4 Posts
0
1631
m15 R3, changed SSD slots - no OS found
Hi there,
I recently bought an Alienware m15 R3 with the standard 256GB m.2 SSD. I ordered the appropriate heatsink/bracket for SSD slot 3 in order to swap the SSD from slot 1 to slot 3 and install two 2280 m.2 SSDs in slots 1 & 2.
All 3 SSDs are properly recognized in the BIOS, however, no OS is found and I cannot for the love of god select SSD slot 3 (or any SSD for that matter) in the BIOS. I've turned Secure Boot off, but still I only have the options "Windows Boot Manager", "Nic IPv4" and "Nic IPv6".
How would I have to change the Windows Boot Manager in order to tell it that the OS drive is in a different slot? Or what do I need to do to get the SSDs selectable for boot sequence? Doesn't matter if I enter the BIOS or select f12 for one time boot sequence, I onl ever have the three aforementioned options.
Any ideas?
Cheers,
Fred
BaronVonSuff
4 Posts
1
September 17th, 2020 13:00
Hi,
all SSDs are correctly registered in BIOS and drive in question is the boot drive delivered with the system, just swapped from slot 1 to slot 3. Checked if I could rebuild the mbr, bootrec /checkos showed no Windows installation being recognized.
I then went ahead and created a bootable Windows 10 USB install media with the Microsoft Media Creation Toolkit. Booted from USB via F12 and simply formatted the volume on which Windows had been installed, keeping all other volumes on the drive in slot 3 as they were. Then I had Windows install itself on the same volume as before. Installed all the drivers, AWCC, uninstlled all the crap. Problem solved.
Cheers
ejn63
10 Elder
10 Elder
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23.1K Posts
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September 15th, 2020 17:00
It's not for the faint of heart from the command line, but:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/devtest/changing-the-default-boot-entry
If you search there are also graphical bcdedit utilities as well.
UEFI does not work the way the old legacy BIOS did -- it's a totally different scenario.
crimsom
6 Professor
6 Professor
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6.1K Posts
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September 15th, 2020 19:00
Hi @BaronVonSuff please remove all the new SSD media and put the original SSD back in its original slot. If the m15 R3 function is restored, the new SSD media is either faulty or incompatible. As the BIOS acknowledges the new SSD media, double check that the new SSD with the Operating System has been assigned as the SSD from which to boot (i.e. it is a bootable SSD). Please keep in touch with an update. Thank you.
crimsom
6 Professor
6 Professor
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6.1K Posts
1
September 17th, 2020 14:00
Hi @BaronVonSuff thank you for keeping in touch with the Dell Community. Your update says problem solved. Please update your thread by clicking on solution so that the community knows of your successful outcome. Thank you.
crimsom
6 Professor
6 Professor
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6.1K Posts
0
September 17th, 2020 17:00
Computers require firmware interfaces so that they work, it will be the new UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) or the old BIOS (Basic Input Output System). When you start up a computer, they will initialize the hardware components and start the Operating System (OS) stored on the drive media (SSD, HDD, etc.). UEFI uses the GUID Partition Table (GPT) and BIOS uses the Master Boot Record (MBR) to store interface information.
The modern Dell firmware interface will say Boot list option = UEFI, because UEFI can directly boot OS after initialization and skip the BIOS self-test process, giving a faster boot.
VerhulstC
10 Posts
0
December 5th, 2020 05:00
@BaronVonSuff just curious , where did you buy/ordered the heatsinks/brackets ? partnumbers?