Update: I executed quick scan on the Dell support website (https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04 - entered my service tag and clicked the "Quick test" button). No issues was found, but the results suggested that I should update my BIOS and included link to download the updater. I downloaded and launched it, my BIOS got updated and now the problem seem to have disappeared. I will write here if it reappears at some point in the future, but for now updating BIOS following the steps I did seems to be the solution. Good luck to anyone having the same problem!
not sure whether yor are still active here, but I am experiencing the exact same problem on my brand new M15 R7. I will definitely try your suggestion, but I am also curious whether this issue is really gone by BIOS updating?
i am coming back just to tell that nothing is working. First again the problem: my D disk spontaneously disappears. I can not find them anywhere, not in disk management, not in Crystal Disk Info (they all simply only show my C disk, just like D disk does not ever exist). Yesterday I updated my BIOS through the Dell Support Website (and have done all the upgrades it suggests), and temporarily yesterday, my D disk was back. But today, as I have installed some new stuff into D disk, it again disappears. What should I do in the next step?
I would maybe like to check that we are talking about the same point. The situation is:
- when I boost my laptop, there is a chance that D disk does not show up in the explorer. If it shows up, it may still disappear (typically when I installed something new in D)
- If the disk does not show up in the explorer, it is always the case that it cannot be shown in Disk Management (nor Crystal Dew Info) as well.
- So now I have tried a few times again and, by chance, D appears in exploere (and also in Disk Management). The point is that disk D (which is numbered "Disk 1" in Disk Manager) does have it's proper letter D. I have also seen the link about "How to assign permanent letters to drives" and I guess the letter D is already permanent there. Is it dedicated that I should rename it with another letter like Z? Honestly I do not quite want to do this since a lot of softwares are already installed in D and rename the whole disk makes many things messy and temporarily unusable.
When installing existing or update BIOS version, remember to manually download file onto your system, verify file checksum value and then install. Never try to install BIOS file over the internet.
When running applications, games, software, etc. these must be installed on the fast or ultrafast M.2 NVMe SSD OS (C:) boot drive and not the Data (D:) drive which is used for storage of personal files, etc. If the number of applications on the (C:) drive is large with very little free space, a higher capacity (C:) drive is required.
Typically, OS (C:) boot drive should be 2TB with 1TB of applications, so that there is 1TB of room for temporary files to be unpacked and run during graphic intensive games and applications.
Please use Macrium Software | Reflect Free Edition to clone (copy) the small capacity M.2 NVMe (C:) drive onto a large capacity M.2 NVMe SSD drive without losing any information and retaining registration of applications. Make sure that the large capacity M.2 NVMe partition format is the modern GPT (not MBR) so that BIOS boot list option UEFI is enabled. When clone complete, swap in your higher capacity clone as your M.2 NVMe OS (C:) boot drive.
EgorBobrov
2 Posts
1
March 6th, 2020 09:00
Update: I executed quick scan on the Dell support website (https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04 - entered my service tag and clicked the "Quick test" button). No issues was found, but the results suggested that I should update my BIOS and included link to download the updater. I downloaded and launched it, my BIOS got updated and now the problem seem to have disappeared. I will write here if it reappears at some point in the future, but for now updating BIOS following the steps I did seems to be the solution. Good luck to anyone having the same problem!
tyh_bt
4 Posts
0
November 22nd, 2022 00:00
Hi Egor,
not sure whether yor are still active here, but I am experiencing the exact same problem on my brand new M15 R7. I will definitely try your suggestion, but I am also curious whether this issue is really gone by BIOS updating?
Tyh
crimsom
7 Technologist
•
6.1K Posts
0
November 22nd, 2022 02:00
Hi @tyh_bt welcome to this free user-to-user Alienware laptop discussion forum.
Please download and run 'Crystal Disk Info x64' to check health of all drives: Crystal Dew World [en] - (crystalmark.info).
tyh_bt
4 Posts
0
November 23rd, 2022 03:00
Hi @crimsom and maybe also @EgorBobrov ,
i am coming back just to tell that nothing is working. First again the problem: my D disk spontaneously disappears. I can not find them anywhere, not in disk management, not in Crystal Disk Info (they all simply only show my C disk, just like D disk does not ever exist). Yesterday I updated my BIOS through the Dell Support Website (and have done all the upgrades it suggests), and temporarily yesterday, my D disk was back. But today, as I have installed some new stuff into D disk, it again disappears. What should I do in the next step?
tyh
tyh_bt
4 Posts
0
November 23rd, 2022 04:00
Hi @crimsom thank you for the info.
I would maybe like to check that we are talking about the same point. The situation is:
- when I boost my laptop, there is a chance that D disk does not show up in the explorer. If it shows up, it may still disappear (typically when I installed something new in D)
- If the disk does not show up in the explorer, it is always the case that it cannot be shown in Disk Management (nor Crystal Dew Info) as well.
- So now I have tried a few times again and, by chance, D appears in exploere (and also in Disk Management). The point is that disk D (which is numbered "Disk 1" in Disk Manager) does have it's proper letter D. I have also seen the link about "How to assign permanent letters to drives" and I guess the letter D is already permanent there. Is it dedicated that I should rename it with another letter like Z? Honestly I do not quite want to do this since a lot of softwares are already installed in D and rename the whole disk makes many things messy and temporarily unusable.
Tyh
crimsom
7 Technologist
•
6.1K Posts
0
November 23rd, 2022 04:00
Hi @tyh_bt thank you for sharing update.
Please visit Disk Management and assign the 'missing' drive (or partition) a permanent drive letter so that windows can see this drive. How to assign permanent letters to drives on Windows 10 | Windows Central.
When installing existing or update BIOS version, remember to manually download file onto your system, verify file checksum value and then install. Never try to install BIOS file over the internet.
Alienware 15 R4 and Alienware 17 R5 System BIOS | Driver Details | Dell US
MD5 & SHA Checksum Utility | Raymond's WordPress
crimsom
7 Technologist
•
6.1K Posts
0
November 23rd, 2022 07:00
Hi @tyh_bt thank you for sharing update.
When running applications, games, software, etc. these must be installed on the fast or ultrafast M.2 NVMe SSD OS (C:) boot drive and not the Data (D:) drive which is used for storage of personal files, etc. If the number of applications on the (C:) drive is large with very little free space, a higher capacity (C:) drive is required.
Typically, OS (C:) boot drive should be 2TB with 1TB of applications, so that there is 1TB of room for temporary files to be unpacked and run during graphic intensive games and applications.
Please use Macrium Software | Reflect Free Edition to clone (copy) the small capacity M.2 NVMe (C:) drive onto a large capacity M.2 NVMe SSD drive without losing any information and retaining registration of applications. Make sure that the large capacity M.2 NVMe partition format is the modern GPT (not MBR) so that BIOS boot list option UEFI is enabled. When clone complete, swap in your higher capacity clone as your M.2 NVMe OS (C:) boot drive.