SSD not working

[MrTriTanium]

I recently bought a customized HP dv6z with the AMD A8-3510MX processor. Even with the upgraded 7200k rpm hard drive, every other component is faster then the hdd. I had bought a 115GB Corsair Force Series SSD to replace the stock hdd, and when I had went to install Windows on the SSD, the bios and Windows would not recognize the SSD.

I had talked to HP customer service and technical support, and AMD to see if an SSD would work with my laptop. HP tech support said that they have not 'offically' tested an SSD with the AMD APUs and could not gaurentee the SSD working, and AMD said that the APUs are compatable with SSDs.

I have no clue on what to do know, and I am asking your help,
thank you for your responses in advance.

 

[Ubrales]

Welcome to Tom's Hardware Forums!

There is something else that you can try. Clone the hard disk onto the SSD using Apricorn's Drivewire and EZ Gig IV program. Then install the SSD in place of the hard disk. Start the computer.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Did you go into system BIOS and switch to ACHI mode before installing Windows?

 

[MrTriTanium]

Did you go into system BIOS and switch to ACHI mode before installing Windows?

That was the first thing I had wanted to do, but the bios unfortunately does not have that option.
Am at the mercy of HP with that problem.

 

[Ubrales]

Do the cloning before something bad happens!

 

[MrTriTanium]

Welcome to Tom's Hardware Forums!

There is something else that you can try. Clone the hard disk onto the SSD using Apricorn's Drivewire and EZ Gig IV program. Then install the SSD in place of the hard disk. Start the computer.[/quotemsg

I would try that but Windows back-up and restore happened to erase the Windows product key from the hdd/mobo and it has to go back to HP to be usuable and not a $1200 paper weight.

 

[MrTriTanium]

Best answer selected by MrTriTanium.

 

[Ubrales]

Thank you!

 

[WyomingKnott]

MrTriTanium

With an SSD, one thing that is important for performance is that the filesystems be "4K aligned," starting on an boundary that is an exact multiple of 4 kibibytes (4096 bytes). Win7 installation does this automatically, but it's worth checking to ensure that you are properly aligned.

Okay, Mr. Bigmouth (me), how does he do that? Oh, crap, now I've go to work and find the right program... AS SSD is an SSD benchmark tool, but in the upper-left corner it will tell you what driver you are using and if the partitions are aligned.

Also, there are a number of settings that Win7 will do differently if you install on an SSD or on an HDD. These will be set to the HDD settings, so take a look at this article and see if you want to apply any of the suggested tweaks: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-performance-tweak,2911.html