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BIOS does not see a new SSD
I have a new Samsung 512GB Solid sate drive.
I have cloned my C: drive (which is the boot drive) via a USB interface.
The drive is present on the USB interface and the cloned drive C: files are there.
but when I place the SSD into the C: drive slot the BIOS is blank and sees no drive.
Does anyone know if the Dell Studio 1737 is just not compatible with an SSD drive?
I have the current A09 bios upgrade installed.
DrPocock
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November 28th, 2012 10:00
BIOS reset a reasonable suggestion but made no difference.
But ... I found a solution.
I put the SSD in the #2 drive bay and the BIOS sees it without any problem.
Redirected the BIOS to boot from Drive #2 and put the Data disk in slot #1.
Reassigned drive letters within Windows Administration.
And now it works.
Not clear by drive bay #1 is not compatible, but I do notice that it has a smaller plug that attaches to the motherboard, whereas the drive bay #2 connects with a full width connector. May some of the wires are not passed through on the Drive bay #1 connection???
osprey4
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November 26th, 2012 16:00
Hi DrPocock,
You should be able to run your systen on an SSD. Can you tell me the exact model of your new drive? May I assume you're running Windows 7?
DrPocock
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November 26th, 2012 16:00
OCZ 512gb Vertex 4
running Vista, but it never gets to the windows login
the BIOS reports no drive on C:
But when I connect the drive via a usb adapter Vista finds the drive with all of the Vista files and programs.
osprey4
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November 27th, 2012 12:00
Ok, the drive says backward compatible with SATA 3.0Gb/s but it does not say backward compatible with SATA 1.5Gb/s. So I'm guessing that's the problem.
One suggestion would be to get your drive through Crucial, who guarantee compatibility.
DrPocock
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November 27th, 2012 13:00
This may indeed be the case.
I put the SSD drive in my (7 year old) PC with an Intel motherboard and the BIOS finds it and it works normally.
The Dell is only 3 years old but apparently not compatible; my guess it is a bios issue.
The Crucial suggestion is a good one I will remember for the future.
osprey4
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November 27th, 2012 15:00
Wow, that's surprising. The only other thing you might try is resetting the CMOS. Sometimes that will kickstart the BIOS.
osprey4
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November 29th, 2012 04:00
No idea but glad to hear it's working.
JamesNJ
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January 2nd, 2019 16:00
I had exactly the same issue on D620, updated bios to a10, just will not see the new SSD drive.
I came across this: http://www.tomsguide.com/answers/id-2117802/dell-latitude-d830-ssd.html
In short, the primary HD bay bracket is the problem. Remove the little bracket and gently insert the SSD all the way, and system BIOS sees it as expected. In my case it was a new 120g kingston SSD.
I'm not sure what to do about the bracket. I'm building this machine for a child, so I don't expect it to go far. I might just wedge it in, or maybe glue it with silicone caulk just to keep it in and snug.
woodmac1
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January 3rd, 2021 19:00
I wasted lots of hours trying to replace the hard drive on a Dell E-6420 with a SSD. It was very frustrating as nothing worked. First had issue in that my SSD was 240 GB and the HDD was 256 GB. Windows 10 would not let me shrink the partition. I wasted lots of hours trying to shrink it: disable and delete the pagefile, dozens of defrags, etc, but I still couldn't shrink it enough even though there was over 78% free disk space. Also spent lots of wasted time trying various BIOS settings. It turned out that the Freeware clone software programs that I was using were bad in that they could not create a true clone with the MBR and everything else that's needed to properly boot. I tried Macrium, AOMEI, Acronis and a couple of others. Finally found one from EaseUS that worked. These Freeware clone/partition software packages are tricky in that if you don't choose the right settings, you get a prompt to upgrade to the paid PRO version. They will steer you towards various PRO settings that aren't actually needed in hope that you will pay for an upgrade. Thankfully EaseUS Partition Master Free worked. I only wish that I would have found it sooner. I wouldn't mind paying up to $20 for a decent clone/partition software that actually works, but I hate to spend the money and then find out that it doesn't work for my situation.