2.5' U.2 SSD not recognized in BIOS??

Question

I have a Dell 5820 that's been booting off a SATA ssd in one of the 3.5" caddies. Rather than going through all the extra parts needed to put an M.2 NVMe drive in one of the 3.5" external bays I bought a U.2 2.5" drive, 5.25" to 2.5" drive adapter and an U.2 cable. I put the cable on the first (0) MiniSAS port on the motherboard, plugged that into the drive and plugged the only available SATA power I could find into the power plug on the drive end of the cable. BIOS looks just like it did before I installed anything. MiniSAS PCIe SSD-0 and 1 are both checked to be enabled, but both show Device ID = (none).

Is there some trick with this? Is there something magical about the NVMe backplane for the 3.5 bays? Tell me I'm missing something easy here and that I don't have a dead U.2 drive or that the motherboard wasn't made to be used with simple, 2.5" U.2 ssds not connected through the NMVe backplane?

Dylanear · Accepted Answer

Well, the drive is working fine on the Flexbay backplane in one of the standard caddies, they work for U.2 just like they work for SATA. Same connector in the same exact place.. I gave up trying to use the passive MiniSAS to U.2 cable.

Seems the MiniSAS ports on the 5820 go through the Intel Volume Management Device controller in the CPU and C422 chipset. Turning off the Intel VMD option in the bios AND (seems important) unchecking the dots by both PCIe drive devices allows the U.2 drive to appear as a standard NVMe drive to Windows. Otherwise it seems to be considered a RAID device. Windows did see the drive in that config, but other than hot swapping I don't see any advantage in doing that with just one drive. But it seems it needs the logic/electronics on the Flexbay backplane to work, the standard, passive MiniSAS to U.2 cable did not work. The bios nor Windows ever detected the drive using that cable. Standard NVMe is not hot swappable and thus not well suited to the Flexbay caddies. But the onboard MiniSAS and the Flexbay backplane should allow for hotswapping I think?

So, I bough this. It will take a while to arrive, but I hope I can use it with the standard MiniSAS to U.2 cables I have and put the U.2 drive in the 5.25 bay. Then I can use all 4 Flexbay caddies for a SATA array down the line.

https://www.newegg.com/p/17Z-012A-00013?Item=9SIB2NHHWP3528

If anyone is looking for the NVMe Flexbay backplane at a very low price, PM me and I'll share where I got mine. Not sure if it's ok to link to non Dell (Amazon in this case) sellers of Dell parts here on the public forum.

Dylanear · Answer

The drive is a Western Digital Gold WDS192T1D0D 2.5' U.2 1.92TB PCIE 3.1 x4, NVMe 1.3 SSD The cable is a 'DiLinKer HD Mini-SAS to U.2 (SFF-8639) cable manufactured by Amphenol.' according to the seller and it does appear to be an Amphenol quality cable by appearances.

mazzinia_ · Answer

Hello, what 2.5' adapter and 5.25 etc kit are you using ? Somehow i think you complicated your own life, a simple pci-e adapter card is cheaper and simpler

Dylanear · Answer

Just ordered this, because I should have bought one long before this predicament anyway. So I can test that SATA power cable on the 5820. Some how I doubt I can buy a Mini-SAS/U.2 tester for $16.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076CLNPPK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2KUFRYMC05E5D&psc=1

Dylanear · Answer

I dunno. Native U.2 drive, a simple, inexpensive cable and a simple plastic adapter with no electrical connections or removable caddies to hold the drive sounds simpler to me than an add in card with it's own electronics on it and potential compatibility issues. You were thinking a PCIe card with M.2 NVMe slots on it?

Maybe something like this would work nicely. Lists 5810, but not 5820 as compatible? And non Dell options should work too, but those abound in many varieties, so I'd prefer one confirmed to play nice with the 5820 for booting if I were to go that way.

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-pcie-ssd-card-holds-up-to-4-x-m2-solid-state-drives/apd/414-bbbk/storage-drives-media

I think a certain nerdiness inside me just wanted to play with a U.2 drive since this is the first time I've had those ports to play with. Curiosity killed the cat perhaps. And given this isn't working so far, you may be right?

But the drive was an "open box" sale, so it's suspicious to a degree, but the price was right! No returns, final sale with Newegg says the fine print, but hopefully WD's warranty is intact. And maybe Newegg would see reason and take back a DOA drive? It was still sealed in factory style mylar and seemingly untouched. I was thinking it'd be hard to kill a enterprise ssd so a open box at a steep discount seemed like a good deal at the time. Now? I dunno, maybe dumb to ever buy less than perfectly new drives of any kind? I do tend to stick to that idea almost all of the time.

I was initially a bit confused checking the Dell website for bios/firmware updates thinking I was up to date before trying the U.2 drive and then writing this post. But I did update the firmware (1.8.0 to 1.13.0) last night after posting and haven't had a chance to reconnect the drive for another test yet today.

This is how I'm putting the 2.5" SSD into the 5.25" bay on the 5820. Not fancy, but cheap and the drive is fitting securely. $16.50 and delivered in about a day by Amazon, so hard to beat that for cheap and simple. I can put SATA/SAS or U.2 drives in the 4 spots as I see fit, so not cornering myself in. No additional connections for the signal to pass through to cause issues. Leaves all the 3.5" caddies for a SATA/SAS spinning disk array or whatever down the line.

FLEX-FIT Quattro MB344SP
Dual 2x 2.5” (4 bays) HDD/SSD Mounting Bracket for External 5.25” Bay

https://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=230

Granted, if this wasn't a budget project, the IcyDock swappable stuff looks slick. But the U.2 version costs more than I paid for the 5820! But sure would look like it belonged in this machine.

https://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=374

Dylanear · Answer

Now, conveniently, the NVMe drive cage backplane I bought off Amazon ($40!, no signs of use!) showed up today, and, by the looks of it I can just use the caddies I have and put the 2.5" U.2 drive in one and it should work?? I'll have to give that closer inspection for sure, but another possible angle to try to tackle this issue.

Will report back once I try with the new firmware and maybe with the NVMe backplane replacing two of my unused SATA slots.

Dylanear · Answer

'No, I was thinking about a passive pci-e 4x card made to mount a 2.5' u.2' Fascinating??? Didn't know such a beast existed?? Got a link or brand and part number??   'I wonder if the cable is ok' I worry about the drive more than the cable, if just given the drive costs a lot more. But does look like the U.2/NVMe backplane will work with the standard caddies, so that may be a way to test the drive connected to the same ports on the motherboard using all Dell parts? The cable looks well made, fits the drive, motherboard port and SATA power connection nicely. But hard to say? I have a second cable just like the one tested, but think it's unlikely it's a defect in one cable that the other one won't have? May try the drive cage backplane tonight, but that does look a little involved and not sure how much time I'll have until the weekend.  Thanks for the PCIe card suggestion. Hopefully I won't have to buy more hardware to solve this though. I fear I may end up having to talk to Newegg customer service and/or Western Digital warranty dept? But maybe it'll just work next time I try it after last night's firmware updates?? Here's hoping!!

Dylanear · Answer

Caddy seems to line up to the backplane perfectly as long as the connector on the drive lines up. The pin on the caddy lines up with the hole on the backplane, at least sitting on my desk, we'll see if that's the same once installed in the machine. Don't want to have to buy U.2/NVMe specific caddies. Guessing it will, but will have to check careful before shoving (gently of course) the drive/caddy in!

mazzinia_ · Answer

No, I was thinking about a passive pci-e 4x card made to mount a 2.5' u.2  .I wonder if the cable is ok

mazzinia_ · Answer

Yep, this is the official conversion kit for one of the sata bays. You got a good price on it, too

Dylanear · Answer

Here's a pic of the drive, cable, and the IcyDock plastic adapter. The drive is only slightly inserted, it slides in and then locks in with a click, no screws needed to attach the drive to the adapter. Then putting the "slider" bolts found stored on the 5.25" bay cage into the plastic adapter, it slides into the slot on the bay/cage. Takes a little fiddling to push it to the depth needed to put the metal face back onto the 5.25 bay and allow the retention of the plastic front cover, but it's not bad, no need to force anything.

mazzinia_ · Answer

I was thinking about something like thishttps://www.amazon.it/STARTECH-COM-PEX4SFF8639-Adattatore-Express-SFF-8639/dp/B072JK2XLC and I pressed the wrong button by error

Precision Fixed Workstations

2.5" U.2 SSD not recognized in BIOS??

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