Dell Inspiron 15 5505 trying to install a second ssd, have issues.

[primestar31]

I just received a new Dell Inspiron 15 5505 laptop, with an AMD Ryzen 4500 processor and Windows 10 Home. The only configuration comes with an m.2 256gb ssd in slot 1. You can't buy it with a larger one directly from Dell. There is a second slot for another ssd that you are supposed to be able to install at the same time.

Anyway, I bought this ssd for the second slot: Amazon product ASIN B07YFFX5MD
I installed it, and the Dell's BIOS can see it in slot 2 just fine. I boot into Windows, bring up Disk Management, and you can see it as Disk 1. If you click on that to "Initialize" it, then click OK, it says: "Drive doesn't exist" (paraphrasing).

I have NEVER dealt with or installed an ssd drive before, and don't know if I'm doing something wrong, if this ssd is somehow incompatible with my system, (even though BIOS can see it) OR if it's just bad. In the interest of full disclosure, and if it makes any difference, when I first booted up this laptop and did initial setup, it installed something called "Bootlocker" on the C: boot drive, which apparently encrypts the drive.

I don't need this to replace the original drive, I simply wanted it for a "user drive" to put my user files on.

Any ideas?

 

[Comptech]

My guess is that the controller is not recognized by windows. Have you gone to Western Digitals website and checked for any firmware, or run windows update with it installed?

 

[primestar31]

My guess is that the controller is not recognized by windows. Have you gone to Western Digitals website and checked for any firmware, or run windows update with it installed?

That's a good point that I didn't think of. I'll check that first on any new ssd drive I install. For now, I sent the ssd drive back to Amazon assuming it's bad. I'll do some more research to make sure the exact specs of any other one that I buy, and that it's guaranteed to work beforehand. It's very hard now to deal with Dell techs, They are all indian, and I couldn't get a good one for help.

 

[Foxbat]

In Windows 10, you usually need to Online a new drive in Disk Management under the Computer Management Admin tool (run as Administrator) before you can Initialize, Partition, and Format it.

Or, use DiskPart in an Administrative CMD window.

If Dell is running its own version of BitLocker, though, that complicates things.

 

[primestar31]

In Windows 10, you usually need to Online a new drive in Disk Management under the Computer Management Admin tool (run as Administrator) before you can Initialize, Partition, and Format it.

Or, use DiskPart in an Administrative CMD window.

If Dell is running its own version of BitLocker, though, that complicates things.

I've never used BitLocker before, and it installed it as default during initial setup. I only intend on using the second ssd drive as a USER drive, labeled as the D: drive. It doesn't need BitLocker. Can BitLocker on the boot C: drive cause issues with setting up a second drive?

 

[Foxbat]

It shouldn’t, BitLocker allows each disk to be encrypted (or not). BitLocker used to be a Pro or Enterprise feature, I’m not sure if Microsoft has made it available for Home.

 

[primestar31]

It shouldn’t, BitLocker allows each disk to be encrypted (or not). BitLocker used to be a Pro or Enterprise feature, I’m not sure if Microsoft has made it available for Home.

That's what throws me, because this laptop was sold as a home machine, and it installed BitLocker by default at first setup. Never asked me if I wanted it. I was NOT amused when I found out afterwards. I have no need to encrypt my files, and now I don't know anyway to remove the encryption without causing issues. It's running Windows 10 64bit Home edition. It's SCREAMING fast with the AMD Ryzen 4500u processor compared to my old Dell E6410 1st generation i7 Intel laptop.

 

[Foxbat]

You should be able to disable BitLocker on your C: drive if you want. At work our notebooks have it set by Group Policy (and it also encrypts USB storage if written to) so I don’t have the procedure to turn it off memorized. If I recall, there is a Command Line tool that makes it happen.

There are also lots of “I bought a PC from <fill in the blank> and I’m getting prompted for a BitLocker Recovery Key” Google results. Hopefully you made a copy of yours or stored it with your Microsoft account.

 

[primestar31]

You should be able to disable BitLocker on your C: drive if you want. At work our notebooks have it set by Group Policy (and it also encrypts USB storage if written to) so I don’t have the procedure to turn it off memorized. If I recall, there is a Command Line tool that makes it happen.

There are also lots of “I bought a PC from <fill in the blank> and I’m getting prompted for a BitLocker Recovery Key” Google results. Hopefully you made a copy of yours or stored it with your Microsoft account.

Oh yeah, I have a copy of my key. Which came in handy, because trying to install this new drive somehow wiped the boot sector on the C: drive and the key was needed for recovery. Luckily, Dell has a fantastic BIOS recovery system. It not only was able to see and back up the data to a usb key from the unbootable drive, it allowed me to restore it to factory shipped condition. I of course had to then do a complete setup again afterwards, but it all had me quite upset for hours thinking my new machine was trashed.

 

[Jim S.]

In Windows 10, you usually need to Online a new drive in Disk Management under the Computer Management Admin tool (run as Administrator) before you can Initialize, Partition, and Format it.

I don't think I've installed any drives since upgrading to Windows 10 (which I only did last year), but there were times when I couldn't get unformatted drives to show up in Windows 7. I wonder if that's why. (I solved the problem by partitioning them in Linux.)