Hey guys, just got a used Dell laptop on EBay a few days ago and I am trying to get the A20 BIOS to boot from the SSD that is now replacing my CD-ROM. I have a drive caddy which allows me to swap out my CD drive for a 2.5" SSD drive enclosure. I swapped it out and it is recognized by the OS, I just couldn't get it to boot from there... until yesterday.
I can confirm that the SSD is displayed under My Computer, Intel SSD Toolbox, ePSA, Disk Management and Speccy. So i was planning on using the caddy as my primary and when i need to use the CD, I can run the OS from HDD. Seems like that would be easier than swapping out the hdd for the sdd considering I want to keep the HDD as a reserve drive in case something happens to the SSD unless I find out swapping is easier.
https://imgur.com/a/9sffS
https://imgur.com/a/V8GtH
https://imgur.com/a/djBQi
https://imgur.com/a/PM4GP
https://imgur.com/a/5mvgM
I used Macrium Reflect to clone drive the SSD from the HDD. I copied all the partitions leaving me with 100GB or so of unallocated space. I also have a rescue disk and the Macrium software on a USB. I have tested the USB stick and it does allow me to restore when I boot from it. I also have W7 backup on an external.
In pic 1, you see my options for the boot menu. "System Device Bay", the last option on the list is where I found my SSD last night for the first time. The model number WAS right and everything. That option is now GONE as shown in pic 5.
https://imgur.com/HphJ7AH
Pic 2 is what device is listed for internal HDD. I didn't know where to find SSD the day before so I called it a night after hours of research.
https://imgur.com/cI2XVyc
Pic 3 is the BIOS menu. When I hit System Device Bay, the SSD is used to boot from... and man, what a thing of beauty. From that point to fully loading W7 + 6-7 programs that auto-load on startup takes about 35 seconds. When the HDD is booted from, it's about a minute and a half to be fully loaded. I did get it to boot from the SSD last night, multiple times, as I was timing the boot times to make sure, I just had to do it manually from the BIOS via "System Device Bay".
https://imgur.com/a/aSTcP
Pic 4 is how I saved my new boot order last night, but left like this, it is still booting from the HDD, I know because it takes 1:37 to fully load when I don't use System Device Bay to load W7. I did boot from the SSD 4/4 times when I used this method and only this method.
https://imgur.com/a/j0mx0
Pic 5 is what I see as options at the moment.
https://imgur.com/a/9sffS
Can someone help me figure this out? I know I installed the device correctly, it shows up, I can see it in explorer and have cloned all partitions and I have booted from the SSD (although that option is now gone). I just cant figure out where it went and how to have it do that automatically w/o me having to go to BIOS. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. I can't go back to booting up from the HDD after the taste of SSD power after using PC's for 20 years!
edit: Not sure how the links are all out of order but here are the missing pics. Sorry about that.
This is what I tried the night before, booting from CD thinking since it was in the CD bay via the drive caddy. The first 3 options wouldn't boot from the SSD. I finally tried the last option and that was the first and soon to be one the few times I saw it again.
https://imgur.com/a/lWicB
This shows how I tried to boot from the System Device Bay as the primary boot option to always boot from the SSD. It didn't work, it still was booting from the HDD but at least I could still boot from the SSD manually for now...
https://imgur.com/a/j0mx0
until this morning, is just vanished and I now have the HDD listed under the 2nd and last option.
https://imgur.com/a/DdFBe
I can confirm that the SSD is displayed under My Computer, Intel SSD Toolbox, ePSA, Disk Management and Speccy. So i was planning on using the caddy as my primary and when i need to use the CD, I can run the OS from HDD. Seems like that would be easier than swapping out the hdd for the sdd considering I want to keep the HDD as a reserve drive in case something happens to the SSD unless I find out swapping is easier.
https://imgur.com/a/9sffS
https://imgur.com/a/V8GtH
https://imgur.com/a/djBQi
https://imgur.com/a/PM4GP
https://imgur.com/a/5mvgM
I used Macrium Reflect to clone drive the SSD from the HDD. I copied all the partitions leaving me with 100GB or so of unallocated space. I also have a rescue disk and the Macrium software on a USB. I have tested the USB stick and it does allow me to restore when I boot from it. I also have W7 backup on an external.
In pic 1, you see my options for the boot menu. "System Device Bay", the last option on the list is where I found my SSD last night for the first time. The model number WAS right and everything. That option is now GONE as shown in pic 5.
https://imgur.com/HphJ7AH
Pic 2 is what device is listed for internal HDD. I didn't know where to find SSD the day before so I called it a night after hours of research.
https://imgur.com/cI2XVyc
Pic 3 is the BIOS menu. When I hit System Device Bay, the SSD is used to boot from... and man, what a thing of beauty. From that point to fully loading W7 + 6-7 programs that auto-load on startup takes about 35 seconds. When the HDD is booted from, it's about a minute and a half to be fully loaded. I did get it to boot from the SSD last night, multiple times, as I was timing the boot times to make sure, I just had to do it manually from the BIOS via "System Device Bay".
https://imgur.com/a/aSTcP
Pic 4 is how I saved my new boot order last night, but left like this, it is still booting from the HDD, I know because it takes 1:37 to fully load when I don't use System Device Bay to load W7. I did boot from the SSD 4/4 times when I used this method and only this method.
https://imgur.com/a/j0mx0
Pic 5 is what I see as options at the moment.
https://imgur.com/a/9sffS
Can someone help me figure this out? I know I installed the device correctly, it shows up, I can see it in explorer and have cloned all partitions and I have booted from the SSD (although that option is now gone). I just cant figure out where it went and how to have it do that automatically w/o me having to go to BIOS. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. I can't go back to booting up from the HDD after the taste of SSD power after using PC's for 20 years!
edit: Not sure how the links are all out of order but here are the missing pics. Sorry about that.
This is what I tried the night before, booting from CD thinking since it was in the CD bay via the drive caddy. The first 3 options wouldn't boot from the SSD. I finally tried the last option and that was the first and soon to be one the few times I saw it again.
https://imgur.com/a/lWicB
This shows how I tried to boot from the System Device Bay as the primary boot option to always boot from the SSD. It didn't work, it still was booting from the HDD but at least I could still boot from the SSD manually for now...
https://imgur.com/a/j0mx0
until this morning, is just vanished and I now have the HDD listed under the 2nd and last option.
https://imgur.com/a/DdFBe
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