Aurora R10, replacing HDD with SDD, clean windows load, bios not seeing drive

Question

hi folks,

i purchased a used r10 ryzen edition with a 1TB hdd. i want to replace this hdd with a 128GB ssd for quick booting. i dont need the hdd so my plans were to just pull it. i replaced the hdd with the sdd and proceeded to start windows 10 installation from usb. however, the windows installer doesnt see the ssd at all. i looked on the dell site for ssd controller drivers, but i didnt see any listed. what are the bios settings that need to get the bios to recognize this blank ssd? any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks

ac

r72019 · Answer

Try double checking that both the power cable, and the data cables are securely connected at both ends (I assume it's a 2.5" SSD?)

And by you can't see the drive, you also can't see it in BIOS f2 on boot?

r72019 · Answer

Also, were you referring to a 2.5' SSD or an M2 NVME SSD?  If the latter, is it M Key (NVME) SSD?

ac1113 · Answer

It is a 2.5' drive.  I have tried two SSD I have on hand, one PNY and one Sandisk.  Neither is being seen by the windows installer.  The currently installed Sandisk is being seen by the BIOS so I guess it is not being recognized by the windows installer.  Is there a specific config for Boot?  Should the priority be Windows Manager first?

Vanadiel · Answer

Check your BIOS settings, and ensure the SATA ports are set to AHCI.

On my R10 they were set by default as RAID. In order to see your drive during windows installation when in RAID mode, you would need to load the correct RAID drivers.

Since there's no benefit using RAID mode in your specific instance, you are best off setting it to AHCI.

ac1113 · Answer

You are exactly correct.  I had the same epiphany and reset it to AHCI and the installer found the SSD.  Thanks for your help.

Vanadiel · Answer

Your welcome.

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Aurora R10, replacing HDD with SDD, clean windows load, bios not seeing drive

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