Booting XPS 8900 from SSD

Hi russ.white,

Did you try the option to boot to system setup? You may need to go into the BIOS to configure your new drive setup.

Hey Russ,

Respond here if you were ever able to figure this out.  This has nothing to do with making sure the thing is configured in your BIOS.  I just installed a Samsung 950 Pro NVMe drive and I get the same issue.  If I disconnect the 1TB drive that came with the system I get an error about the hard drive.  I can bypass and the machine boots.  The only way I can get it to boot without the error is to hit F12 and choose to boot from the drive.  It's like the BIOS is saying "Hey, put the *** hard drive back" and I am saying "No, I dont want to, I prefer my SSD that is about 100 times faster)".

I got it working, but I'm not exactly sure why.  I did update the BIOS. I also connected a second SATA drive. As weird as it seem I think that the second drive was the thing that actually made the error go away. Wish I could tell you exactly why it started working. 

I have the same problem - I had installed an extra hard drive initially to copy some files over after I did a clean install of windows 10 on the 2TB drive that came with my XPS 8900. I then decided to install a Samsung 250gb 850 EVO m.2. Cloned the 2tb drive over to the SSD and booted from the ssd - everything was fine. I then decided to remove one of the hard drives and that's when I started to get the same error about a failing hard drive or cd driveI. Hit continue and the machine proceeds to complete the boot process and loads the OS.

If I Put the drive back in and everything is fine. I even went so far as to remove the ssd and other hard drive and then do another clean install of windows 10 on the 2 tb drive (Removed all of the partitions and let windows do its thing) and I still get the same error even though it was the only drive in the system. Seems like you can add drives fine you just can't remove them.. Put the ssd and other hard drive back into the computer and error goes away. I think the bios is corrupted somehow. The dell Support system built into the bios isn't working properly. Somebody needs to fix this.

If anybody figures this out please post the solution

FYI Switching from raid to AHCI in the bios doesn't help - I still get the same error.

I was having this exact same problem.  Could not find a fix through BIOS.  However, this problem went away after I connected a second CD/DVD drive and a storage HDD.  The storage HDD I added was not the HDD which came with the computer.

I got mine working too.  its like the BIOS checks for a SATA hard drive and if it doesnt find one it doesnt like it.  I ended up just replacing the hard drive with a 1tb SSD and then I have the .5TB M.2 SSD plugged into a PCIe card to boot from.  Getting about a 1 second Win 10 boot time from the time it starts to load.

My problem is that I had added a second drive to begin with to transfer files over. I then installed a SSD into the m.2 slot to boot from - works great, but, now I have the original 2tb HDD and this secondary drive. If I try and remove either drive - I get that same error (2000-0723). I don't want 2 HDD's in my system but for now it looks like I am stuck until somebody can come up with a solution.

The only reason I am mentioning this is I would be careful about adding any other drives/dvd players on a temporary basis - you may not be able to remove them later on.

Hi Tom76,

I assume you're having UEFI problems, and I suggest you switch to legacy BIOS to sort this out, then switch back to UEFI.

Hi OSPREY,  I am trying to avoid these kind of issues, and looking for some insight before I begin.  Just got a new Dell XPS 8900. My goal is add new startup SSD on the PCIe, and second SSD in SATA for audio recording files, and keep the original installed 1 TB HDD for back up. My default SATA now in the BIOS is RAID. So my existing SATA internal 1 TB HDD is configured with this RAID setting through Windows System 10, correct? I want to prepare for and soon format a SATA SSD, (Samsung 850 PRO 512GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD) which I understand requires ACHI, correct? If I change my BIOS now to ACHI, will my system still see my original installed HDD 1 TB Toshiba drive? Later I have a Samsung 950 Pro PCIe SSD coming to install which I want to make the start up disk by cloning my original installed Win 10 HDD. Should I just wait and do that with the Samsung migration software to clone my original Win 10 HDD to the 950 Pro SSD (PCIe)? OR do I need to change the whole system first to AHCI to accommodate future SATA SSDs? I hope I can clone my system and files to a startup SSD. I already have a lot of apps and files and local users installed. Sorry for the newbie question... Thank you...

Osprey4 - Thanks for the reply.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the only way to switch to legacy is to turn on legacy in bios and then do a clean install -  otherwise it wont boot up from a UEFI drive in legacy mode - or will it ?

Are you saying all I have to do is switch to legacy, let it try to boot and then switch back to UEFI ?

FYI -  as pspider pointed out in his post dated 1/6/2016, if I hit the F12 during boot (One time Boot Menu) and select my boot drive, the system will boot up with no errors.

Let me know what you think - I am willing to try almost anything short of re-installing the OS (I tried that - see my 1/8/2016 post).

You can switch to legacy without reinstalling.

Switch how ? If I go into BIOS and change the boot type to legacy and try to boot up it won't work.

You would have to change the partitions on the drive and create a MBR - some partition software will do the switch from UEFI To Legacy for you.

If there is a simple way let me know and I will try it.

In the Bios do you only have the choice of raid and ahci?  Is there an NVME option?  As far as I know only ASUS MOBO with the hyper kit which installs in the m.2 slot and attaches with a special cable for data and power can get the 2.5 gb per sec speeds.  This is also using the Intel 750 (400gb or 1.2tb) drives.  Using your M.2 pro Samsung may only get up to 1 gb per sec of course update to the latest bios.  I don't have this computer but however dell has it set up I would suggest you get a reinstall disc from dell with windows 10.  If you just clone your 1tb which is setup in ahci you will not get the speeds you are looking for.  Ahci limited to 6 gbps.  NVMe can achieve 32gbps.

Hi Tom76,

See if this page from Philip's guide helps.