Factory Hard Drive failed, trying to replace with 2 EVO 970 500gb in Raid 0

@SmockDobie  you need to create the RAID 0 virtual disk before you try to install Windows.  To do that, the SATA Operation setting (which despite the name applies to NVMe SSDs) in your BIOS needs to be set to RAID mode.  Then during boot at some point you should see a prompt to press a hot key to enter the Intel RAID Management interface or something.  I think it's Ctrl+i (for Intel).  You have to create the RAID 0 virtual disk in there.  If you install Windows onto just one of the SSDs, you can't create the RAID 0 after the fact.

As for the rest of that mess, you absolutely do not need to muck around with UEFI Secure Boot keys before or after Windows installation.  You don't even technically have to remove all other drives from the system, although that can be helpful if you're worried about accidentally installing onto the wrong disk.  Just make sure Secure Boot is on, which will force UEFI mode and disable Legacy Option ROMs (aka CSM/Compatibility Support Module) and press F12 during boot to access the one-time boot menu, from which you should be able to choose to boot from your USB device.  That should load Windows Setup, and if you can get through the wizard and you see your RAID array appear as a disk onto which you can install Windows, you're good to go.  If you get to the point where you have to choose where to install Windows and you don't see anything, then you probably need to load the Intel Rapid Storage driver so that Windows Setup can work with that RAID controller.  You can get that from here -- get the "F6 Floppy" version, extract the zip file onto a flash drive or something, and then at that point in Windows Setup, click Load Driver and point it at the folder containing those extracted files.

OMG,

Thank you so much for your response!  The problem I'm having is that the bios does not see the drive in slot 5 (the NVMe slots are labeled 4, 5, and 6 and 4 is for a drive that is 30mm so nothing is occupying that slot) and as a result I'm not given the option to create the array.

I created a bootable restore USB stick using a dell tool that put the OS image and some drivers on it.  When that was performing the restore it did not see the drive in slot 5, only slot 6.  When I get to windows (I installed it to the drive in slot 6 so I'm looking at doing this all over again once I get this problem solved) Disk Manager does not see the drive.  I know slot 5 works because there was a sata m.2 drive in there until it (the drive) was corrupted.

I'm quite confused on how to proceed.  The systems guys here at work (I'm in Dev so my knowledge of such things is almost NIL) told me to remove the other drives, use a bootable usb drive with the windows image on it, and it'll find the drive.  I'm skeptical, but that's just really my ignorance of how all this new stuff works.

I re-read your response and I'm glad I did, because I had glossed over a couple of things you said.  I'm going to give that method a shot and report back.

Thanks so much for your help, this has been so frustrating.

@SmockDobiehappy to help!  If you're trying to set up a different configuration from the factory, you might not be able to use the factory restore tools.  My instructions were assuming that you were using generic Windows 10 installation media, which you can create by downloading the Microsoft Media Creation Tool here.

If your system isn't detecting the drive though, that's a whole other issue.  For that, first make sure that all of the storage ports in the system are enabled in the BIOS.  I don't know if this applies to M.2 slots, but I know for example that some Dell systems allow you to disable SATA ports and such.  So make sure that's sorted, and then make sure both SSDs are detected in your BIOS.  On typical Dell systems, the top menu item in the BIOS Setup is "System information", and if you select that, you see a readout of your core system hardware, including any installed storage devices.  If you have something like that, make sure you see both SSDs listed there.  If you only see one, then that means your system isn't detecting the other one even at a hardware level, in which case Windows Setup certainly won't.  In that case, I'd start doing things like swapping the SSDs around to see if the problem seems to be the SSD or the slot itself.

@SmockDobie  so just to confirm, you've tried each of your new 970 Evos in Slot 6, and both of them are recognized, but neither of them is recognized in Slot 5, even though a previous SATA SSD was recognized there?  Given that I've found multiple reports of a dual NVMe RAID 0 setup working on the Alienware 15 R3 elsewhere, I suppose there might be some issue with Slot 5 in your specific system that affects only NVMe SSDs, which use a slightly different set of pins in the slot compared to SATA SSDs, and of course a completely different interface to the system.  Are you running the latest BIOS release?  That would be 1.7.0 as of this writing.  If you don't have a way to install a BIOS update right now, maybe just install Windows 10 onto a single working SSD just to get that done.

BIOS is definitely not seeing the drive.  Some background that I think may be helpful, the unit was purchased in January 2017.  The original configuration was a 256gb sata m.2 drive and it arrived from Alienware in slot 6.  I purchased an EVO 960 500gb and attempted to add it to slot 5.  Under no circumstances could I get the BIOS to see the drive.  I reopened the back and swapped the two.  I put the sata m.2 in slot 5 and the evo drive in slot 6.  It saw both in bios at that point.  I was able to make a data drive out of the 960 EVO.

Now that the sata m.2 is dead and I've replaced both drives, I'm in the same situation.  Slot 5 is not seeing the drive but slot 6 is.  This is without any windows image.  So I'm pretty confused on what is happening.  I've scoured the internet regarding the issue and I just can't find anything.  But reading the spec for the unit, it clearly states that it is compatible with 2 NVMe drives.

@SmockDobie  no, swapping hard drives and reinstalling OSes would not downgrade your BIOS.  The only way that would happen would be if you actually installed an older BIOS version or got a motherboard replacement that had an older BIOS release flashed on it.

At the moment I don't have any further suggestions on this.  Initially I thought that maybe one of the slots didn't support NVMe, but then I found the confirmations from other users.  So my only guesses now are either a hardware issue with that slot on your specific system, or maybe some bizarre incompatibility that somehow affects that slot and that SSD model.  For example, there are some Dell systems that don't recognize Samsung 970 Evo or Pro SSD models even though they work just fine with 960 models, even when the BIOS and SSD firmware are both up to date.  Last I heard, nobody had found a fix for the affected systems or even determined the underlying cause.  It shouldn't be a problem, but it is, even though other Dell systems work with those SSD models just fine.  Still, I admit that the idea of this type of issue existing in a way that only affected one of the two slots in your system is a very long shot.

I installed the OS to the drive in slot 6 this weekend so it's up but I'm running out of space quickly.   However, what you have described is, indeed, what I've done.

This **bleep** a great deal.  I will need to confirm my bios version but I've updated it each time I've been prompted and I don't think removing the hard drive or reinstalling windows would affect versioning of the BIOS, would it?

Riddle me this...

I have the Alienware Graphics Amplifier with a 1080 inside of it.  Is this potentially the reason why I'm not seeing the drive?  Is it possible that the PCIe lanes are all used up by this?

If your bios could not detect the m.2 then there's a good chance that it's a hardware problem.

If your Window Installation could not detect the m.2 then try downloading the nvme driver from samsung, store it on another usb and there should be a "find driver" option in Window Setup, select the USB and install the NVME driver from there.

@SmockDobie  I don't think the AGA would be responsible for this behavior, but it's an easy enough test.  Just disconnect the AGA and see if that other SSD magically appears in your BIOS.

@NamNguyen191  last I checked, the Samsung NVMe driver is only provided as an installer, so getting the driver out is a bit tricky.  However, it's also unnecessary because that driver only works when the system is in AHCI mode, but in that case, Windows would be able to use its built-in AHCI NVMe driver, which has existed since Windows 8.  The Samsung driver is simply an alternative, not a requirement.  The driver that CAN be required during Windows Setup is the Intel Rapid Storage driver.  Windows has a built-in version of that too, but if your system is new enough and/or the version of Windows you're trying to install is old enough, you might need to manually supply a newer version of that driver.  However, that only applies to systems that are configured in RAID mode rather than AHCI mode -- and in that case, you wouldn't be able to use the Samsung NVMe driver at all.