m17 R4, not recognizing second SSD

Question

I've just installed a second SSD (Samsung 2TB 980 Pro PCIe 4 NMVe M.2) into SSD slot 2 on my Alienware m17 r4 but it is not being recognized by Windows in either file explorer or disk management.

However, it does show up in Bios (see photo). I haven't changed anything in the bios since purchase and it shows the boot list option as 'UEFI'.

I've read a couple of other articles on here about activating the SSD inside bios or even changing the boot method but I'm not a technical man so it's all very confusing.

I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the SSD being PCIe 4 (as opposed to 3). I ran a Crucial system check and they recommended their own gen 4 so I thought it would be compatible.

Any advice would be muchly appreciated!

Edsteroonee · Accepted Answer

SOLVED! Seems really random but I found a suggestion on Reddit to run windows memory diagnostic tool and now it's showing up and have been able to format it.

DELL-Cares · Answer

Hello, We see you are looking for assistance. If you need our help, you can start a Private message with us and we will be happy to assist you.

ejn63 · Answer

Once installed, the drive needs to be partitioned and formatted before an operating system can use it.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-and-format-a-hard-disk-partition-bbb8e185-1bda-ecd1-3465-c9728f7d7d2e

U2CAMEB4ME · Answer

Welcome to the Dell Community @Edsteroonee

I can understand why you think it is a compatibility problem, since the drive is not seen under Disk Management.

There for the drive cannot be formatted and partitioned.

Have you tried removing the original SSD and installing the new one in its slot???

Then try to install an OS and see if it is recognized that way???

You would think that it is reverse compatable???

Best regards and good luck,

U2

Alienware

m17 R4, not recognizing second SSD

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