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    Inspiron 1720 BIOS does not recognize modular bay HDD in boot sequence

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by hud.hood, Apr 2, 2015.

  1. hud.hood

    hud.hood Newbie

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    I have just added a new SSD drive in the modular bay of my Inspiron 1720. The SSD drive in modular bay is accessible if I boot using my normal harddrive or USB DVD-ROM drive (for OS installation, which I managed to install on the SSD drive). Once boot, using my regular HDD 1, I can see the drive is set to Disk 0 in Windows Disk Management. And my other HDDs as Disk 1 and Disk 2. I can boot thru HDD 1 or HDD 2, by selecting them in boot sequence.

    However, the SSD drive is not available as part of the boot sequence in the BIOS setup or F12 boot sequence. The BIOS though recognize that there is an SSD drive attached in modular drive bay.

    My Inspiron 1720 is using the latest A09 BIOS and I could not find a way to include the SSD as part of the boot sequence. The boot sequence works when I put back the DVD-ROM drive which boots without any problem with any bootable CD/DVD.

    Is there any way I can make the modular bay SSD bootable, other than of course putting the SSD in the HDD 1 or HDD 2 caddy, which some thing I do not wish to do.

    Please help.
     
    hud.hood, Apr 2, 2015
    #1
  2. alexhawker

    alexhawker Spent Gladiator

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    You need to install an OS on that drive for the BIOS to see it as a boot option (since there will be an entry in the windows boot manager).

    Remove all drives except the SSD, install windows. Then reinstall other drives, boot using F12 menu off the SSD, copy data onto SSD, and wipe.

    Voila.
     
    alexhawker, Apr 2, 2015
    #2
  3. hud.hood

    hud.hood Newbie

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    Tried that. I removed all other drives and install the OS on the SSD in the modular bay. The installation worked, but when it come to rebooting, the BIOS can't find the drive to boot. F12 does not show the drive in the boot sequence, even though the BIOS detect the SSD in the Fixed Modular Bay.
     
    hud.hood, Apr 7, 2015
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