03-11-2011 11:18 AM
BACKGROUND
I have a Dell Precision T3400 running Vista x64 Ultimate SP2 and the latest Dell Flash BIOS A11.It has two Western Digital 500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s hard disks configured in as RAID1 managed by an Intel ICH8R/ICH9R Raid controller.The dual HDDs are logically partitioned into C: and B: drives.I have Acronis True Image Workstation and take regular snapshots of my C: drive and have created a bootable CD-ROM.But, my C: partition is only 60 GB and has only 2 GB of free space remaining and I need to increase its size. So, I purchased a 120GB Intel X25-M SATA Solid-State Drive (SSDSA2MH120G2K5) and installed it into the empty 3.5 inch HDD bay.I connected the SSD to the power cable and plugged the data cable into my empty SATA-4 slot on the motherboard. PROBLEM My BIOS does not recognize the SSD as a SATA device. I need step-by-step instructions on how to get my system to recognize my new SSD and I'm hoping to get answers to the following questions along the way:
BIOS Settings
Currently, my six SATA ports are allocated as follows: SATA-0 = 500GB Western Digital HDDSATA-1 = 500GB Western Digital HDDSATA-2 = TSSTcorpDVD-ROM TS-H353BSATA-3 = TSSTcorp DVD+/-RW TS-H653BSATA-4 = Intel X25-M SSD (unrecogized)SATA-5 = not used SATA Operation is set to RAID Autodetect / AHCI = RAID if signed drives, otherwise AHCI The boot sequence is set to: 1. Onboard or USB Floppy Disk (not present)2. Onboard SATA Hard Drive (not present)3. Intel ARRAY4. Onboard or USB CD-ROM Drive5. Onboard Network Controller (not present)6. USB Device My Windows Vista x64 SP2 registry entry for [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci]Start = 0x00000004 (4)03-16-2011 06:16 PM
I decided to return my SSD and get a new one. I'm guessing the first one was defective. Thank you for your help, Duckieho.
04-28-2011 09:40 AM
I ordered another Inter SSD and successfully installed it. The step-by-step is at http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/p/19375444/19862705.aspx http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/p/19375444/19862705.aspx