Alienware X51 Windows & SSD installation

Hi,

I have experienced a couple of hurdles installing Windows 8 on my Samsung 840 250GB SSD on the X51 R2. While troubleshooting I logged what I did in case I wanted to upgrade the SSD in the future. I am posting these notes here in case I am not the only one who experiences this issue (these are not detailed instructions).

What you need:

1. Windows Installation Disc - A user created recovery disc/Alienware Respawn will not work with an SSD and an OEM disc to install Windows 7/8 is required. You can request one from Alienware Technical Support – who will post it free of charge.
2. SATA Power Y Cable Adapter
3. Standard SATA Data Cable
4. Instructions
5. Alienware X51 R1/R2 Disassembly

Issue 1 – Installation does not recognise Windows disc

Although I was able to boot from Windows 8 and run the installation, after selecting my preferred language/location settings I received the following error message:

"A media driver your computer needs is missing. This could be a DVD, USB, or Hard disk driver. If you have a CD, DVD, or USB flash drive with the driver on it, please insert it now.” - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2755139

According to Microsoft Support, none of the potential causes for the error applied to my situation - the DVD drive was working normally, the windows disc was brand new and was working normally when running from the OS.

Fortunately their recommended solution of using the Win7 download tool did resolve my problem:

1. I used the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool to create a bootable USB flash drive.
2. I used the USB flash drive to start up the Windows installation process using these instructions strictly.

Issue 2 - SSD not available in Windows Installation

Although the installation began smoothly via the USB; I could not see my SSD on the drive options screen after clicking “Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)”. However, when running pre-installed Windows running from the HDD:

• The SSD was available in My Computer.
• The SSD was available under Disk Management.
• Despite this, upon opening command prompt (via SHIFT + F10) at the Windows installation screen and entering “diskpart”, the SSD was not displayed (even though the SSD was appearing under System Setup Options in BIOS).

To resolve the problem I performed the following steps:

1. Navigate to the Dell driver support page for the Alienware X51 R2 and download the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver. Extract the folder to a convenient directory. The extracted folder name is “7PJWV” and you will need to copy the entire folder to your USB (I would recommend downloading and moving all the drivers to the USB drive in case they might be needed).
2. Power off the system, disconnect the SATA data cable from the HDD and connect the USB Flash drive.
3. Restart the system and once the Alienware screen appears, press F2 to run System BIOS.
4. Navigate to Boot settings and set your USB Storage Device to run first in the boot sequence.
5. Press ESC to Exit and Save Changes.
6. At the Alienware start-up screen; hit F12 to launch Boot Options and select USB Storage Device to run the Windows 8 installation process.
7. After setting your preferred language/location and selecting “Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)”, you will be brought to the drive options. Select Load Driver, navigate to your USB drive, select the folder “7PJWV” and then click OK. The driver will initiate and the SSD will now be visible.
8. You should now be able to install Windows onto your SSD. If you receive an error message stating: “windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR” – you will need to correctly partition the SSD.
9. To do this at the current installation stage. Press SHIFT + F10 to run command prompt and follow the below steps:
   
   
   1. Type “diskpart” and press ENTER
   2. Type the following commands – pressing ENTER after each one to run
   3. list disk (to display the drive number of the hard disk to partition for the SSD)
   4. select disk # (change # to the applicable number)
   5. clean
   6. exit
   7. Click refresh, select the partition and click "Drive options (advanced)"
   8. Click "New" and then click the "Apply" button.
   9. Click the "OK" button and then click the "Next" button.
      
      *To perform this via Windows, shut the system down, reconnect the HDD, boot up your system up via the existing Windows OS and then use Disk Manager to set up the partition. The below link provides easy to read instructions for both methods: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2674-partition-volume-create-new.html
      
      
10. At the end of the installation Windows will need to restart - however because the boot order has been set to boot from the USB first – the installation will start from the beginning and will be stuck in an endless loop. To prevent this, wait for the installation to finish, allow the OS to restart, and then hit F2 at the Alienware screen to run the BIOS screen again and set the SSD as the first device in the boot sequence.
11. Exit Bios and allow the Windows installation to complete the rest of the set up process.
12. Shut down your system and reattach the HDD SATA cable.

Useful Links:

Alienware X51 R1/R2 Disassembly - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRjTe_bGQVQ
Drivers - http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/uk/en/ukbsdt1/Product/alienware-x51-r2
Create Partition - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2674-partition-volume-create-new.html
How To Install Windows 8 From a USB Device - http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows-8/a/install-windows-8-usb.htm
Microsoft Error - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2755139
SSD upgrade for Alienware X51 without replacing existing 3.5TB HDD - http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19450393.aspx
Windows Disk for SSD (1) - http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19510071.aspx
Windows Disk for SSD (2) - http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19522884.aspx