Alienware M17x and c300 initial install

Afternoon-
After three days of roaming the SSD forums here as well as the M17X pages, I still can't seem to get my new C300 128 gig Crucial SSD (Rev. 006) drive to work on my Alienware M17X.

I'd like to make this post and see if maybe I am having a Homer Simpson moment- maybe I have just missed something simple.

I think my M17X is an R1 model. I don't know how to check. I purchased it directly from Dell in 7/09, and it came stock with the following:

• Bios: A01
• Processor: Core 2 Duo P8600 @ 2.4ghz, not overclocked
• Ram: 4 gig DDR3
• GPU: Dual GTX 280s
• Operating System: Win 7 Pro (If I could ever get it installed!)

The problem I am having is that the SSD shows up in the Bios- but when I go to install Windows on a fresh clean installation, Windows Installation will not find the drive.

I have attempted most of the workarounds seen here on the posts. I made sure that I had AHCI selected. My system gives me the option of choosing either "Native" or "Legacy" AHCI. I have tried both. Both will get me into the windows installation dialog, but won't recognize the drive.

I have tried putting the drive in Slot 1 instead of Slot 0 and tried the same above. I can't recall what happened, but it didn't work. In this configuration, I also tried RAID after seeing posts that I should try that. To no avail. I can't even seem to designate Slot 1 as a RAID drive- it doesn't show up. AFter trying raid, I have to reset the bios every time because I can't get back into the bios with F2- it just kept going straight to RAID trying to detect drives.


I'm wondering if I need to update the bios? It's pretty old, but I don't even know if updating it to any newer version would help. And if I did, which one?

At the moment, I am at a loss. I have yet to get the system to recognize the drive in any other area but the bios.

Suggestions? Would a bricked drive even show up in the bios?

Many thanks!

 

Win 7 should detect it OK.

and yes you have a R1.

I would update the bios to the lastest as well.

there are some worth while fixes in them.

If still an issue after the BIOS update, you may need a Driver from the Crucial site, and select drive options in WIn 7 install and select driver option

 

As it turns out, the c300 simply appeared to be incompatible with (at least) my system.

I have returned the HDD and got another one directly from Crucial, using their online compatibility tool. It works great and I have the new one up and running without (so far) any errors at all.

Thanks for all the help Dave. It was doing all those things that led me to the conclusion: this thing doesn't work!

 

You got a Crucial M4?

 

Yep- it seems to be running fine. Occasionally, right after I boot up, it will hang for about 30 seconds when I hit an explorer window. But other than that, it's single-handedly the best computer upgrade I've ever made.....

 

Did you already update to firmware 0002?