alienware m14x r1 not detecting 2nd hard drive

Layback Bear said:

You have a Desktop.
You unhooked the cable from the DVD player and removed the DVD player from you case. Then installed the Caddy where the DVD player was.
What cables did you hook to the Caddy after you installed it into your case?

Here is what I trying to find out.
Once you installed the drive into the Caddy and then installed the Caddy into the computer case (what cables did you use to hook all this up to your computer)?

I'm thinking somewhere their is a missing or poor connection or the Caddy is fubar.

I'm also wondering why go through this just to add a hard drive/ssd to their Desktop.
Maybe I don't understand what exactly you are trying to do. What is the desired end results?

This is a video of what I did, but I'm not getting the results I should. My ssd is only 120GB and I'm trying to get the hdd to work so I can install extra games on my laptop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhuThdzlHTM

Layback Bear said:

Okay I think I got a better understanding.
You basically have a laptop put in a small Desktop case.
It surly isn't a Desktop from what I understand a Desktop to be.

It is a laptop,

Alienware M14x Gaming Laptop Details | Dell

If you are using the OP's specs listed as desktop, this is a different machine.

I would suggest resetting the ribbon cable from the DVD, now hard drive caddy, to the motherboard. Maybe it's not seated correctly. Were you careful removing it from the DVD drive and sticking it to the caddy? It could be the ribbon cable got damaged in the transfer.

I have the same laptop and love it. It's just a shame Dell stopped making it with the 14" screen.

TrustMe said:

I would suggest resetting the ribbon cable from the DVD, now hard drive caddy, to the motherboard. Maybe it's not seated correctly. Were you careful removing it from the DVD drive and sticking it to the caddy? It could be the ribbon cable got damaged in the transfer.

I have the same laptop and love it. It's just a shame Dell stopped making it with the 14" screen.

I have removed it and re-installed it multiple times. I wasn't careful at first to be honest, however I uploaded a few pictures before of the cable. Does it look damaged or no? I thought it was supposed to look like that.

It's hard to know if it's damaged or not from the picture. The only way to be sure is to put your DVD drive back in and see if it works. If your DVD player is working good you know it's not the cable. Then it would have to be the caddy or SSD. You could test the SSD by placing it in your desktop and see if you could access it from there. I kind of doubt the SSD is bad since it is brand new but you never know.

If your DVD player was workin before you put in the caddy and does not work now, then you would need to buy a new cable.

TrustMe said:

It's hard to know if it's damaged or not from the picture. The only way to be sure is to put your DVD drive back in and see if it works. If your DVD player is working good you know it's not the cable. Then it would have to be the caddy or SSD. You could test the SSD by placing it in your desktop and see if you could access it from there. I kind of doubt the SSD is bad since it is brand new but you never know.

If your DVD player was workin before you put in the caddy and does not work now, then you would need to buy a new cable.

I have tested the SSD on my desktop before and it works fine. the hard drive is in the caddy not the ssd. the ssd is in the primary drive and it is what is being used right now. also, the dvd player i have is broken sadly.

I could have sworn that with the A02 bios in my laptop, the hard drive was spinning. now i have A08 and it's not. but this was with the 500 gb hdd 6gb/s. right now, i have the 3gb/s 1tb hard drive in there. I'd imagine that wouldn't make a difference, you know?

Sorry but I don't. I was going to suggest replacing the ribbon cable but I just looked them up on eBay. They are $25 for used and $30 for new. I had no idea they would be that expensive.

Sorry, I'm out of ideas at this point. Maybe some one else will jump in with a suggestion. If you get it worked out post back and let us know.

Just a side note, be careful flashing the BIOS to many times. I read it could be bad for the chip. I don't really know if it's true or not but I'm just throwing it out there.

TrustMe said:

Sorry but I don't. I was going to suggest replacing the ribbon cable but I just looked them up on eBay. They are $25 for used and $30 for new. I had no idea they would be that expensive.

Sorry, I'm out of ideas at this point. Maybe some one else will jump in with a suggestion. If you get it worked out post back and let us know.

Just a side note, be careful flashing the BIOS to many times. I read it could be bad for the chip. I don't really know if it's true or not but I'm just throwing it out there.

I strongly believe that if I find a way to change my motherboards sata connection that this could work. ive used this:

HGST SATA-III to SATA-II Interface Speed Change

also, would a custom made bios work?

thank you all for the help anyways even if you're lost right now, it means a lot that I have people like you to help me out.

also I see something called "SSC", will enabling it help? but for some reason I cannot enable it..