I need help ugrading my storage (part 2)
About a week ago I posted this thread to request assistance with the best way to upgrade my razer blade 15 base storage. After some very tips I bought the recommended storage unit (my tech terminology and knowledge are very little), it was shipped and mailed to me today. The first thing I did was look at guides on installation so I didn't make any mistakes. Then I inserted the P5 Plus Crucial into my laptop. Afterward I opened Computer management to format it but it wouldn't appear. This is my question, What am I doing wrong. I will provided pictures down below in a google doc and if anyone could give me a straightforward answer I'd appreciate it very much.
Pictures
- Razer Support
- 2388 replies
Sonic46191Hi Sonic46191, Can you PM me the serial number so I can validate its model and check for steps to help you resolve why the SSD is not being detected? Thank you!
About a week ago I posted this thread to request assistance with the best way to upgrade my razer blade 15 base storage. After some very tips I bought the recommended storage unit (my tech terminology and knowledge are very little), it was shipped and mailed to me today. The first thing I did was look at guides on installation so I didn't make any mistakes. Then I inserted the P5 Plus Crucial into my laptop. Afterward I opened Computer management to format it but it wouldn't appear. This is my question, What am I doing wrong. I will provided pictures down below in a google doc and if anyone could give me a straightforward answer I'd appreciate it very much. Pictures
Hi Sonic, in addition to Zionzedds post above, can you see if the BIOS sees the new device? Here's an article on how to access the BIOS from Windows, or when the computer first starts it will show a message saying to press some key to access the BIOS (or it may say setup or something) - you will need to watch and be quick! I can get some screenshots from my Razer tonight on what to look for in the BIOS screen if it's not obvious.
mjcouchmanI believe I have entered the BIOS screen from the guide you sent, but I have no idea what I’m looking for and don’t want to mess anything up.
Hi Sonic, in addition to Zionzedds post above, can you see if the BIOS sees the new device? Here's an article on how to access the BIOS from Windows, or when the computer first starts it will show a message saying to press some key to access the BIOS (or it may say setup or something) - you will need to watch and be quick! I can get some screenshots from my Razer tonight on what to look for in the BIOS screen if it's not obvious.
You are in the right spot! Ive attached 2 images. Just go to the Advanced tab, then select NVMe Configuration. Do you see 2 drives?
mjcouchmanI do see two drives
You are in the right spot! Ive attached 2 images. Just go to the Advanced tab, then select NVMe Configuration. Do you see 2 drives?
Awesome! The drive has been installed correctly, and your laptop does recognise it. If you open 'Device Manager' and expand 'Disk Drives', do you still see both? If not, click on the 'Action' menu and 'Scan for hardware changes'. If it does show up (without having to do the scan for hardware changes bit), try right clicking on the drive, then uninstall device. Reboot, then have another look in Device Manager to see if Windows has re-installed the driver. If it has, check out the Disk Management app again to see if the drive shows up.
mjcouchmanHey sorry if this is easily researchable and I'm just dumb. I can see it, but what do I do with it, how do I utalize it? Most guides I've found say to go to computer management.
Awesome! The drive has been installed correctly, and your laptop does recognise it. If you open 'Device Manager' and expand 'Disk Drives', do you still see both? If not, click on the 'Action' menu and 'Scan for hardware changes'. If it does show up (without having to do the scan for hardware changes bit), try right clicking on the drive, then uninstall device. Reboot, then have another look in Device Manager to see if Windows has re-installed the driver. If it has, check out the Disk Management app again to see if the drive shows up.
Brilliant! Thats great, Windows sees it too! You did a good job of installing it! We are just making sure the drive is working on your laptop. You are correct, Computer Management (Disk Manager) needs to see it to be able to use it. At least we know the new drive is installed correctly, and the laptop knows it is there. Can you try running Computer Management as Admin (right click it and run as administrator)? Still nothing? Can you try running the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter? Heres a link to how to run it on different Windows versions. And did you try removing the device (my last post) and reboot?
mjcouchmanI've run Computer Management as admin, removed the device, I tried the trouble shooting link (in one the pictures below I show where I got stuck), and I still don't see it.
Brilliant! Thats great, Windows sees it too! You did a good job of installing it! We are just making sure the drive is working on your laptop. You are correct, Computer Management (Disk Manager) needs to see it to be able to use it. At least we know the new drive is installed correctly, and the laptop knows it is there. Can you try running Computer Management as Admin (right click it and run as administrator)? Still nothing? Can you try running the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter? Heres a link to how to run it on different Windows versions. And did you try removing the device (my last post) and reboot?
Okay, can you open a command prompt as Administrator (run CMD.EXE as Admin). Type in "
msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic" - you should get the troubleshooter. I am assuming you are running Windows 10 right?
mjcouchmanOK, I was able to do a trouble shoot and I did find an issue (pictures down below), but after I had it fixed I went to Computer Management as Admin and there was still nothing there
Okay, can you open a command prompt as Administrator (run CMD.EXE as Admin). Type in " msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic" - you should get the troubleshooter. I am assuming you are running Windows 10 right?
Okay, so I am nearly out of ideas on what you could try next to get the drive working with your current Windows setup!
Can you try running Disk Management again, select your current drive in the bottom panel (1 in the attached pic), the under the 'Action' menu, hit rescan disks. Anything??
By the look of the troubleshooter, you may not have the latest SSD driver, but I do doubt that as your old one works fine, and the MS SSD drivers are from 2006. You could go into Device Manager, right-click the new driver under 'Disks' and select 'Update driver' just to make sure if you want. Probably worth a shot, as my only thoughts for the next step will take a while to do!
So that leaves us with my only other suggestion which would be to perform a re-image of your device, but using your new SSD as the only drive in your laptop. Get your recovery image here and create a recovery USB (you will need a USB drive). BACKUP any important files to a USB drive (another one), or the cloud. These steps are going to replace your current SSD C: drive, with your new SSD completely (although you won't actually lose any data on your C: drive technically).
What I would do is prepare the recovery USB drive first. When it is ready, shut down your computer. Remove your laptop cover, and remove your current C: drive SSD completely. Swap the new SSD into the M2 slot you took your C: drive SSD from. Leave the old C: drive SSD out (for now). Replace the laptop cover. Insert the USB drive you prepared earlier. Turn on your laptop. The BIOS may winge about new hard drives; accept any changes it detects. If a boot manager appears, select the USB drive (no other drive will be bootable anyway). Follow the wizards to perform the recovery.
Once the recovery is complete, and it will take some time, the laptop will have the new SSD as its C: drive. You can insert the old SSD into the 2nd M2 slot, and use it as a D: drive if you want. You will be able to access it and still get to any old files, etc.
If anything goes bad or fails during the recovery, you can remove the new SSD, and re-insert the old one, and your system will boot to how it is now still.
mjcouchmanStill no luck. I'll need to purchase a USB that has up to 512GB first so it may take some time. But if for some reason if it doesn't read the replaced drive, is it worth spending more money to figure the problem out or would it just be easier to return everything and start from square one?
Okay, so I am nearly out of ideas on what you could try next to get the drive working with your current Windows setup! Can you try running Disk Management again, select your current drive in the bottom panel (1 in the attached pic), the under the 'Action' menu, hit rescan disks. Anything?? By the look of the troubleshooter, you may not have the latest SSD driver, but I do doubt that as your old one works fine, and the MS SSD drivers are from 2006. You could go into Device Manager, right-click the new driver under 'Disks' and select 'Update driver' just to make sure if you want. Probably worth a shot, as my only thoughts for the next step will take a while to do! So that leaves us with my only other suggestion which would be to perform a re-image of your device, but using your new SSD as the only drive in your laptop. Get your recovery image here and create a recovery USB (you will need a USB drive). BACKUP any important files to a USB drive (another one), or the cloud. These steps are going to replace your current SSD C: drive, with your new SSD completely (although you won't actually lose any data on your C: drive technically). What I would do is prepare the recovery USB drive first. When it is ready, shut down your computer. Remove your laptop cover, and remove your current C: drive SSD completely. Swap the new SSD into the M2 slot you took your C: drive SSD from. Leave the old C: drive SSD out (for now). Replace the laptop cover. Insert the USB drive you prepared earlier. Turn on your laptop. The BIOS may winge about new hard drives; accept any changes it detects. If a boot manager appears, select the USB drive (no other drive will be bootable anyway). Follow the wizards to perform the recovery. Once the recovery is complete, and it will take some time, the laptop will have the new SSD as its C: drive. You can insert the old SSD into the 2nd M2 slot, and use it as a D: drive if you want. You will be able to access it and still get to any old files, etc. If anything goes bad or fails during the recovery, you can remove the new SSD, and re-insert the old one, and your system will boot to how it is now still.
I built my recovery on a 32Gb USB 3 drive similar to this one (I have the RB 15 2021 model) - did you want the 512Gb for backup? That's a great question - I can't see any reason why it wouldn't recover onto the new drive. All the tech specs are met, the laptop actually 'sees' the new device, and even Windows 'sees' it ... partially. It should just work! By recovering onto the new drive, however, we will eliminate any issues your current install of Windows may have. Again, it should work! Something is being missed, but I am unsure of what (it's times like these it's easier to be in front of the machine!). I did work for a small computer repair shop years ago, and something like this would take under an hour to fix usually. I'm not sure that returning the goods and starting again with another drive will fix the underlying issue. You could also try Crucial support?
I am confident that recovery onto the new drive will work ... but I will also be devastated if it doesn't.
I also found this video showing a guy replacing the SSD in a model similar to yours. From what I can tell, you have done everything he did but have a look anyway.
mjcouchmanWait I assumed for recovery drive would need to be around the same size if not more than the data I've used. My drive has around 460GB and I've used 428GB, so I assumed that I would need a USB with 428GB or more. Does recovery mode compact it?
I built my recovery on a 32Gb USB 3 drive similar to this one (I have the RB 15 2021 model) - did you want the 512Gb for backup? That's a great question - I can't see any reason why it wouldn't recover onto the new drive. All the tech specs are met, the laptop actually 'sees' the new device, and even Windows 'sees' it ... partially. It should just work! By recovering onto the new drive, however, we will eliminate any issues your current install of Windows may have. Again, it should work! Something is being missed, but I am unsure of what (it's times like these it's easier to be in front of the machine!). I did work for a small computer repair shop years ago, and something like this would take under an hour to fix usually. I'm not sure that returning the goods and starting again with another drive will fix the underlying issue. You could also try Crucial support? I am confident that recovery onto the new drive will work ... but I will also be devastated if it doesn't. I also found this video showing a guy replacing the SSD in a model similar to yours. From what I can tell, you have done everything he did but have a look anyway.
Recovery is basically just Windows, and driver software like Synapse. It will return the laptop to how it was the day you first turned it on. So for the recovery USB that Razer creates for you, 32Gb will be more than enough. 'Recovery' doesn't auto-backup your data, you need to do that. You only need to back up your documents, photos, and any software packages that allow/demand backups, such as accounting software. Anything you would be really upset about losing. If you have OneDrive, or a Google account, and have set it up correctly, most of these files will be in the cloud anyway. Games, Office software, etc, will need to be re-installed after the recovery is complete.
So out of that 428Gb, a large portion of it will be Windows files and installed software like games. Stuff that you don't need (or want) to backup, as it's all going to get re-installed again anyway.
Some people use an email client, like Outlook installed on their computer, rather than cloud services. Just be aware that if you use such a client, you will want to run its backup routine to your USB drive. If you just use cloud email, like Gmail or Outlook.com then all is good!
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