1 Rookie
•
3 Posts
0
196
February 15th, 2025 12:10
XPS 8900, M.2 SSD, no boot after connecting any other SATA drive
I am an experienced tech, but I am new to the world of M.2 SSD. I figured I'd give one a shot on my XPS 8900. It is attached to the M.2 motherboard slot next to the second bank of SATAs, and the latest available BIOS was flashed prior to this installation. I was easily able to install Windows 11 on it, operate for about a week, no problems. So I figured it was time to start re-adding my other hardware... and it's been a nightmare from step one.
If I connect ANY other SATA hard drive (blank, new, old with data, etc) to ANY SATA port, the system will not boot... I consistently get a BIOS message saying DISK READ ERROR, PRESS ALT-CTRL-DEL TO RESTART, or those annoying BIOS Dell diagnostics pop-up telling me there's no bootable devices.
I've reloaded BIOS defaults, no avail. I've changed boot sequences ensuring the m.2 is at the top, no avail. I've disabled the other connected hard drives and even all devices except for the M.2 from being bootable, no avail. I've tried both legacy and UEFI boot modes, no avail. No fact, if I switch to UEFI boot mode, the ONLY way to get the M.2 to boot at ALL is from the F12 menu... otherwise I just get a similar "No boot device available" message, even with no SATA drives attached.
All the forums out there that seem to have mixed signals when people have had similar (but I can't find anyone having the same) problems. People insisting that the default RAID setting MUST be enabled or nothing will work... people insisting that rather AHCI MUST be enabled or nothing will work. Same with boot options... some insisting it MUST be legacy to work, some insisting it MUST be UEFI to work.
I installed Windows with ONLY the M.2 SSD connected, with the default BIOS settings... which means RAID was on, and it was in legacy boot mode. I also have to keep secure boot turned off, or Windows 11 doesn't wanna play. Obviously I cant just toggle it out of RAID and into AHCI without needing another clean reinstall (at least, that is my understanding and experience thus far)... but if that's not going to fix it, I'd rather not put in that trouble. And as it sits, having BIOS set to UEFI is a pain in the ass since it will ONLY boot to the M.2 if I manually tell it to do so from the F12 menu. So that seems to need to remain in legacy mode?
So... Why does connecting ANY SATA hard drive cause the system to no longer see the M.2 as a viable boot device even though it continues to show in BIOS, and as a boot option? And what can I do to get this thing so I can boot and run my OS from the M.2, and still have my several other internal hard drives connected via SATA?
JOcean
9 Legend
•
12.6K Posts
2
February 15th, 2025 13:19
I believe that because RAID is enabled that is the problem. You cannot RAID NVMe and SATA drives together. And you can switch to AHCI without a reinstall. This page at Superuser describes the method in doing so. This YouTube video may also help.
Techgee
2 Intern
•
623 Posts
1
February 16th, 2025 03:14
The XPS 8900's M.2 storage slot is rather odd, and I don't think well documented. I suspect it's primary intended usage is as a SSD cache for a hard drive and other usage doesn't work too well. Someone else with similar issues here who finally resolved their issue, but wasn't sure why it works.
IIRC, the XPS 8900 M.2 slot supports both NVMe and SATA SSDs. This may contribute to the issue. Conjecture in the link above was it may be that if a NVMe SSD is in the motherboard's M.2 slot, then the SATA port associated with the M.2 slot in the BIOS needs to be disabled. Seems only enabling used SATA connectors in the BIOS was key to resolving it.
What specific M.2 SSD model number are you using?
Personally, if you have free PCIe slots, I'd consider abandoning the XPS 8900 M.2 slot for reasons I posted 6 years ago here (it's a single x1 lane PCIe slot). Instead, I'd get a PCIe NVMe SSD adapter (~$20) and put it in the XPS 8900 PCIe x4 or x16 slot.
Crachette
1 Rookie
•
3 Posts
1
February 19th, 2025 11:19
@JOcean Perfection. That did it for me. Another thing I noticed is external HDDs via a USB drive dock would not recognize before switching to AHCI, but USB connected external drives would. After following the steps to switch out of RAID and load the AHCI driver via safe mode, it's all peachy... All external drives of all types and internal drives are seen and operating at peak efficiency. Your help is much appreciated!
Just curious, in case you may know... I've always been puzzled why the BIOS shows a total of six SATA drives possible (0 through 5), but the motherboard only has five visible slots, and the tech manual only shows a total of five (0 through 4). What is this elusive sixth SATA connection which BIOS labels "SATA-5"? Does this have something to do with the M.2 being utilized as a SATA connection?
Crachette
1 Rookie
•
3 Posts
0
February 19th, 2025 11:37
@Techgee Indeed, it was surprising how little I was finding on the specifics of the M.2. Honestly, I've had this computer for nearly ten years and I never noticed it till I went to clean out the case and swap some memory. Being as I'd never has a reason and an opportunity to play with one before, I never had. So learning all of this has been fun as it has been frustrating.
I've always been puzzled why the BIOS shows a total of six SATA drives possible (0 through 5), but the motherboard only has five visible slots, and the tech manual only shows a total of five (0 through 4). What is this elusive sixth SATA connection which BIOS labels "SATA-5"? Does this have something to do with the M.2 being utilized as a SATA connection? Is this accomplished by an adapter? Is it reliable/stable?
If I were to take your advice and move the PCIe SSD to the PCIe x16, is it simply swappable without any damage to the OS or boot sector, etc? Or is this better/safer done when one can build from ground zero? I do not game at all, but I do video/audio recording/editing with sometimes quite intense programs and raw uncompressed large files. Would there be a noticeable/meaningful difference in performance? Broadly searching online is showing a lot of contradictory advice.
If it's pertinent, I am using a TeamGroup SSD, TM8FP60001T. Nothing fancy, but it seems to be rated well.
Techgee
2 Intern
•
623 Posts
0
February 19th, 2025 18:58
@Crachette , The M.2 format allows for SATA in addition to NVMe SSDs. The M.2 slot in the XPS 8900 supports both (no adapter required). I see little doubt that's what the BIOS "extra" SATA slot is. My post I linked to above covers M.2 SATA usage - you'll have to scroll past the motherboard image, which is probably why you missed it. So, for example, I mentioned the Samsung 860 PRO/EVO SATA SSD came in both 2.5" and M.2 formats.
Performance-wise, I've noticed the difference at each stage of taking a 16 year old Dell hex core X58 PCIe 2 desktop from: it's native HD SATA II (~100 MB/s) -> SATA II SSD (~280 MB/s) -> NVMe SSD @ PCIe 2 (~1700 MB/s) -> PCIe 3 NVMe SSD with a PCIe 3 x8 Switch card (~3400 MB/s). Going from a HD to SSD was the most noticeable, 1700 -> 3400 MB/s the least.
Your TeamGroup TM8FP6001T is a PCIe 3 NVMe SSD with 1800/1500 MB/s sequential read/write speeds. The M.2 slot runs at max 800 MB/s. Still better than SATA III at max 550 MB/s.
If your video processing isn't CPU/GPU/RAM bottlenecked, then you might see an increase in performance with a SSD/slot combo with faster sequential read/write speeds. That assumes the video files are on the NVMe SSD, which may not be your case. I would ascertain your video processing speed in MB/s to get a feel for SSD performance impact.
There should be no issue moving the NVMe SSD to a different slot, except perhaps changing boot target in the BIOS.
Note max possible NVMe SSD performance in the XPS 8900 utilizing its PCIe 3 x4 slots is ~3500 MB/s. In the future, if you're looking to maximize potential NVMe SSD slot usage, I'd consider leaving the TeamGroup NVMe SSD in the native M.2 motherboard slot and adding an additional min 3500/3500 MB/s read/write NVMe SSD with DRAM cache (since I doubt the XPS 8900 supports HMB) in either the PCIe x4 or x16 slot. (Note the non-GPU x16 slot in the XPS 8900 is electrically x4.)