Dell Inspiron 7559 Samsung M.2 SSD Addition

[Clay_Ton_1]

Hello,
I have a Dell Inspiron 7559 laptop, and it comes standard with a 1TB HHD in one slot, but it contains a spare, empty M.2 slot for the addition of another drive. I have a 500GB Samsung EVO 850 SSD that I am trying to install and use alongside the HDD. I plan on using Samsung's free data migration software to run the OS from the SSD, but I cannot even get the laptop to start back up when I install the SSD in its slot.
I shut down the laptop, install the SSD, then power it back up. I am provided with an error that the boot drive has no Windows on it, suggesting that the laptop is trying to boot from the empty SSD instead of the still-installed HDD with Windows on it. I have driven myself crazy trying to rummage through the BIOS to get the laptop to boot off of the HDD. The BIOS main page lists the "First HDD" as the Samsung SSD and the "Second HDD" as the old HDD. I have already tried using a legacy boot and tried every boot option that gave me, including "HDD" and "Second HDD" to no avail. When I take the SSD back out and set the boot back to Secure UEFI, the laptop starts up like normal.
I have seen over a dozen videos and guides of people installing this exact drive in the exact same laptop, but for every one of them, the laptop just boots up without issue.
I'm pretty disappointed that I can't get past Step One of this process. Any help is appreciated.

 

[drtweak]

Do this.

Put the SSD back and leave everything in the BIOS alone.

When it boots up Press F12 for the boot Menu. You should be able to select the HDD and it will boot. Then either use the Samsung software, or what most of us prefer, Macrium Reflect Free edition and clone your hard drive to the SSD. Then reboot and it should boot off the SSD and you can wipe the HDD.

 

[Clay_Ton_1]

Do this.

Put the SSD back and leave everything in the BIOS alone.

When it boots up Press F12 for the boot Menu. You should be able to select the HDD and it will boot. Then either use the Samsung software, or what most of us prefer, Macrium Reflect Free edition and clone your hard drive to the SSD. Then reboot and it should boot off the SSD and you can wipe the HDD.

I have been doing this, but I tried again and realized that HDD is not a boot option in the list of UEFI options. (Before, I tried to go to Legacy Boot to find these as options). I tried to go to the BIOS and add the HDD through "File Browser Add Boot Option," but I cannot determine the correct file path after consulting other guides and trying the half dozen most obvious paths.

Also, what are the pros/cons of Macrium? Should I be worried about Samsung's own software?
Thank you for your suggestions and help.

 

[drtweak]

Sorry DO NOT select the hard drive. I forgot uEFI. Select "Windows Boot Manager" under the uEFI boot menu.

And I just find Macrium better for me. I have tired to use Samsung software once and it didn't work so i just didn't use it again lol plus you can do offline cloning (You make a USB boot drive and boot from that to make cloning even faster on bigger drives)

 

[Clay_Ton_1]

Sorry DO NOT select the hard drive. I forgot uEFI. Select "Windows Boot Manager" under the uEFI boot menu.

And I just find Macrium better for me. I have tired to use Samsung software once and it didn't work so i just didn't use it again lol plus you can do offline cloning (You make a USB boot drive and boot from that to make cloning even faster on bigger drives)

Thanks, but Windows Boot Manager is already the default, and it comes up with an error when I have the SSD physically installed. I am only given the option of hitting ESC, then go to BIOS or the Boot Manager, which I can use to return to the Windows Boot Manager, giving me the same error. It says "Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause" Duh. It says that file "\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD" has status 0xc0000225. My research says that that status indicates that Windows cannot find the system files used for booting. Hence my attempt to redirect Windows to my HDD.
Keep in mind that everything works fine when I take the SSD back out, so no files are actually in error or are corrupt.
Thanks for the help.

 

[drtweak]

Yea that sounds just weird to me as for it to even list it in the boot it has to know where it is.

Ok then lets do this.

boot up with only your hard drive. install macrium reflect and then run the program. Follow the prompts to create the recovery drive (Get a blank CD/USB drive for this).

Reboot your PC and disable Secure Boot ONLY do not change the uEFI settings

Power off and install SSD

Hit F12 and boot from the USB/CD (Doesn't matter if it is as uEFI or Legacy boot if it gives you both options)

Clone your HDD to your SSD (Select your HDD and Image drive and then select your SSD) and let it clone.

Once done check to make sure it boots and that your SSD is your C Drive. You can then enable Secure Boot and format the HDD if you wish

 

[Clay_Ton_1]

Yea that sounds just weird to me as for it to even list it in the boot it has to know where it is.

Ok then lets do this.

boot up with only your hard drive. install macrium reflect and then run the program. Follow the prompts to create the recovery drive (Get a blank CD/USB drive for this).

Reboot your PC and disable Secure Boot ONLY do not change the uEFI settings

Power off and install SSD

Hit F12 and boot from the USB/CD (Doesn't matter if it is as uEFI or Legacy boot if it gives you both options)

Clone your HDD to your SSD (Select your HDD and Image drive and then select your SSD) and let it clone.

Once done check to make sure it boots and that your SSD is your C Drive. You can then enable Secure Boot and format the HDD if you wish

Thanks. To clarify, should I boot from the USB/CD using Macrium's Windows PE recovery environment, and clone the HDD to the SSD from there? Or do you mean for me to clone my HDD to a USB/CD and boot from it onto normal Windows 10 and use Macrium Reflect to clone the HDD to the SSD?
Thanks for your help and patience.

 

[drtweak]

the first option. Make the PE Recovery disk/usb drive, then install the SSD, then Disable Secure Boot (Or visa versa) and then boot into recovery and then clone

 

[Clay_Ton_1]

the first option. Make the PE Recovery disk/usb drive, then install the SSD, then Disable Secure Boot (Or visa versa) and then boot into recovery and then clone

I created the Macrium PE Recovery on a USB, and successfully used that to clone my SSD. When I went to check to see if my SSD could now boot Windows, I was given the option of selecting to boot Windows from Volume 7 or Volume 4. Volume 7 is my hard drive, while 4 is the SSD. I know that I can go to the registry editor and remove one to not make me have to choose every time I boot, but the problem is that selecting Volume 4 doesn't work. It tries to boot, but I'm left with a black screen. Volume 7, however, still works fine, and my HDD still shows up as the C drive, although I can see the SSD as the D drive in my file browser now.
I also removed my HDD just to see if the SSD would work on its own, but it doesn't.
What should I do? just retry the clone?
Thanks for your help

 

[drtweak]

yea sounds like it didn't clone properly

You selected the whole disk right and not just one partition from the HDD to SSD?

With uEFI it can be tricky. I have a tutorial about it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlZm5w99pGM&t=2s

 

[Clay_Ton_1]

yea sounds like it didn't clone properly

You selected the whole disk right and not just one partition from the HDD to SSD?

With uEFI it can be tricky. I have a tutorial about it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlZm5w99pGM&t=2s

Finally! This was the first YouTube video that I've actually been able to replicate the results of. I think I just had the partitions in the wrong order previously.
Thanks. I've successfully changed my main drive to the SSD and have formatted the HDD to use as extra storage.
Dunno why none of this worked as planned, but I learned a lot about storage and booting.

 

[drtweak]

Yea with uEFI, and espically on OEM Drives with multiple partitions after the OS partitions it can be a pain. I made that video because I have run into a LOT of people in your situation. I don't know if the Samsung Software could do this properly honestly.