XPS 420 SSD supported? Yea? Nay?

Question

Do you own a XPS420 and currently have an ssd as your primary drive with windows 7 loaded?

Yes?

Could you please share your method with me? I have read nothing but contradicting stories about BIOS 03 vs 07 and how each one supports ssd.

I have Windows 7 installed and was able to boot a win7 iso from dvd and install windows 7 on my ssd. After rebooting there is another entry for windows 7, as if it was set up to dual-boot. Selecting either redirects back to my original os login. For testing, I disconnected all drives except the ssd and put it on stata 0. Attempted to boot, didn't recognize the drive. So, I tried to boot from dvd to reinstall windows on the ssd. No-go. After pressing the any key to boot from dvd it reverts to this:

http://i45.tinypic.com/2ry65qe.jpg

Any help is appreciated.

TIA,

-Emily

osprey4 · Answer

Hi Emily,

You installed an SSD in a computer that already had a system drive, so now your boot record points to two operating systems. What I would do is remove your HDD and perform a clean install onto the SSD. I've got a link to Natakuc's clean install guides below.

By the way, the forum allows for you to upload pictures into your message. For whatever reason, I am not able to view the picture at the link you provided.

EmilyMFaris · Answer

What I would do is remove your HDD and perform a clean install onto the SSD.

Isn't this the same thing?

For testing, I disconnected all drives except the ssd and put it on stata slot 0. Attempted to boot, didn't recognize the drive. So, I tried to boot from dvd to reinstall windows on the ssd. No-go. After pressing the any key to boot from dvd it reverts to this:

The highlighted selection shows the correct name of the SSD. After selecting it, the alert shows up. F1 does nothing but repopulate the message. F2 and F5 work as expected.

I understand that the MBR has two entries, which makes sense, as I would have the option to boot win 7 from a disk drive (enter ambiguous drive letter here:) and an option to boot installed win 7 from (enter ambiguous drive letter that is not the previous drive letter:) ssd. Correct?

Note:

If I set bios (A07) to Raid, it recognizes the manufacturer of the ssd on this screen. However, if I leave bios to ATA/Raid auto-detect, it does not recognize the drive for what it is but rather give it a generic name like its disk size or something. Both ways still populate the error after selecting it from the boot menu.

Could this be a controller issue? Do you think a controller card would fix this?

Thanks in advance!

-Em

osprey4 · Answer

Sorry, missed that. You should not use ATA mode for an SSD. Set it to RAID. I'm not I understand if you are using a Dell Windows installation disc. If you are, it should definitely be bootable.

EmilyMFaris · Answer

I'm not I understand if you are using a Dell Windows installation disc. If you are, it should definitely be bootable.

I tried to boot from dvd to reinstall windows on the ssd. No-go. After pressing any key to boot from dvd it reverts to this:

I am 100% this is a BIOS issue, specifically for the XPS 420.

A thread from 2010:

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/t/19353315.aspx

osprey4 · Answer

Ok, show me your drives from the BIOS.

Storage, Drives & Media

XPS 420 SSD supported? Yea? Nay?

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