[SOLVED] M.2 NVMe SSD Problems

[xxkevixx12]

Hello everyone, I'm completely stumped.

Here's my situation. I just bought a Alienware Aurora R7, Gtx 1070, i7 8700, 32gb ram, 1tb hdd segate hardrive and 16gb intel optane. I bought it used like two days ago, everything working fine. In my laptop, i have an ssd, and I could feel the difference in speed between ssd and hard drives, so I decided to buy an m.2 NVMe ssd for the new desktop computer.

Here's how I replaced the drives:

1. I unscrewed and took out the intel optane m.2 drive and put in the new ssd i bought. (SK hynix 256gb)
2. Screwed it back in, and booted up the system. Windows install auto prompted and I installed windows onto the new ssd.
3. I opened up windows, and checked file explorer to see if the drives were working, and only saw the new ssd(which means the new ssd works). The HDD could not be found in file explorer. I checked in BIOS and the HDD was seen there.
   1. After some research online, I realized i f**ked up, and should have removed intel optane first before i removed the drive.
4. After figuring this out, I pulled out the new ssd and put back the 16gb intel optane m.2 ssd. I went into BIOS and clicked on a button that allowed me to remove the intel optane.
5. After doing this, I pulled the intel optane m.2 drive out, and then put the new ssd back in. However, I was stuck on a "detecting media presence" screen, and then it wouldn't detect anything. I did some more searching, and read something about switching from RAID to AHCI. The new ssd still wouldn't boot up, and so I decided to re-install windows onto the HDD, to see if the new ssd would even be detected.

The new SSD can not be detected as of now. I also tried putting in the original intel optane m.2 drive in to see if the slot is broken, but it can be read as an ssd, so that means the slot is not broken. I also know that the new ssd was working before hand ( see bullet 3)

I've already tried pulling out the motherboard battery, and also re-arranging the sata cables (there are 4 slots,) and that didn't work either.

Please help. Since I just bought the PC, I have no info on the pc, I really dont care if i have to reset a bunch of times or anything. I just want to have my PC working with the new m.2 NVMe ssd and also the HDD. Any help will be appreciated

Edit: Here's the brand of the ssd:
"SK hynix BC511 NVMe 256GB"

Thanks, Kevin

 

[Palorim12]

Is there a setting in the BIOS for the slot, like maybe you have to disable Optane on it? I have an Alienware 15 R2, so i know the Bios is pretty limited.

 

[xxkevixx12]

Is there a setting in the BIOS for the slot, like maybe you have to disable Optane on it? I have an Alienware 15 R2, so i know the Bios is pretty limited.

Not that I can see. I've been just reading thru the bios and I can't find anything about intel optane that may be holding the m.2 ssd back. From my understanding, Intel optane is related to the m.2 drive, not the motherboard?

 

[Palorim12]

Not that I can see. I've been just reading thru the bios and I can't find anything about intel optane that may be holding the m.2 ssd back. From my understanding, Intel optane is related to the m.2 drive, not the motherboard?

from https://www.dell.com/community/Alie...-of-M-2-NVMe-on-motherboard/m-p/6129612#M4766
"2. I think the easiest thing to do is first Deactivate and then remove the Optane Module. "

https://www.dell.com/community/Alie...change-my-Intel-Optane-to-a-NVME/td-p/6114905
"I don't play with Optane, but in another thread ... I think some said the trick was to de-activate Optane (all caching, etc.) first. Then, turn in off in BIOS (if option is presented) . Remove Optane module and machine still works with current Windows.
Then ... you can clean-install your M.2/MVMe-SSD."

Found this youtube video in a reddit thread: View: https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/9welad/alienware_aurora_r7_swapped_intel_optane_for/

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoOIBJYYvGE&feature=youtu.be

OP made a youtube video showing how he got it to work in what looks like the same model system.