AW15R2 Samsung 950 PRO M.2 SSD SETUP-- CRY FOR HELP

So recently I purchased a AW15R2 with a 1TB HDD, decided to wait to upgrade to the SSD myself instead of paying Dell for the markup SSD...I regret that now.. I should've just had it shipped with the M.2 SSD.

1) I purchased the Samsung 950 PRO M.2 SSD-256GB. 2) I created a Recovery USB using Dells Operating System Windows Recovery Image offer on the AW/Drivers site, using rufus 3) Have read many..many ways to get the Recovery USB to be installed into the M.2 SSD 4) Removed the bottom plate of the laptop exposing the RAM/M.2 Slots/HDD, etc. Unplugged the battery cable and installed the M.2 SSD to slot 1. 5) In a nutshell, went through many changes in the BIOS to get the USB Recovery to be recognized..I think I had to enable Legacy boot...The USB Recovery was finally recognized and I booted to it... In the middle of all this, I picked the "reset and install windows on the current drive"--in other words the HDD(original drive with the working OS).. And luckily something went wrong and the "reset and installation" did not complete. 6) After many attempts, I somehow ended up installing Dells Operating System Windows Recovery Image using the USB.. And sadly, unlike the Technical Rep I talked to this Image was only the base model, no special AW Software, etc. on it.. So I had to go back and install all the drivers, etc.. Ultimately it was okay because I figured that I would start from scratch. I did but somehow my computer seemed a lot slower than when I originally received it. 7) I ended up asking my friend who also purchased a AW15R2 to let me use his USB Recovery Image.. went back and installed the M.2 SSD(slot 1), turned on the computer.. back lights for the keyboard turned on and so this the alien head but my screen failed to show anything and my computer would not boot. Take note that my computer was working "okay" with only the 1TB HDD. Removed the M.2 SSD and my computer when back to normal..

My cry for help.. I've read so many forums/post on how to do this but I have obviously failed miserably and possibly ruined my computer.

Can someone please give me some guidance on how to get my AW15R2 working with a M.2 SSD? Im sorry for the brick of text but it is very overwhelming seeing a new machine not function properly because of my ignorance with this matter.

Thank you very much for reading this.

 

This was posted in another thread. Sounds like your exact situation.

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19659674

 

If you dont mind installing a fresh new copy of windows 10

Make sure you go to support.dell.com and download the Intel Rapid Storage drivers, link here ( http://www.dell.com/support/home/us...5-r2&languageCode=EN&categoryId=SA&DCP=DNDTAG)

run the file and just chose "extract" and extract the files to a usb drive.

go to your bios and make sure your setup to use RAID, not AHCI. RAID will make sure the BIOS can see your nvme drive.

go ahead and boot from your windows 10 iso (via usb or an external cd),

when you get to the screen where you get to look for which partition to install, choose load drivers. plug in the usb you saved the raid drivers to, and load those drivers.

after the drivers load, you should see your 950 PRO, and install there.

i recommend using UEFI, since Windows 10 can start up much faster as UEFI compared to legacy.


feel free to contact me if you're still having issues.

 

Hello. I made an account to ask you a question. I'm having the same issue as the other guy. Say that I do run the 950 in raid mode. Will my mechanical drive and my 951 show up in windows? Thank you.

 

They will show up. Just make sure you re-load the machine in RAID mode.

 

Thank you for the reply on such an old thread! I'll be sure to do that when my laptop gets back from repairs for the second time..