Please help an idiot on getting win 10 PC to see SSD

[nowandthen]

I bought a Dell Optiplex 9020. I bought a Crucial MX200 SSD 250GB. The Dell came with 2 1 GB hard drives and a DVD drive. There was one unused power connector left. I connected my Crucial 250GB drive to the power connector and connected the SATA cable to the last available SATA port on the mother board.

I do not see the SSD in System, Storage, only the 2 1GB hard drives.

Please help an idiot. I want to set the SSD as my C drive for OS and Blue Iris. I am lost. Google is not helping.

I tried the BIOS (F2 on boot) but no luck, or I am clueless on setting it up.

 

[The_Penguin]

In the BIOS settings you may need to turn on that SATA port.

 

[bp2008]

I don't know if Win10 will immediately initialize a new disk and show it in a place like System > Storage.

You should look in Control Panel > Administrative tools > Computer Management. Then on the left go to Storage > Disk Management. If Windows can see your SSD, you should see it too in the bottom center panel. You may need to initialize and mount it here (and quick-format it).

 

[fenderman]

@nowandthen You should plug the ssd in sata port 0 which is usually a different color than the rest.
Download windows 10 to usb using the microsoft media creation tool and install on the ssd.

 

[bp2008]

Good point about the first SATA port. I think it tends to be more likely to be on a 6 Gbps controller. But why re-install the OS?

 

[fenderman]

Good point about the first SATA port. I think it tends to be more likely to be on a 6 Gbps controller. But why re-install the OS?

I always clean install on a VMS machine, or any machine really if I can...its actually quicker than cloning and minimizes potential problems.

 

[nowandthen]

I always clean install on a VMS machine, or any machine really if I can...its actually quicker than cloning and minimizes potential problems.

Sorry about being in idiot, but if I replace the C drive with the SSD, then my PC will be dead. No? This is a new PC so no fear of loosing anything. All SATA ports are the same color. I see labels on the mother board, SATA0 and SATA1.

How do I download Windows 10 to a USB? If I can do this, then I assume I can install it on the SSD which would now plugged be into SATA0. Please correct me if I am wrong. And thank you for your help!

Googled download W10 to USB. Will do that. But oif SSD is C, is it obvious when I try to start PC?

 

[nowandthen]

BTW When I go to BIOS, I do see the SSD. I will try your suggestions. Hopefully I can do no harm, I have no data on this machine.

 

[nowandthen]

I unplugged my c drive and plugged in my SSD. I downloaded the media creation tool to a USB, but the PC upon reboot says "Missing operating system". I clearly need a step by step instruction as I'm not as computer savvy as BP2008 or fenderman.

 

[nowandthen]

Maybe it's easier to go to Amazon and buy a disc. I wish I could hire one of you to solve My WIN10 problem.

 

[gwminor48]

There is usually a place in bios to set which drive to try to boot to first, could that be the problem?

 

[fenderman]

Maybe it's easier to go to Amazon and buy a disc. I wish I could hire one of you to solve My WIN10 problem.

Buying a disc is silly since you own windows.
When installing from the usb you need to tell the pc to boot from the usb. Keep pushing f12 when booting to get the boot menu. Also in the bios you will need to tell the pc to boot from the SSD unless you first unplug and delete windows from the HDD...
Also if you need dell will send you any media you need for free - on usb - since its a business system. You should not need this though.

 

[nowandthen]

Deleted. See next post.

 

[nowandthen]

Update, stupid me, forgot what I tried last night. The reason it only sees one hard drive is because I unplugged the second hard drive's sata connector and plugged the SSD's SATA cable into that location.
I plugged the 2nd 1G hard drive into the SATA port that the SSD didn't like. It now shows up in System, storage, but the SSD is still not there. Maybe I have to initalize it. Will read up on that. And perhaps the SATA plug wasn't fully seated last night.

And by the way, I did get a disc with the PC. It is Windows 10 pro. Strange thing, my PC had Windows 7. I couldn't get the disc to work so I let it updata to 10 via internet. Not the cleanest install.

I'm going to try installing windows 10 from the CD and see if it will let me put it on the SSD, being as the SSD is the first in the boot sequence.

 

[nowandthen]

Bumping into the walls...
Won't install from disc, but I did find that I needed to initialize the SSD in Disk Management. Now says it is Healthy (Primary Partition)
However I still do not see it in System, Storage.

 

[nowandthen]

Solved, the drive letter for the SSD did not get assigned. Even though I initialized the SSD in Disk Management, the drive letter did not stick. Now it shows up in System, Storage.

Thanks to all that helped me. I really appreciate it. Now I just need to get the OS onto the SSD. OH NO!

 

[alastairstevenson]

if you want the PC to be unchanged (though I think you intend a fresh install), there is a very good HDD clone tool (Reflect) from http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
that works well for when you need to swap a normal HDD for an SSD, such as in a laptop to transform general performance.

 

[nowandthen]

There is an insert with the Crucial SSD. It points me to "Acronis True Image HD software activation". "Easily migrate your data to yout new Crucial SSD". I'll give this a try first. If issues I will try your suggestion. Thanks!

 

[fenderman]

There is an insert with the Crucial SSD. It points me to "Acronis True Image HD software activation". "Easily migrate your data to yout new Crucial SSD". Hmmmm. data, not clone drive. I think I will go with Reflect as you suggest. I need everything cloned to the SSD. I think after that happens I could then do a clean install.

no...if you are doing a clean install you are wasting your time cloning..everything will be deleted.

 

[nowandthen]

No clue why this is so f'ing complicated. Acronis does nothing, neither does Reflect. I can change a 60W bulb for a 100W bulb, can someone please invent software that aloows me to change a hard drive without needing a degree in computer science. UGH!