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December 11th, 2016 08:00

Aurora r5 ssd upgrade

Just bought the Aurora r5 with a stock 1TB Seagate hdd with win10 home ed, sitting on sata1. So I installed a Samsung 850 Evo sata600 ssd on sata4 and successfully cloned the hdd onto the ssd using Samsung Magician. At first the ssd was disabled by Windows so I enabled it using Windows own disc management tool and got a warning saying 2 discs has same signature. I then went into the uefi settings to look for some boot options. Now the bios recognised both discs. The seagate as first hd and the Samsung ssd as second hd. No apparent way to destinguise boot order. I can only see boot load manager and a couple of netboot options. So loaded the os again and now both drives are visible in the file system. The seagate as c: and the ssd as f:

I then let Samsung magician have a look at the ssd. It says I'm not in AHCI mode and I must switch to that mode to take advantage of the ssd. So I reboot the system and switch sata mode from the default "raid on" mode to AHCI. Now the system won't boot. It just goes past the Alienware logo post boot and then goes to black screen. So I shut down the pc and unplug the seagate, to try and force the system to boot from the ssd, but then system just tries to netboot. I then tried the onboard diagnostics but skipped the DST test. When booting afterwords I'm suddenly told to press a key to abort some sort of disc check. I let the disc check happen and within a few seconds it says disc repair 100% or similar and reboots ending in another netboot. I then switch back to "raid on" sata mode and reconnect the hdd which boots until login screen, but now with a blinking screen and a busy/activity icon. So I shut down the pc and unplug the ssd. System now boots correctly. So back to square one. Is there some hidden license issue here, or some devilish boot load manager secret? When the ssd is pluged in, it is recognized by the uefi, but seems not to be recognized by the boot load manager. In the "browse and add boot option" I can browse the ssd and I find interesting stuff like bootmgr.efi.mui. It seems possible to add this, but I did not dare go there. How do I make the boot loader aware of the ssd? I considered installing a fresh windows 10 home ed on the ssd, but stating the obvious, the Aurora carries no license key. So I understand this key is stamped on the motherboard itself and that users should never need it. But now I do, so is it actually visible somewhere on the board or is there some way not requiring vast amounts of magic to retrieve it ?

8 Wizard

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17K Posts

December 12th, 2016 15:00

I incidentally found out that Dell actually provide the exact AlienWare stamped ISO that came with my particular setup, as a download directly from their site. This image is clearly preferable compaired to the standard image I installed.

Well, it's definitely better that some random ISO you might find on the net, but we think the Microsoft.com ISO is better:

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19999261

8 Wizard

 • 

17K Posts

December 12th, 2016 15:00

At first the ssd was disabled by Windows so I enabled it using Windows own disc management tool and got a warning saying 2 discs has same signature.

Should not have left both discs connected. This is why creating an Image (instead of cloning) is easier. Yes, I've seen that "signature error" before. I had to erase old disc from different machine via USB interface.

Still, clean install is better. I think required to switch from RAID to AHCI-Mode anyway. UEFI, AHCI, and SecureBoot is what you want. Don't install non-official ISOs.

My suggested directions are 6th post here:

en.community.dell.com/.../20961670

2 Posts

December 12th, 2016 12:00

As it turns out, the os license key is in fact hardwired to the motherboard, so you actually don't need it as long as you present the correct Windows 10 flavor. I managed to find a working Win10 home ed. ISO,  from a site that seems to have salvaged what was left of the original digital river site, that MS used to partner and create a bootable USB containing that image, using a very nice program called "Windows USB/DVD download Tool". Now, with only the SSD attached, I set Bios SATA mode to ACHI and chose legacy boot instead of UEFI secure boot. Now I can see a boot order with USB on top and hard drive next, so I plug in bootable USB, restart system and hey, it actually boots on USB stick. Now Windows 10 install kicks in. I have to remove all partitions on the cloned SSD, since they are apparently GPT and cannot be used for installation?? So now Win 10 installer has a nice clean ssd and it installs happily. With setup I have win 10 on a bootable ssd on the Aurora, but do I really have to take this aproach? I would rather go the GPT way instead of relying on the aging mbr. I incidentally found out that Dell actually provide the exact AlienWare stamped ISO that came with my particular setup, as a download directly from their site. This image is clearly preferable compaired to the standard image I installed. So as I'm starting over, I would like to ask if anyone here can shed som light on how the bios settings should be set, to achive an Aurora r5 system with a bootable GPT ssd, so I don't have to go legacy? Maybe it's just not possible with a 2.5" Samsung 850 Evo? Does anyone have some experience with a somewhat identical setup?

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