New SSD on DELL XPS L702X, bios sees a removable device as well

[Konstantinos_1]

Hello ppl!

I am new here, so forgive me in advance for any misconceptions. I have done my research for my problem, but to no avail.
I have a DELL XPS L702x, from which I have been really satisfied, since it supported my mild gaming and 3d modelling well the past years. I decided to give "him" some extra life by replacing the old HDD (1 of 2, with the original OS having been upgraded to WIN10, with no problems) with a new Samsung Evo 500GB.

I laso did an internal cleaning, and thermal paste renewal, since the opportunity presented itself. So I installed the SSD on the slot of the old primary HDD. Bios saw it fine, so I inserted the USB which I had used for the Windows Installation Program, supplied by Microsoft. The installation begun, but the "cant locate a partition" message appeared. I did the "diskpart" , with and without the alignment and long format, to no avail. Googling my problem, I got a glimpse of a problem with the 3.0 USB, so I thought "let's give it a try" and actually it worked! Hurray!

But, after copying the files to the SSD, the windows installer had to reboot. After rebooting, here we go again with the installation. I did it again, I formatted again, I changed the boot sequence, I removed the USB, no progress whatsoever. After careful examination, with the USB removed, I saw that the BIOS had a "Removable device" boot sequence option, so I hit and, miracle!, it resumed the installation.

Entering windows, I see that the second HDD does not appear. But the device manager recognizes it, so I enter Disk management, and just by assigning it a letter, everything is fixed and I get my second HDD working as normal.

After some upgrades done by windows and Nvidia, I reboot, only to find out that after the DELL logo, all i get is a blank screen with the old dos cursor blinking (Just like when not having an OS installed). I change again the sequence and opting for the removable device, and again it enters windows. After some research, I upgrade my Bios from A14 to 19 and perform an Intell Matrix something installation, since Dell does not support this laptop on win10 anymore.

And here I am stuck, as each time I open my laptop I have to change the boot sequence for the pc to login to windows. If I set the removable device as 1st option in default boot sequence, nothing happens, so I have to do it manually.


The BIOS sees the SSD, the HDD, and a removable device. I should have seen it earlier, but in WIN10 installation, it presented me with two separate, but identical options like this: "Install windows 10 on volume 1" and "Install windows 10 on volume 1",. I believe this is related to the BIOS issue.

I am currently thinking to perform a win7 clean install, so that Dell autodetects and installs the current drivers for the hardware, then upgrade to win10. But I dont think this will provide any solution to the BIOS issue. The SATA options are AHCI and ATA. I swapped between these 2, but nothing changed.

I thank you in advance for your support and ideas and apologize for my english, but it is not my native language.

Best regards

[Wall of text converted to spaced paragraphs for the benefit of readers - - Moderator]

 

[Balrog49]

Run Samsung Magician. You should have received a copy with your SSD. Among other things, it will make sure your system is in AHCI mode, which is what you want for an SSD.

I suggest that you use NirSoft ProductKey and print out the results. Then back up your C:\Users folder and any application data in the root of the C drive that you want to keep. Use the Microsoft Windows 10 Media Creation tool to write Windows 10 onto a DVD or a thumb drive. Then boot from the device.

The Windows installation shows you the volumes and partitions on your SSD and asks you where to install Windows. Reformat the drive, deleting everything that was on it. Windows creates the partitions it needs. When it's up and running, run Windows Update and reinstall whatever you software you need.