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April 27th, 2021 09:00
m15, SSD "D" Drive Disappeared
My Alienware M15 has been running without any major issues since I purchased it (new) at the end of 2019. On 31/03/21 a Windows 10 update was installed. I did not notice any problems initially. However I powered up today and find my D drive has disappeared. My C drive is still there. I noticed because the D drive has an Outlook archive file and my Arc GIS Geographical Information Systems data on it and both pieces of software started saying they couldn't access the D drive. If I remember correctly the D drive was one I had called "D:Data" and this was the SSD.
I have spent a long time working through each of the solutions offered here to no avail. :
The only one I did not try was Part 4 Step 2: Change drive letter of the disappeared hard drive as I can't see the drive to change the letter.
The recovery points date to yesterday and 15/04/2021 and both have a yellow triangle indicating the D drive cannot be "seen".
I have seen other solutions online that involve taking the back off the computer and playing with its innards to put it crudely! I'm not averse to doing this but don't want to do this unless absolutely necessary and after I've tried all other solutions. I would also like to avoid entirely wiping everything and starting again. It's taken me the last year to finally get this machine running as I wanted for research purposes, and the prospect of starting all over again fills me with dread.
I have seen other online posts suggesting BIOS updates but can see my BIOS Version is Alienware 2.5.0, 28/05/2020 so it's not exactly ancient and I'm not sure this will fix the problem. Can anyone suggest another solution or advise please? Here is the Computer Management screen grab to demonstrate there is no D drive showing.
Many thanks in advance!
crimsom
7 Technologist
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6.1K Posts
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April 27th, 2021 09:00
Hi @L.S.B. welcome to this user to user discussion forum. This is not Dell Support.
There are no POST diagnostic beeps or lights to say that D drive has a hardware fault. Thank you for providing Disk Management image, which should have shown the D drive. As nothing is shown, it seems that the D drive is not installed. Please remove the rear cover and reseat the D drive card. The OP did not describe the D drive, so it could be a 2.5" SATA SDD or a M.2 SATA Adapter or a M.2 NVMe SSD.
Please click on Kudos to say thank you for response from another user. Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you.
L.S.B.
1 Rookie
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2 Posts
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April 27th, 2021 11:00
Hi there, Thanks so much for this. It has worked! My D Data are back. PHEW!
For any later users viewing this thread, if you haven't every opened your computer before or haven't done for ages, things I re-learned from doing this are:
1) The front 3 mini screws on the back cover don't come out like all the others when you unscrew them, so don't try and force them. They do unscrew but just don't remove entirely.
2) It's a great opportunity to clean dust out of the fans (slightly horrified by the amount in one of these) which I did using my camera puffer (just a rubber squeezie version not an aerosol air duster)
3) If you don't know where your SSD sits, here's a picture of mine arrowed, but read the labels. It actually tells you so check to be double sure.
Jerry F
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December 26th, 2022 12:00
I had this same problem and did all the things you had had done too (BIOS update, disc mgmnt settings, etc.). Then I followed your advice, unscrewed the back of the laptop, removed and then reseated the SSD. Worked like a charm! Thank you so much!!