No hardware recognized after new windows 8 install on SSD :(
So, I got my new alienware 17 r2 two days ago. Since I wanted both a SSD drive and a 7200 rpm hdd (that configuration was not availible) I decided to buy the SSD drive from another place and get the DELL computer with the 7200 1TB hdd.

When I got my computer I first tried to start it up and everything worked fine. All drivers were installed and the system was almost completely up to date and it was ready to upgrade to windows 10. But obviously I wanted the OS to be installed on my SSD, so I opened my laptop up, put in the SSD and booted the computer from the windows 8 install USB stick that I got.

I formatted the 7200rpm drive to remove the old windows install, and chose the 500GB SSD as the drive I wanted windows to be installed on. After windows was done installing and I got to the log in screen, I had to chose if I wanted to use "windows 8 on partition 5" or "windows 8 on partition 8". I thougt that maybe just formatting the original hdd wasn't enough to completely remove the old windows install, but decided to deal with that problem later. I chose "partition 8", and it turned out to be the SSD partition and I got logged in to windows. And here is where the real problems start.

Windows did not recognize any of my hardware, not even my network card so I had no internet access. I was like "wtf", but I used a USB drive to download the network card drivers on another computer and installed them on my new alienware computer. So, now I could go online and I started to update windows. Now I noticed that the "windows 10 update" was gone. I also noticed that windows 8 did not want me to log in to my microsoft account as the previously installed version did. I thought maybe it was a problem with not having the right updates, so I kept on downloadting updates. about 200 updates later, it still did not recognize any hardware, it still did not want me to log in to my account and the windows 10 upgrade was still nowhere to be found.

I restarted my computer a few times and got annoyed with the fact that you have to chose what partition you want to boot from every time you log in to windows, so I googled the solution and it said that I had to delete the whole 1TB disk partition and plug the disk out of the computer when installed windows to make the SDD partition the primary one.
I thought that reinstalling windows might help with some of the non-recognizable hardware issues too so I deleted and plugged out the original hd and reinstalled windows with only my SSD connected. This time, windows install said some crap about "installing windows to GPT disks, but it worked fine anyways. After finishing the installation and rebooting windows I did not have to chose which partition to boot from anymore but windows still did not recognize any hardware. I plugged in my hdd and restarted the computer. It kind of froze for a minute on the black alienware screen where you can choose to enter bios, but then it restarted itself and booted windows.
This is where I am now.

What have I done wrong? How can windows 8 fail to recognize ANY of my hardware, even after countless of updates? Also, the DELL selfdetect what drivers that needs to be updated does not work either. Sure, I can download all the drivers directly from DELL, but something tells me that I might have to reinstall windows soon again anyways so I wont bother with downloading all the drivers until I've solved the problem with windows acting weird.

Please help me guys!
July 31st, 2015 1:46am

there is 3 ways to download the driver

1. Driver will be installed after you install the windows, only some device will be not detected and need manual install

2. Driver will be download and applied via windows update, sometimes the driver will mismatch or crash due downloading process

3. Driver can be download manual from PC/laptop manufactured site. The most important is chipset, graphic and audio. If you already installed the chipset, chipset driver will help your Windows to recognize other drivers, so my suggestion download and update your chipset and graphic card after Windows installation

regarding SATA and SSD configuration I suggest contact Dell as laptop manufactured

this thread will be helpful

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19622836 

Windows 10 will be available if you have Window 8.1 update

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
August 3rd, 2015 2:20am

there is 3 ways to download the driver

1. Driver will be installed after you install the windows, only some device will be not detected and need manual install

2. Driver will be download and applied via windows update, sometimes the driver will mismatch or crash due downloading process

3. Driver can be download manual from PC/laptop manufactured site. The most important is chipset, graphic and audio. If you already installed the chipset, chipset driver will help your Windows to recognize other drivers, so my suggestion download and update your chipset and graphic card after Windows installation

regarding SATA and SSD configuration I suggest contact Dell as laptop manufactured

this thread will be helpful

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19622836 

Windows 10 will be available if you have Window 8.1 update

  • Edited by britishdhez Monday, August 03, 2015 6:19 AM
August 3rd, 2015 6:18am

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