m15 R4, SSD compatibility?

Question

I have tried a Samsung 970 EVO Plus and now a Western Digital Black SN850 in my 2nd 2280 SSD slot and neither is being recognized by the computer? Are these drives not compatible? Do I need to downgrade to a Gen 3 card? What am I doing wrong?

crimsom · Accepted Answer

Hi @Blackfyre as you do not believe me, search the internet for generic confirmation that M.2 Gen4 NVMe cards are usually backwards compatible with Gen3. Please email the card's technical support for specific confirmation.

Thank you for providing image. It seems that your Windows OS(C:) boot drive is damaged. Please run Check Disk to find and automatically fix any errors.

Using the Chkdsk Utility | Dell US

Disk Error Checking: How to run CHKDSK in Windows 11/10 (thewindowsclub.com)

Blackfyre · Answer

Ok so yes it is showing in the bios but I can't get disk management to see it so that I can do the partition. Is there a way to partition from bios?

crimsom · Answer

Hi @Blackfyre using local admin account, visit Disk Management to see blank disk. Use up and down keys so that all drives are revealed. Right click on blank disk, format and then assign drive letter(s). Overview of Disk Management | Microsoft Docs

The Dell documentation is not clear, this motherboard does not accept M.2 SATA cards, only M.2 NVMe cards. Check that your cards are M.2 NVMe cards.

crimsom · Answer

Hi @Blackfyre Support for Alienware m15 R4 says its motherboard PCIe bus will accept Up to Gen3.

The M.2 Samsung 970 EVO Plus interface is PCIe Gen3.0 x4, NVMe 1.3 and ideally suited for installation.

The M.2 Western Digital Black SN850 interface is PCIe Gen4.0 x4, NVMe 1.4 and installation is backwards compatible to run at PCIe Gen3 speeds.

Both of these drive cards are acceptable for installation. Please check that these drive cards are correctly installed in their electrical part of the motherboard's PCIe slot and not the thermal shield captivation slot.

Both of these M.2 drives should be acknowledged in the BIOS, and blank drive cards must have their partition format created before Windows can see them. Both of these NVMe drives should use the modern GUID Partition Table (GPT) format file system, so that the BIOS list option Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) can be enabled.

Hope that this is the clarification that you wanted.

Blackfyre · Answer

bios can see it fine but it just doesn't show up in disk management

Blackfyre · Answer

Finally got it to show! Thanks so much for your help Crimsom!

Blackfyre · Answer

WD Black sn850 1tb.. you said backwards compatible but are you sure it doesn't have to be a gen 3 m.2?

crimsom · Answer

Hi @Blackfyre happy to assist. I am a volunteer user and do not work for Dell. Getting thank you Kudos and making my post your Accepted Solution is my only reward.

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m15 R4, SSD compatibility?

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