m15 R1, missing 2nd disk drive

Question

I have an Alienware m15 that I purchased in November 2019. It is running Windows 10 update 1903. In the last month my 2nd internal HD is no longer listed in explorer and links to it do not work. When I used diskmgr utility, It only showed my primary drive and its partitions.

To my knowledge there have been no Windows 10 updates done since I purchased it, but I am trying to confirm that. In looking online, the only thing I find is from 1-3 years ago that was triggered by Windows 10 installs or updates, no new posts from the last 9 months. Any suggestions on utilities to try or things I can do to recover the drive are appreciated.

NeilWalsh · Accepted Answer

To close out this issue, it was a HW failure. Dell sent a replacement HD and I installed it and configured it. All set.

After checking the BIOS and not seeing it, I checked the physical connections which were all set. At that point they sent me the replacement HW.

jphughan · Answer

@NeilWalsh  go into your BIOS Setup during system boot and make sure the drive is being detected at a hardware level.  You should find it mentioned in a System Info/Summary screen somewhere.  If you only see your primary drive and no mention of your secondary drive, then you might have a loose connection or something, in which case start by opening up the system and simply removing/disconnecting and reinserting/reconnecting it.  You can find the Service Manual for your system on support.dell.com by searching its system model or Service Tag, then going to the Documentation section.  It will have step-by-step guides complete with diagrams for how to remove and replace all components in the system.

NeilWalsh · Answer

Thanks @jphughan .  I thought I replied last night but it was not in the thread.  I could not find it on the bios so I will check connections today to see if that solves the issues.  Thanks for the quick reply.

Alienware

m15 R1, missing 2nd disk drive

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