x64 folder.
3. From the Apply page, expand the "Reapply tasks across editions" view and select "Integrate - Drivers".
4. Check boot.wim (Windows Setup), so NTLite applies drivers to boot install and boot WIM's at the same time.
5. Process the image, and make a new ISO.
 
garlin said:
1. Extract the Intel Storage drivers ZIP file to a local folder.
2. Load the image. From NTLite's Drivers page, add the f6flpy-x64 folder.
3. From the Apply page, expand the "Reapply tasks across editions" view and select "Integrate - Drivers".
4. Check boot.wim (Windows Setup), so NTLite applies drivers to boot install and boot WIM's at the same time.
5. Process the image, and make a new ISO.
Click to expand...
Sorry for the delay, but yet again the driver is missing even after trying trying this
Clanger said:
I would run HD Sentinel(trial)(or similar disk health tool) to check the hdd's health just incase even just to rule it out as a possibly faulty drive.
Click to expand...
I can most definetly try this, obviously not on Windows because the drive would not be detected, but because the drive works perfectly fine on a Live Linux system, I highly doubt that's the problem, if there is a similar tool for that for linux I can try.
 
Driver is missing, or drive's not recognized? And your ISO has how many different install images? One or many?
Is the HDD, internal or external?

This isn't really that hard, but you're somehow leaving out some key details to this story.
 
oyobembe said:
I have a Laptop with an internal SSD and HDD
Click to expand...
I did said this at the start of the thread but just in case it wasn't clear: they're both internal
oyobembe said:
It is still not recognized
Click to expand...
Perhaps my bad choice of words may have cause confusion so let me repeat myself clearly: The driver is completely inaccesible while using Windows, it doesn't show up anywhere, file explorer, disk manager, driver manager, diskpart, even if you try third party software. That made me think that It may be a hardware problem when I opened the device to deep clean the dust clogging the vent, so to test my theory I booted into a Live Debian 12 and to my surprise the drive is fully recognized, I was able to shred it, format it to ext4, copy and open some files, and do the same again with ntfs without any issues, but only in Linux.

So because you're asking about my ISO let me put the cherry on top: I made a Bootable Windows USB using the official MediaCreationTool, so basically everything should be stock and purely untouched, and update everything just like you asked me to do above:
Clanger said:
Install a pure untouched ms iso, update it and see what happens.
Click to expand...
Even that didn't solve the problem, the driver is still completely inaccesible, as in it is impossible to use it like it's not even there, but I know it's there because I've tested it out in Linux, even when you shred a disk it shows up in the Disk Manager and you are prompted to "Create a New volume" which I've done in the past with both the SSD and the HDD, I feel like you're not understanding my problem either because it's just completely uncomprehensibly baffling or because I haven't expressed myself well enough, so the latter I might solve. If I missed something please feel free to ask me, but before that be aware that I've already tried everything that you asked me on this thread. Meanwhile I'll be trying to get the actual ISO from Microsoft to try again without the MediaCreationTool just in case.
 
You're using a bad choice of words. The driver may be installed in Windows, but yet one of the drives isn't recognized. To confirm the driver is there, you would open Device Manager and look for your storage controller. When you open the details and look at the driver version, it should report the same Intel RST driver you integrated.
 
Okay so it seems that this might be a driver related problem, apparently the driver is indeed installed in Windows under "Storage Drivers", which makes sense, under the name "Intel(R) Chipset SATA/PCIe RST Premium Controller"...
garlin said:
Acer's OEM driver is an older Intel RST 16.0.1.1018 version, running in AHCI mode. You can try adding the f6flpy-x64 drivers to both boot.wim & install.wim, and see if the 2nd drive is visible.
Click to expand...
..and the version matches this one so it is indeed there.
 
Is your SSD a M.2 device? That's the only thing I can imagine is the M.2 is taking over one of the channels, and therefore you can't see the HDD. And Linux's driver doesn't have this issue.

You could test this by temporarily removing the SSD, booting the ISO and while in CMD check if the HDD suddenly appears. Confirm in BIOS if your controller is set to RAID mode or not.
 
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