PXE-M0F error when installing hard drive in AW18

So I have an Alienware 18 and wanted to do a hard drive upgrade. I wanna remove the 1tb mechanical drive it came with and change it out to a SSD. But when I did that, I got a PXE-M0F cable connection error message and wouldn't boot into Windows. Under the BIOS, it detects the new hard drive installed however. Under the Boot Settings menu I ran diagnostics and everything came back green. But after I installed the mechanical hard drive back, everything boots up fine. Any help here would be appreciated. Specs are in signature. Using BIOS A14. I have Windows installed on the mSATA SSD and not the HDD I am trying to replace. I used Macrium Reflect free edition cloned the HDD to the SSD thinking it had a boot partition and I swapped them back and got a PXE-MOF no boot device found/check cable connection. When I go into the BIOS, it detects the ssd just fine. But again when I put the mechanical drive in, the system boots. In the BIOS it's set up as RAID even though my primary boot drive (256gb mSATA with Windows on it doesn't match the 1tb HDD). I tried switching it ACHI and got a blue screen with the error Windows failed to start and it tries to do a system restore. But when I put it back in RAID, it boots up fine again. Any help?

 

Personally I would Clean install Windows on the new SSD. I hate the idea of cloning drives.
If the BIOS detects the drive then there shouldn't be any reason you can't install Windows on it and it will be fresh and zippy. Windows 10 auto installs just about every driver you need so it's not as tedious as Windows 7 used to be. If all your data/games are on a single HDD then you should be able to keep everything without deleting anything but you can always move everything over to an external drive just to be safe.

 

I am not looking to install Windows on the SSD though. All I am trying to do is replace the 1tb HDD with a 2tb SSD. I have Windows installed on the 256gb mSATA drive already. The only reason why I cloned the HDD was because I thought it had a boot partition on it and the BIOS wasn't detecting it with the HDD removed. So I cloned it to the SSD and tried to boot it up with only the mSATA and the SSD in the machine and it didn't work. Got an error message. But when I put the HDD back in the laptop, it boots up just fine.

 

Ok that's weird then. It shouldn't affect your boot at all.
Is the mSata listed as a separate device in File Explorer? The only thing I can think of is that the mSata is set up as a cache drive and linked to the HDD. This would explain the RAID setup and that it doesn't boot without the HDD. Can you post a screenshot your 'This PC' page?

 

Here you go. Ignore the drives F and H as those are external drives.

 

Very strange indeed. Have you tried to boot with only the mSata installed and not the HDD or SSD?

 

I'll give it a try and let you know. Thanks.

 

If it still doesn't boot just have a look through your HDD files and see if there are any Windows folders, check you mSata too. If there are folders in both then you have possibly set up your mSata and HDD in RAID 0 together.

 

I haven't tried it yet since I have some work to do but my mSATA drive has my Windows folder with system32, program files, user, appdata, program data and all that on it for sure. My HDD is just used for media. Not a single Windows folder in it as far as I can tell. Even checked shown hidden folders in explorer and there aren't any hidden Windows files. However there is this thing when I open up Disk Managment it shows the HDD as Disk 0 having 100mb of system reserved with stating Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition) and the remaining 931gb showing as media saying Healthy (Primary Partition). Underneath that it shows my mSATA as Disk 2 showing C: Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition). Disk 1 is an empty slot as of now.

 

It all sounds pretty normal then. It really shouldn't make any difference if you try to boot with the SSD installed. If it doesn't boot with the HDD or SSD installed then I can only assume it's the way the drives have been set up.
I don't like suggesting to people to mess with their BIOS settings but I would try booting with just the mSata installed and then jumping into the BIOS or the Boot Menu (F12) and see if the mSata is listed on its own as a boot option. If it is then I would select it and see what happens.

 

Ok so I removed the HDD and tried booting with only the mSATA installed. I got a No Boot Device Found error. I went to the boot menu and saw only the mSATA listed there as a boot option. So I turn off the machine again and this time put the SSD in slot 0 and try again and got the same PXE check cable/check boot error. When I first turn on the machine under the splash screen it shows the SSD installed with the available space as well as it showing up in the BIOS and boot menu. In the Boot Menu, it's listed as fixed hard drive. Again, I opened it up and threw the HDD back in there and the machine booted up perfectly fine.

 

Well I'm out of ideas. There must be something simple we are missing but it doesn't make sense

 

That's what I am thinking as well. I am pretty sure it's a very simple solution as I've read many posts here on people successfully upgrading their hard drives or replacing them. I just don't know what I am missing. I cloned the drive, checked to see if the SSD is borked (it isn't), didn't touch anything in the BIOS, checked the boot option and everything is in order, have the SSD show up in the BIOS correctly and everything. I don't know what I am missing tbh.

 

Honestly at this stage I would clean install Windows on the SSD and transfer any of your stuff over from the mSata after. I know that's not what you want to do though.

Do you get Sata3 speeds from the mSata port? I know with some machines they kept the mSata as Sata2

 

Yeah the AW18 has Sata 3 on all ports. It's the M18x R2 that has mixed Sata 2 and Sata 3. Also thanks for the idea but that would be a waste. I would have a 2tb drive with Windows and storage on it and a 256gb mSATA sitting there offering little space. I wanted to use the 2tb drive for my game library.

Anyways I just wanna say I appreciate everything you've helped me with. Hopefully someone who has faced this issue before or has any other ideas to throw around can chime in. Thank you.

 

Happy to help but unfortunately couldn't this time. Couldn't you just move any data over to the HDD (or an external drive just to be safe) from the mSata and then pull the HDD out, then clean install Windows on the mSata?.....
If the BIOS recognizes it then it should be pretty simple. Then you should be able to slap the SSD in
Windows 10 installs pretty quickly compared to the sluggish old Windows 7

 

Does the 18 only have one 2.5" drive bay?? I only got mine yesterday and haven't pulled it apart yet.

 

Yeah the AW18 has 2 2.5 inch drive bays and one mSATA slot.

 

Can’t you just throw the SSD in the second spot?


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Yup that's what I ended up doing. I had another larger hard drive which I was going to use along with the 2tb ssd but now I settled with the HDD and the SSD in there for games.