Aspire M3400 desktop won't recognize newly installed SSD

An old functional computer: Aspire M3400 with upgrades: AMD phatom II X4, 12Gb RAM and a NVIDIA GeForce GT 730. Worked like a charm for a long time. Recently bought a new SSD thought to make a clone of and replace aging HDD, but it could not be found in the system.

the new SSD is Micron M500 480Gb with SATA III. It was recognized in BIOS, but once the OS is loaded from the old HDD, the new SSD did not show up anywhere, including the disk management. The Disk drives under Device Manager showed only the HDD, the new SSD was not listed.

I have tried to link the SSD with the original SATA cable, found no luck. I acutally put the SSD in another desktop that also runs windows 7 and the other computer was able to automatically detect and install the SSD without problems. I formated the SSD under windows 7 on the other computer and then re-put it back to Acer Aspire M3400. Again, there is the same issue: the desktop does not recognize the formatted SSD.

What could have gone wrong? Is it possible Acer Aspire M3400 is incompatible with SSD?

Any input would be really appreicated!

Accepted answers

IronFly

you can try to switch to AHCI from RAID, following the instructions on this article:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1227636/how-to-change-sata-modes-after-windows-installation

Boot using RAID, do the registry change and then switch to AHCI.

All comments

IronFly

you can try a quick thing if you have a bootable windows media (you can download a windows 10 bootable media, just to test).

Disconnect your old HDD and leave only the SSD connected, boot from the windows bootable media and check if the SSD is available as installation path.

if not, probably there's some hardware incompatibility (strange sicne it's listed on BIOS).

if it's available, probably your windows installation has some drivers issue.

you can have a look if a BIOS update is available on Acer support website too:

http://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/2418;-;Aspire%20M3400

hz99

Can SSD be recognized using RAID controller? I noticed the BOIS has three options: IDE, RAID and AHCI. When I tried change from RAID to AHCI and reboot M3400, it will crash with blue screen very quickly when loading OS from the old HDD. So I have no option to load OS using IDE or AHCI.

Thanks

IronFly

RAID normally involves 2 or more HDD, it's a strange setup with just 1 HDD.

By the way the correct setting is AHCI.

hz99

Does it mean that SSD is incompatible with RAID and we must use AHCI? The computer uses a "AMD AHCI compatible RAID controller", and it's driver is the latest version (still, 2010 version) based on the Acer website. But in any way, the computer won't even load windows if I change BIOS from RAID to AHCI - it shows blue screen and reboots. I know it's bit strange why M3400 came with only one HDD but uses RAID, but it appears to be the manufactory setting.

Thanks for all the help!

IronFly

you can try to switch to AHCI from RAID, following the instructions on this article:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1227636/how-to-change-sata-modes-after-windows-installation

Boot using RAID, do the registry change and then switch to AHCI.

hz99

Thanks for all the tips, but RAID does not appear to be the source of problem. Rechecked another computer with Win7, Dell Optiplex 990 (made in 2011) which was able to automatically detect the SSD and formatted SSD. It was also set in RAID. What else could be wrong?

IronFly

Same AMD Raid or Intel?

Intel is way better, i strongly suggest you to switch to AHCI.

hz99

IronFly, you are correct on the RAID issue with SSD. AMD RAID controller (at least the 2010 version my computer uses which appears to be the latest version for Acer M3400) is incompatible with SSD. Here is how finally the problem was solved:

1. change registery in regedit.exe exactly as IronFly showed. If you are afraid of mess up the registery, then before making those changes, make a copy of it and get a rebootable CD or USB stick for backup.

2. reboot and go to BIOS, change SATA controller to AHCI. Save the change and reboot the computer.

3. The newly installed SSD is now recognized and installed automatically under Win 7.

4. use free clone software to clone the HDD to new SSD. I used Macrium Reflect.

5. Reboot using the new SSD

Note: based on my bad experience, do not waste time trying to clone HDD to SSD by loading them into another computer where both disks can be recognized. The drivers are different and won't apply to the original computer where SSD would be used.

The bottom line is: Acer M3400 uses AMD RAID controller and it won't recognize SSD. Switch to AHCI then SSD will work perfectly.

The end result: a 6 year old computer now loads Win7 from SSD in less than 5 seconds, even with SATA II connections (Acer M3400 motherboard only has SATA II ports)

Thanks IronFly!

IronFly

You welcome.

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