T3500 SSD POST Issue

I have a T3500 workstation that I purchased as a refurbished machine with win7 pro.

The service code is and the BIOS is A17.

The issue that I am having is with an SSD as a BOOT drive.

The hard drive that came with the system failed and I was unable to recover the OS.  So I decided to re install the OS on a SSD to gain a performance boost.  I am no stranger to building systems, but this has me baffled.

I can see the drive in the bios and place it in the boot sequence; but POST reports that the drive is not present and the win7 installation also does not see the drive.  I have gone so far to only have the ssd connected to the system and this is where I get the warning from post stating that there is no drive present.

I suppose I could use a standard hdd and build the system on that and then transfer the image onto the ssd, but I would prefer not to have to go through that process; which might also not be recognized.

Does anyone have any ideas?  If I'm not in the right forum, please put this where it needs to be.

Thanks for any help.

MAKE yourselves a Great Day!

emeng