Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
2 Posts
0
17890
Dell XPS 8500 i7 Need Help with SSD Drive Install
I have an XPS 8500 i7 which came with a 2TB HDD (main OS/C drive) (no mSATA) and 16GB RAM. The HDD died the other day so went out and bought a Samsung EVO 850 500GB drive. I have disconnected the old 2TB drive and connected the new SATA (NOT mSATA) to the power and data cables.
When I boot the computer and go into the BIOS it recognizes it as a Samsung 500GB drive. That's where it ends.
Dell sent me a Win 8 recovery memory stick. It loads and starts step 1 which is to do a HDD check and then it reboots and does the exact same thing again and again.
I took a Windows7 Pro 64bit SP1 disk and put it in the CD ROM and restarted. Initially it didn't pick it up so I rebooted and Pressed F12 and then selected Legacy CD-ROM boot from the menu. It worked.
It found the 500GB drive, partitioned it, formated it and installed Windows on it. When it restarted following the install, SAME ISSUE. No boot drive found even though it showed SATA1 as occupied.
Is there some issue with installing a regular SSD with these machines? The BIOS only has RAID and UEFI (I think that's what it is) as options, no IDE choice.
HELP!
Thanks,
Adam
mrpetedell
9 Posts
0
June 6th, 2015 19:00
I don't know what's going on with the system not recognizing your SSD, but I want to point out 1 thing.
An SSD wants AHCI, not IDE.
Typically, on the recent vintage Dells that I've seen, RAID (in BIOS/settings) means:
- look at the HDD/SSD and see if it is "marked as part of a RAID set"
- if RAID is detected then give it the RAID treatment
- if not RAID then give it the AHCI treatment (if that is available / else regular SATA)
AHCI is a way of interacting with a SATA drive. IDE = PATA.
I notice that if I use a search engine and look into community.dell.com for the search terms [ssd ahci 8500] that a lot of folks are looking for help with this kinda thing ... FYI.
From a Samsung help page named "Understanding SSD System Requirements / SATA Interface Basics" ...
"If AHCI is not properly configured on your system, the Random Read/Write performance of your SSD will be limited to a Queue Depth of 1 (QD1), severely limiting the performance..."
I'm sorry I can't give you a slam bang/right here and now answer, but your solution may involve some or all of:
- using some kind of DOS environment to upgrade your BIOS/EFI
- install Windows on some HDD (at least temporarily) and then install the Samsung Magician software in order to get Magician to "help you determine whether or not AHCI is supported and/or enabled on your PC." (that's from that same Samsung web page)
rdunnill
6 Professor
6 Professor
•
8.8K Posts
0
June 7th, 2015 00:00
Is Legacy Boot selected?