Hard drive not detected

When you're running Rufus, make sure you select the GPT partition scheme.

Noah Miller6 said:they're saying over on the Dell forums:

Have you tried converting the SSD to GPT during the Windows 10 installation? If that doesn't work, just hit Shift + F10 and type diskpart, then disk list, select disk x, clean (this wipes everything!), and finally convert gpt! After that, just exit the Command Prompt and see if you can get Windows installed on the SSD!

Honestly, I ran into the exact same thing once—I ended up fixing it by plugging the SSD into an external enclosure, formatting it directly through Windows, and then everything worked perfectly.
If you have a way to do that, it’s totally free and worth a shot.

Or check this out:

I already gave that other option a shot, but it didn't do anything—everything is still stuck exactly where it was. So now I'm trying the first method using a USB drive—I got into the Command Prompt and typed diskpart, and man, it just spits out a huge list of commands and descriptions explaining what they do... stuff like
ACTIVE- mark the selected partition as active
ADD-add a mirror to simple volume etc. etc...

I even tried doing it without the USB, just restarting my laptop over and over, hitting Shift + F10, and basically just getting frustrated at this point. I'm gonna try using a newer version of Microsoft 365 from 2020 (using Rufus) and if that fails, I'll give it another go tonight when my brain isn't so fried 🐔. Thanks for the help, everyone 😵

Noah Miller6 said:When you're using Rufus, make sure you select GPT as the partition scheme.

Alright, I'm gonna give that a shot right now...

https://macrorit.com/partition-magic...mand-line.html

Here it is—the latest Windows Pro build from 2020,
Noah Miller6, it actually worked! Now I’m just sitting here wondering if it’s because of the OS itself or if that switch to the Master Boot Record you suggested did the trick... it's installing right now.
Seriously, thanks a million, you guys were a huge help 🎉🎉
I've learned a ton... honestly, even just cracking open my laptop taught me so much—I used to be pretty clueless about where everything was actually located inside the hardware.

Yeah, it was using the Master Boot Record back then.
Best,

...it wasn't an issue with the Master Boot Record because even the old USB drive was showing up right up until I hit the part where I had to pick a drive—which didn't even show up.
If it were a Master Boot Record problem, I wouldn't have even been able to see or boot from that old install USB in the first place.
The culprit was actually driver support within the latest ISO Windows 10 for newer chipsets (meaning both the disk controller and those newer drives weren't being recognized).
Anyway, now that the installation is finished, that SSD is definitely set up on GPT.

wearymason4....
If that’s your take, fine.
Best,

You can never have too much common sense...

Cheers