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January 29th, 2018 07:00
XPS 8390, NVMe SSD install issue
I'm setting up my new XPS 8930, and installed an extra 16 GB of memory with no problem. I also got a 960EVO (M2 - NVMe). I want to install it and then clone my HDD to it so that it will house my OS and programs. (I'll then wipe the HDD and use for files.)
The physical installation of the 960EVO went fine (other than having to order a screw to hold it down - boggles the mind that Dell could not provide it!). But when I booted up, the drive is listed but not recognized by Samsung Magician software. I saw that the drive was not initialized, so I went ahead and initialized it - still not recognized.
At this point, I noticed that it was listing the drive as RAID. Figuring that this is the issue, I rebooted and went into BIOS and switched the setting from RAID to AHCI. Upon reboot though, the system won't start windows. I get an error message something along the lines of it can't find somewhere to boot from. If I revert the BIOS setting to RAID, the system boots properly, but still can't access the drive.
So, how do I get the drive to be set to AHCI yet still get Windows 10 to boot properly? At this point, I don't think I can move forward with my plans to clone and essentially switch from the HDD to the new SSD.
Any guidance would be appreciated.
Thanks.
ejn63
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January 29th, 2018 16:00
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/588c6cc0-03f0-44c4-b9dc-49143db95000/changing-from-ahci-to-raid-without-reinstalling-win-10?forum=win10itprohardware
Koeven
2 Intern
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140 Posts
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January 29th, 2018 16:00
Here is how to change from RAID to AHCI without reinstalling everything. I did it in December and it took less than 5 minutes:
1.Right-click the Windows Start Menu. Choose Command Prompt (Admin).
2.Type this command and press ENTER: bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal
3.Restart the computer and enter BIOS Setup by pressing F2 multiple times during the boot
4.Change the SATA Operation mode to AHCI from RAID.
5.Save changes and exit Setup and Windows will automatically boot to Safe Mode.
6.Right-click the Windows Start Menu once more. Choose Command Prompt (Admin).
7.Type this command and press ENTER: bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot
8.Reboot once more and Windows will automatically start with AHCI drivers enabled.
JonnyZ
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February 24th, 2018 08:00
Thanks Koeven. I was able to get the SSD to be recognized and copied the HDD over to it. I unplugged the HDD and rebooted, and Windows 10 came up with no problem from the SSD.
Unfortunately, when I plugged the HDD back in and I rebooted, the machine booted from the HDD not the SSD.
How do I force the machine to use the SSD as the boot drive (so I can take advantage of the speed of the SSD and delete the Windows 10 install on the HDD and use the HDD for files)?
Koeven
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February 24th, 2018 09:00
I've found the simplest solution is to disconnect all other drives and then boot it up with only the NVMe drive. It will take a little longer than a normal boot, and afterwards you should now be booting from the NVMe drive. It doesn't hurt to go into the bios afterwards and set the NVMe drive as the boot drive.
JonnyZ
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February 24th, 2018 09:00
Thanks Koeven.
This is what I tried, but it didn't work. When I plugged the other drive back in, it booted from that instead of the SSD. If I unplug it again, it boots from the SSD. Plug the HDD back in, it boots from the HDD. I cannot seem to get it to boot from the SSD if the HDD is plugged in.
When I try to go into BIOS, I cannot figure out how to make it boot from the SSD. The attached photo shows my choices, but nothing seems to allow me to set the SSD as the first option.
Any ideas for me?
JonnyZ
4 Posts
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February 24th, 2018 10:00
Thanks Koeven. I think I figured it out.
I tried to use the F12 boot options to boot from the SSD. It looked like that might work as it gave me the choice:
HDD1 - Windows Boot Manager (Samsung SSD 960 EVO 250 GB)
But when I selected it, it didn't work... it still booted from the HDD.
So I went into disk manager, and I noticed that the SSD was listed as offline. Said something about a drive allocation conflict. I right-clicked and set it to online, and the system brought it online and gave it drive letter "f". (The HDD was "c".)
I rebooted and used F12 to go into boot options. I had the same choices as before. I again selected the choice that seemed to boot from the SSD.
This time it worked!
I looked in disk manager and the SSD was drive "c" and the HDD drive "e". The SSD had a healthy EFI partition.
In order to prevent ever booting from the HDD again, I used partdisk command to delete the EFI partition on the HDD.
I rebooted and everything seems to be working fine.
Neobond
3 Posts
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June 23rd, 2018 03:00
Thanks Koeven, I can confirm this worked for me on my Dell 8930. I wonder why RAID ON is default?
Vic384
4 Operator
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June 23rd, 2018 04:00
I think RAID is on because it allows for more setup options and even when RAID is unnecessary it keeps all these systems leaving the factory with a consistent setup. The problem I encountered is that Samsung Magician requires AHCI.
Scapman
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July 15th, 2018 11:00
Tesla1856
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July 15th, 2018 12:00
1. Normally, you can't easily be switching between RAID and AHCI without causing problems with your "live" Windows install ... that needs to be repaired.
This is because you are talking about changing your core HDD/SSD controller driver. Windows must be using the correct one, even as it boots.
2. See this:
https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-Desktops/M-2-NVMe-bootable-options/td-p/6073037