What is the specific model drive you're trying to use?

Note that the older system very likely came with an M.2 SATA drive -- while the newer one supports only M.2 NVMe.

Honestly not sure, I'll have to pull it apart again and check that.. I just thought they would be universal because they were used in an earlier model 🤦

Hi @malletman88  welcome to this user to user discussion forum. This is not Dell Support. 

Support for Alienware 17 R2 Storage says, four SATA M.2 slots, and with interface: 
* SATA 6 Gbps (SSD Slot 1 to slot 3)
* SATA 3 Gbps (SSD Slot 4) 

Support for Alienware 17 R5 Storage says, 
M.2 2242 and M.2 2280 slot interface accepts SATA or PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe.
The other M.2 2280 slot interface accepts only PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe.

The 17 R2 M.2 SATA drives might be damaged. Download CrystalDiskInfo to check that drives are serviceable. Use an external USB enclosure that accepts SATA & NVMe M.2 drives. 

Please click on Kudos to say thank you for response from user that is not employed by Dell. Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you. 

While the other post about the documentation stating SATA compatibility may be valid, it's also very possible the documentation was never rewritten for the new revision of the M17 line.  Most newer systems of all types have dropped SATA support on M.2 in favor of NVMe only.

It is possible the drive is damaged -- and that's worth investigating, but there's a decent possibility the system will not actually take an M.2 SATA drive, documentation notwithstanding.  

Hi @ejn63  thank you for sharing update. 

My 17 R5 accepts SATA drive in one the internal M.2 2280 slots. 

Not sure why the m17 is mentioned in your post. This thread's topic is about 17 R2 and 17 R5 laptops. 

Thanks for all the replies.

I have had a look but still not sure, I have a link to the same card if anyone would be able to look and tell me if there is a problem?

https://www.pchub.com/lite-on-l8t-256l9g-ssd-m2-ngff-140gb-512gb-l8t-256l9g-256gb-p155269?ctry=AU&cur=AUD&gclid=CjwKCAjwrPCGBhALEiwAUl9X02B5KyjVKIFzb98np3ZCjTHoViGbPNMbMgkvJIF3R3mAh3IjULEegxoC_GgQAvD_BwE

just to confirm what your mean, you want me to download drivers for the nvme card?

I have told device manager and disk manager to scan for new hardware and nothing finds it

Hi @malletman88  thank you for sharing update. 

Here is a similar link with different description: L8T-256L9G Lite On L9G Series 256GB MLC SATA 6Gbps High Performance M.2 2280 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD).  

The 17 R2 needs Dell driver LITEONIT L9G M.2 2280 256GB SSD Firmware Update. However, this driver is not compatible for Alienware 17 R5 with Windows 10, 64-bit. 

When L8T-256L9G is installed in the 17 R5's SATA M.2 2280 slot, open Device Manager and ask it to detect new devices. Alternatively, Shut Down, wait a few minutes, power-on, then Windows 10 should automatically install new driver. 

Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you. 

Hi @malletman88 thank you for sharing update. 

The L8T-256L9G is a SATA not NVMe card. How to distinguish the differences between M.2 cards. 

Having opened Windows 10 Disk Management and Device Manager, which did not detect the L8T-256L9G, it must be damaged and/or incompatible, or not installed in the 17 R5's SATA M.2 2280 slot. 

Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you. 

Many of these posts are so far off. Your drive is fine. It's not "broken". I had this problem when adding an SSD to my A17R5. Go into the BIOS and turn off the RAID support function. RAID was the default setting on my A17R5 but I wasn't running a RAID - You probably aren't either. The PC will now see all new drives. I would use ACRONIS to back up your 512 GB HDD first then install that image on your new M.2 SSD. It worked well for me and ACRONIS usually comes with a new drive. I added a 4TB NVME to mine but had to turn off the RAID. ALSO: I updated my BIOS before doing this. All updates are on the DELL site.