Samsung 830 not seen by BIOS - Alienware M17-R1

[Riptides]

Hey Everyone,
I read the "If you installed a new disk but the system can't see it" guide, but unfortunately its the bios that isn't recognizing the SSD so time for a thread.

After having two OCZ Vertex 2s die on me I decided to switch it up and ordered a 128GB samsung 830, but the BIOS doesn't see it. I've tried both HD bays (this laptop has two), enabling and disabling raid in the BIOS, and I'm not really sure what to try next. When I put the drive in an external enclosure my other laptop recognizes it fine, (no OS on the alienware atm) and I can format it and put files on it etc.

Any advice?
Thanks in advance

 

[jsrudd]

Have you enabled AHCI?

Also, was a hard drive previously working in your laptop? It could be that internal SATA connections

 

[Riptides]

Have you enabled AHCI?

Also, was a hard drive previously working in your laptop? It could be that internal SATA connections

Thank you for your response.

I have a mechanical seagate HD which the computer recognizes so I don't think its the internal SATA connections. I will say that the samsung 830 is more difficult to seat correctly in the bay. I assumed this was due to it being a 7mm slim drive whereas the other two are normal size.

The bios doesn't have a setting for AHCI; however, when I enable RAID part of the startup mentions AHCI. Here are some pictures taken with my phone of each bios page and a video of the startup with RAID enabled. I apologize for the camera phone quality, I have no clue how to take an actual screenshot while in bios.

[flash=560,315]http://www.youtube.com/v/hSueySjw6-E?version=3&hl=en_US[/flash]

 

[Riptides]

I'm not sure why the images aren't showing up, I'd guess the forum prevents very new members from posting images but the video worked.

This link should make viewing them easier:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/w2sk6u4ft5g78pc/jNOzZA3S59

 

[RetiredChief]

Have you verified that the laptop is running the latest Firmware version?

 

[Riptides]

Have you verified that the laptop is running the latest Firmware version?

It looks like I've gotten it to work; however, I have no idea why I needed to do it the way I did.
I thought I was running the latest BIOS firmware but after checking again there was a new one out. I updated to the latest, installed the samsung in the first drive bay, but the BIOS still didn't see it. I tried changing different settings such as enabling/disabling RAID but no luck. Then I enabled RAID and installed the SSD in the second bay along with the mechanical HD in the first bay; now the Samsung is recognized! I have no idea why the other HD needs to be present for some reason but for me apparently it does.

Ideally I would not like that restriction but I'll take what I can get at this point.