Acer Aspire 5 (A515-56-54U9) Hard Drive Not Found. Not even in BIOS

Hi All,

This is my first post, so hi! It's a pleasure to meet you! And hopefully my fellow nerd who can help with my issue ^^;

Okay, onto the issue:

I bought this laptop with the intention of using a fast and smart laptop... It wasn't that easy:

The laptop, who's model I put in the question section - Does NOT show me a hard drive when trying to install windows via boot from USB.

The laptop has BOTH a NVME drive and a SSD which I have put into the laptop, as it was sold to me without them.

In the BIOS screen, there is mention of the hard drives, but I CANNOT change the boot mode to Legacy from UEFI and the BIOS screen is NOT allowing me to change the boot order.

It (The Bios Screen) ONLY has "Windows Boot Manager". There is NO other option to use ANYTHING else.

Secure boot is enabled by default. There is NO other option.

I am desperately trying to get this laptop working. It's my first 11th Generation laptop and I REALLY want to use it for gaming, etc. And test it out. But I can't without Windows...

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

Note: It will REFUSE to update the BIOS. I was under the impression you needed to load Windows BEFORE updating the Bios.

I will try that as well. As the bios is v1.17... Don't know if that helps at all?

Many thanks all.

~Time_Traveller159

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Time_Traveller159

I would like to say I have solved the missing hard drives issue. I kept looking and looking and eventually I found this:

" run bios"
"- on "Main" menu press ctrl + s to display "VMD Controller" setting"
"- disable VMD Controller"
"- save changes"
"- run Win10 installer again"

I can't believe I didn't spot this sooner!

I don't know how to put this as answered. But here's hoping this laptop does NOT have an issue again...

I PRAY it works flawlessly for now ^^;

StevenGen

Time_Traveller159 said:

Hi All,

This is my first post, so hi! It's a pleasure to meet you! And hopefully my fellow nerd who can help with my issue ^^;

Okay, onto the issue:

I bought this laptop with the intention of using a fast and smart laptop... It wasn't that easy:

The laptop, who's model I put in the question section - Does NOT show me a hard drive when trying to install windows via boot from USB.

The laptop has BOTH a NVME drive and a SSD which I have put into the laptop, as it was sold to me without them.

In the BIOS screen, there is mention of the hard drives, but I CANNOT change the boot mode to Legacy from UEFI and the BIOS screen is NOT allowing me to change the boot order.

It (The Bios Screen) ONLY has "Windows Boot Manager". There is NO other option to use ANYTHING else.

Secure boot is enabled by default. There is NO other option.

I am desperately trying to get this laptop working. It's my first 11th Generation laptop and I REALLY want to use it for gaming, etc. And test it out. But I can't without Windows...

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

Note: It will REFUSE to update the BIOS. I was under the impression you needed to load Windows BEFORE updating the Bios.

I will try that as well. As the bios is v1.17... Don't know if that helps at all?

Many thanks all.

~Time_Traveller159

This is what you do to do a clean install and make your laptop perform at its best, this is for either Win-10 or Win-11 for your A515-56, btw install Win-11 as its the best for the future and your laptop has all the drivers for this OS, its my opinion only but you can install either OS's.

Follow these steps below:

1. Have the Win Installation Boot USB and another USB with the Aspire A515-56 "IRST (Intel® Rapid Storage Technology) Driver" onto another USB ready, as if you don't have the IRST installed then you won't be able to install onto the boot drive or any drive.
2. Start the install process and when you get to the install option choose > "Custom Install Windows only (advanced)" and if you don't see the boot drive then install the "IRST (Intel® Rapid Storage Technology) Driver" as that is why "Does NOT show me a hard drive when trying to install windows via boot from USB"
3. Then continue with the installation until the end "see this visual Win-11 guide" and follow all the steps.
4. Don't worry and/or change anything in the bios as you don't need to
5. With bios update you don't need to upgrade anything as you only do a bios update if you have a specific thing wrong with your laptop that the bios title fixes e.g and the last bios fix for your laptop the A515-56 is Version 1.28 that fixes the following:
1. Implement intel memory patch for on board ram.
2. Support Micron on board ram and module.
3. Support LITEON WLAN.
4. Support HT Micron on board ram.
If you have any of the problems above then install this bios update.

5. Do all the Windows Updates and after install the Intel® Driver & Support Assistant and do a scan to give you all the latest Intel drivers and update them!
6. After look into Device Manager and see if all the drivers are up to date, if not then get uninstalled drivers from the A515-56 Acer site and update them with the OEM drivers.
7. Do the Crucial System Scan also this scan will also tell you the max and best compatible ram for your laptop. I would upgrade ram to 16GB and add 1x 8GB of the same ram that you have (install CPUz to see your OEM spec ram) and update to the same 1x 8GB type ram, also upgrade to the type M.2 NVMe PCIe type SSD drives like a Samsung or the WD NS 850 or 750 types.
6. Make sure that you have TRIM enabled within windows.

Do all the above as all those process will install and make your laptop perform at its best. Good luck and hope this helps you out.

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