Have you opened up disc management and initialized the drive yet? You need to assign a drive letter and file partition system before a new drive will show up and be ready for use.
Dell motherboards do not support the 8 lanes that you would need to have two PCIe x 4 adapters. I tried this and my system (Dell XPS 8910) would not boot. I would return the adapter and NVMe drive and use your SATA drive.
@dperry112 @"Dell motherboards do not support the 8 lanes that you would need to have two PCIe x 4 adapters."
That's a very generalized statement. I have two samsung 1Tb M2 NVME PCIE drives (both bootable), a 2TB sata drive, a PCIE adapter card, a titan xp GPU, and an optical internal drive connected no issues to my "dell motherboard". With your no boot scenario I'd consider checking the boot manager, firmware updates for the new hardware, PSU limitations, the possibility of a defective pcie card etc.
The systems still boots off the factory NVMe drive with the new controller/drive. It just never sees the new controller or drive in BIOS or Windows control panels. The controller is supported by Windows 10. It's hard to fault the controller as being defective when LED status lights do light up. It could be bad but I want to eliminate the Dell system first as either needing additional configuration or not being compatible for a second NVMe controller/drive. Also there are no relevant errors in the event logs. Thanks.
I understand but have you tried typing win + r, entering diskmgmt.msc in the run box, and then initializing the drive?
A "new" drive is not supposed to and will not show up in the control panel until you do this. You first need to assign a drive letter and file partition system to be recognized.
1. You can test the pcie card by removing your boot drive from the m2 slot, sticking it in the pcie adapter, and booting from pcie using 1 time boot manager usually f12. If that doesnt work or show as an option, either look for a firmware update on the pcie card, or people on here would need to know dell system specs, link to m2 drive, and link to pcie card to rule out incompatibility, pcie-bootability, etc.
2. If it does work, add the new m2 drive to the m2 slot on the mobo, boot from pcie again, and see if it shows under disk management. If not, barring incompatibility on #1, see if theres a firmware update for the drive.
1. I have a factory NVMe 512gb boot drive. I installed a SATA SSD
2. which I want replace with a PCIe x4 adaptor in the x4 slot with and a NVMe SSD.
What XPS model ?
1. Yes, this works. Only ONE NVMe SSD per system. It should be C Drive . 512gb is plenty of space (for all Windows, All Apps) and even many large game-installs.
2. No. Like @dperry112 says ... all other drives should be SATA-3/600 (either SSD or HDD) . Those NVMe adapters hardly ever work 100% (when on-motherboard NVMe interface is already present).
I don't see the new adaptor/drive in the system BIOS or in Windows drive or device managers.
It just never sees the new controller or drive in BIOS or Windows control panels.
For the third time the new drive does NOT appear in ANY control panel, devices or disk manager.
Also, that hadn't been clear from your first two posts because a new uninitialized drive will not show in any of the places you listed previously. Device manager, control panels, windows drive, etc., are all incorrect places to look for a newly installed drive.
But after rereading your posts, I see you also mentioned the PCiE card not being visible, and it is odd you can't see the expansion card at least. Have you tried moving the PCIE card into a different PCiE slot and seeing if it shows up?
My first post said " I don't see the new adaptor/drive in the system BIOS or in Windows drive or device managers." The second post was " It just never sees the new controller or drive in BIOS or Windows control panels."
If the drive doesn't show up in BIOS Windows will not be aware of it anyway. FWIW if you look under control panel in Win10, All Control Panel Items, Administrative Tools, Computer Management you will see it contains the disc MMC, device MMC, event logs, etc. Better yet just open Windows Explorer and right click your computer name and select manage. I know you mean well but I've been doing this for over 30 years.
My goal was to re-use the 2.5 inch SSD from this XPS to upgrade my wife's laptop. I did some swapping around inside this XPS and nothing helped so I am still not sure of where the problem lies since I have no errors to work with. The store is 20 miles away so rather than run back and forth swapping possible defective parts I gave up and returned the NVMe drive and controller. I instead bought a new SSD for her laptop so I need to get busy cloning that.
To Tesla 1856 you said
"What XPS model ?
1. Yes, this works. Only ONE NVMe SSD per system. It should be C Drive . 512gb is plenty of space (for all Windows, All Apps) and even many large game-installs.
2. No. Like @dperry112 says ... all other drives should be SATA-3/600 (either SSD or HDD) . Those NVMe adapters hardly ever work 100% (when on-motherboard NVMe interface is already present). "
This is an XPS 8930. In reading posts on the subject around the internet I find a lot of people adding second NVMe drives in this fashion. I'm not sure if there is something unique about the Dell BIOS or drive controller preventing the additional drive. Indeed this third party adapter/controller I had is probably just a method to connect the new NVMe drive to the PCIe x4 slot and not an active drive controller in the traditional sense.
posts on the subject around the internet I find a lot of people adding second NVMe drives in this fashion.
I'm not sure if there is something unique about the Dell BIOS or drive controller preventing the additional drive. Indeed this third party adapter/controller I had is probably just a method to connect the new NVMe drive to the PCIe x4 slot and not an active drive controller in the traditional sense.
I don't know about the whole Internet, but I am familiar with many threads and user reports here ... about upgrading Dell and Alienwares. I answered in that context.
r72019
6 Professor
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5.3K Posts
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January 18th, 2020 06:00
Have you opened up disc management and initialized the drive yet? You need to assign a drive letter and file partition system before a new drive will show up and be ready for use.
dperry112
1 Rookie
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108 Posts
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January 18th, 2020 06:00
Dell motherboards do not support the 8 lanes that you would need to have two PCIe x 4 adapters. I tried this and my system (Dell XPS 8910) would not boot. I would return the adapter and NVMe drive and use your SATA drive.
r72019
6 Professor
•
5.3K Posts
1
January 18th, 2020 07:00
@dperry112 @"Dell motherboards do not support the 8 lanes that you would need to have two PCIe x 4 adapters."
That's a very generalized statement. I have two samsung 1Tb M2 NVME PCIE drives (both bootable), a 2TB sata drive, a PCIE adapter card, a titan xp GPU, and an optical internal drive connected no issues to my "dell motherboard". With your no boot scenario I'd consider checking the boot manager, firmware updates for the new hardware, PSU limitations, the possibility of a defective pcie card etc.
Rvada
4 Posts
0
January 18th, 2020 10:00
The systems still boots off the factory NVMe drive with the new controller/drive. It just never sees the new controller or drive in BIOS or Windows control panels. The controller is supported by Windows 10. It's hard to fault the controller as being defective when LED status lights do light up. It could be bad but I want to eliminate the Dell system first as either needing additional configuration or not being compatible for a second NVMe controller/drive. Also there are no relevant errors in the event logs. Thanks.
Rvada
4 Posts
0
January 18th, 2020 11:00
For the third time the new drive does NOT appear in ANY control panel, devices or disk manager.
r72019
6 Professor
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5.3K Posts
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January 18th, 2020 11:00
I understand but have you tried typing win + r, entering diskmgmt.msc in the run box, and then initializing the drive?
A "new" drive is not supposed to and will not show up in the control panel until you do this. You first need to assign a drive letter and file partition system to be recognized.
r72019
6 Professor
•
5.3K Posts
0
January 18th, 2020 12:00
1. You can test the pcie card by removing your boot drive from the m2 slot, sticking it in the pcie adapter, and booting from pcie using 1 time boot manager usually f12. If that doesnt work or show as an option, either look for a firmware update on the pcie card, or people on here would need to know dell system specs, link to m2 drive, and link to pcie card to rule out incompatibility, pcie-bootability, etc.
2. If it does work, add the new m2 drive to the m2 slot on the mobo, boot from pcie again, and see if it shows under disk management. If not, barring incompatibility on #1, see if theres a firmware update for the drive.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
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17.3K Posts
1
January 18th, 2020 12:00
What XPS model ?
1. Yes, this works. Only ONE NVMe SSD per system. It should be C Drive . 512gb is plenty of space (for all Windows, All Apps) and even many large game-installs.
2. No. Like @dperry112 says ... all other drives should be SATA-3/600 (either SSD or HDD) . Those NVMe adapters hardly ever work 100% (when on-motherboard NVMe interface is already present).
RoHe
10 Elder
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45.2K Posts
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January 18th, 2020 16:00
Did you try clearing BIOS after installing that PCI-e x4 adapter?
Does BIOS set the controller now, without or with the drive connected?
r72019
6 Professor
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5.3K Posts
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January 18th, 2020 16:00
Also, that hadn't been clear from your first two posts because a new uninitialized drive will not show in any of the places you listed previously. Device manager, control panels, windows drive, etc., are all incorrect places to look for a newly installed drive.
But after rereading your posts, I see you also mentioned the PCiE card not being visible, and it is odd you can't see the expansion card at least. Have you tried moving the PCIE card into a different PCiE slot and seeing if it shows up?
Rvada
4 Posts
0
January 18th, 2020 18:00
My first post said " I don't see the new adaptor/drive in the system BIOS or in Windows drive or device managers." The second post was " It just never sees the new controller or drive in BIOS or Windows control panels."
If the drive doesn't show up in BIOS Windows will not be aware of it anyway. FWIW if you look under control panel in Win10, All Control Panel Items, Administrative Tools, Computer Management you will see it contains the disc MMC, device MMC, event logs, etc. Better yet just open Windows Explorer and right click your computer name and select manage. I know you mean well but I've been doing this for over 30 years.
My goal was to re-use the 2.5 inch SSD from this XPS to upgrade my wife's laptop. I did some swapping around inside this XPS and nothing helped so I am still not sure of where the problem lies since I have no errors to work with. The store is 20 miles away so rather than run back and forth swapping possible defective parts I gave up and returned the NVMe drive and controller. I instead bought a new SSD for her laptop so I need to get busy cloning that.
To Tesla 1856 you said
"What XPS model ?
1. Yes, this works. Only ONE NVMe SSD per system. It should be C Drive . 512gb is plenty of space (for all Windows, All Apps) and even many large game-installs.
2. No. Like @dperry112 says ... all other drives should be SATA-3/600 (either SSD or HDD) . Those NVMe adapters hardly ever work 100% (when on-motherboard NVMe interface is already present). "
This is an XPS 8930. In reading posts on the subject around the internet I find a lot of people adding second NVMe drives in this fashion. I'm not sure if there is something unique about the Dell BIOS or drive controller preventing the additional drive. Indeed this third party adapter/controller I had is probably just a method to connect the new NVMe drive to the PCIe x4 slot and not an active drive controller in the traditional sense.
Thanks and good luck.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
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17.3K Posts
0
January 19th, 2020 08:00
I don't know about the whole Internet, but I am familiar with many threads and user reports here ... about upgrading Dell and Alienwares. I answered in that context.
Glad you found a workable solution.