Adding new SSD but its not showing up? Any ideas?

Zascar

I have a Dell XPS 8500 - I had a single 2TB drive in there with Windows 8 - and all the rest of my Data. I bought a 120gb Samsung SSD planning to re-install windows on that, and use the 2TB drive as my Data Drive.

Fist I disconnected my 2TB, connected the SSD, and restarted with a USB to install Windows 8 on the SSD. However it could not find the SSD. So then I put the 2TB back in and also connected the SSD, but its not showing up in Windows either.

I'm stumped. What do I do now?
Thanks

TheBoffin

Is it showing up in disk management

Right Click My Computer --> Manage --> Disk Management

invaderzimirl

ok there's prob something to do with drivers. you might have to add in the driver for the SSD when starting the install of the windows.

as for the the 2TB drive make sure you have the sata and power connected.

and also see if you can see either drive as you boot up in the BIOS

PropJoe10

Make sure that the BIOS is set to AHCI and not IDE mode. Might make a difference.

coylemj

Did you consider buying the SSD drive in a bundle which included a desktop adapter and cloning s/w?

I recently purchased the Samsung EVO 250GB SSD for my laptop, I paid for the laptop migration kit which includes a SATA to USB adapter and the cloning s/w, it was a piece of cake to install.

You can buy the Samsung SSD drives (1) with no extras (2) with the cloning s/w and (3) with cloning s/w and either a desktop or laptop adapter.

Zascar

So this is what my disk management says:



I'm not sure what "M" is but properties says its 4.37gb hmmm

So can I get this cloning software anywhere? Thing is I wanted a clean install and I have 1tb of other data on that drive too...

How do I see if its showing up the the Bios exactly?

Thanks

TheBoffin

Looks like its not registering. What you are seeing there is the recovery and system utilities partitions.

In the bios try enabling AHCI legacy if its an option (i dont think this will do much) and see if it allows you to format the SSD during windows install.

PropJoe10

Go into your BIOS (F2 or Del on startup) and depending on the BIOS version it should show the connected hard drives under one of the headings. I suspect that SSD may be faulty. Even if the SSD isnt partitioned yet, the drive size shouldn't be listed as 0MB in Diskmgmt, I'd have thought.

In My Computer, is drive M: listed? Can you right click and Format to NTFS from there?

TheBoffin

In My Computer, is drive M: listed? Can you right click and Format to NTFS from there?

M: is the CD drive

Zascar

So I brought the drive into work and tried it on one of the PC's here and it shows up in the Bios ok, so I guess the drive is not faulty. I'll try again when I get home tonight to see what it does. If it is just drivers where do i get them?

advertsfox

Zascar wrote: »

So I brought the drive into work and tried it on one of the PC's here and it shows up in the Bios ok, so I guess the drive is not faulty. I'll try again when I get home tonight to see what it does. If it is just drivers where do i get them?

I don't believe it's drivers at all, it should show in the BIOS and Windows (HDD drivers are so basic, even for SSD).

Try a different S-ATA and power supply feed on your motherboard - make sure both are functional first with your 2TB HDD.

Zascar

Spent hours last night but eventually got it. Not sure why but must have been something to do with the sata cable, I changed to a different one and it showed up ok. Ran into more problems later when it would not format. Then my USB with Windows 8 was not showing up. Took lots more fiddling but eventually got it - running nice and quick now, starts up super fast! Cheers for the help lads

yoyo

Zascar wrote: »

Spent hours last night but eventually got it. Not sure why but must have been something to do with the sata cable, I changed to a different one and it showed up ok. Ran into more problems later when it would not format. Then my USB with Windows 8 was not showing up. Took lots more fiddling but eventually got it - running nice and quick now, starts up super fast! Cheers for the help lads

Have experienced dodgy SATA cables before, it does happen! Good to hear you got it sorted

Nick