Setup Installation :: HP X360 / Win 8.1 Fresh Install - Cannot See SSD

I bought a new HP x360. As expected it comes with a slow drive loaded to the gills with bloatware. So I planned from the beginning to install a fresh copy of 8.1 on a SSD.

I used a new SSD and without doing too much reading created a bootable usb from the 8.1 upgrade with key link. Unbeknownst to me is that the win 7 machine I used (where I previously created a usb key for win 8 pro) is also a pro install that retained the previous key. It never asked for a key when creating the usb. So I ended up with a pro install on the HP laptop and I could not enable the key associated with the laptop.

Thus I started over. I tried various things to create a non-pro usb and had a lot of problems and tried various things. I ultimately succeeded in creating a x64 core 8.1 usb. Now my challenge is that I cannot see the SSD anymore. Even in diskpart I cannot see the ssd. At some point while the ssd was still available (but my install usb did not work due to wrong key) I ran diskpart with the following:

clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=ntfs
assign

Since then I could not see the ssd. I have tried the following:

-Put original disk back in. Install Paragon. Clone install over to ssd. Put ssd back in laptop. "No bootable device found"
-Put ssd in win 7. Run diskpart. Clean All. Convert GPT.

It is possible the problem lies in the bois. The model laptop is brand new. I updated the bios (it was 2 versions old). But HP site had no explanation of what changed in bios. I also enabled legacy support.

BTW the only way I can create a bootable usb is with Zotac WinUSB maker. Even with win7 usb maker the drive is not recognized. With Zotac I can enable EFI. If I create the image without EFI the laptop does not see it (again even if legacy support is enabled).

So to summarize;
With official 8.1 upgrade image and fresh SSD I could install
After that with 8.1 iso and drive cleaned with diskpart I cannot see drive

I tried again with the upgrade win 8.1 with product key and it worked again. Then I again tried with the ISO. But it still will not recognize the ssd. I get "a media driver your computer needs is missing". A common problem for this is using usb3. I tried with usb 3 and 2. When I shift=f10 and list disk I do not see the ssd.