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15 Posts
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2237
December 20th, 2016 17:00
Alienware R4 Aurora Hard drive failed - how to get a replacement?
My Aurora R4 hard drive has failed.
The SSD drive is a LITEONIT LCS-256M6S 2.5 7mm 256GB
I would like to buy a new hard drive that is a larger SSD. How do I know which hard drives are compatible ?
I don't want to go through Dell. Thanks
dhanoad
15 Posts
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December 21st, 2016 12:00
I found the problem: the plastic guide on the shorter SATA portion of the SSD has broken off and it is stuck in the SATA1 cable. I have seen some solutions on Youtube. They are not working.
I hold the SATA 1 plug firmly in the SSD and try a reboot but still I get no presence in the BIOS. This really ***. SATA have a bad design flaw because the plastic guides fracture off so easily
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
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17.5K Posts
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December 20th, 2016 18:00
Yeah, the old LiteOn stuff was never very good. I was hoping their newer SSD line-up was better when I heard and saw that Dell was pre-installing them.
Any SATA based 2.5inch SSD should work.
I still like Kingston, Samsung, or Intel. I have some of each and they still work fine after many years.
en.community.dell.com/.../19568143
There are also more exotic (PCIe and M.2) solutions that may or may-not work or be difficult to setup. Under the circumstances, I would stick to SATA-3/600 and 2.5inch form-factor solutions.
Finally, since that LiteOn was pre-installed, have you tried re-seating all the cables (including special tray if equipped) and maybe re-trying BIOS detection and/or fdisk/format ?
dhanoad
15 Posts
0
December 21st, 2016 06:00
Thanks for the reply Telstar. How do you re-try the BIOS HDD detection? Leave BIOS with the "Save and reset" option? or is there another way to test without rebooting?
dhanoad
15 Posts
0
December 21st, 2016 08:00
Upon reseating I noticed that the SATA 1 cable is mildly different than SATA 2-4. SATA 1 is the only cable that fits on my failed SSD, SATA 2-4 fall off; they dont fit snugly. Why is that? Are not all SATA cables made equal?
beamermt79
4 Operator
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2.3K Posts
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December 21st, 2016 10:00
They should be equal. It could be a cable fault. Another brand I like is Crucial.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
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17.5K Posts
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December 21st, 2016 10:00
You can use high-quality SATA-3/600 rated cables on any port and some have locking clips.
Old LiteOn SSD can also be tested on inexpensive SATA-to-USB testing-interface, USB-Enclosure, or USB-Dock.