Adding an SSD to a PC with an HDD

Hey everyone,

I know this is probably a common question but I am adding an SSD to my PC which already has an HDD. Yesterday I plugged it in to the motherboard and power supply and now I'm wondering how can I access it to start managing it? I looked for it under "Computer" but only my HDD and Drom are showing up. If it should be showing up, what are some reasons it might not be?

I looked for some answers online and learned I may need to update my Motherboard's bios but when I went to go find when the most recent update had come out, I found it was before I bought the motherboard so I must have the most recent bios.

My motherboard: ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155
My SSD: Samsung 830 Series 128gb

I'm thinking I'll try disconnecting and reconnecting the SSD to my motherboard and power supply just to make sure the physical connection is legit but does anyone have any tips or advice for how I can get my SSD up and running?

Much appreciated!

Check in your bios if you're set to ahci or ide mode. It should be under hardware. I can't remember which one it needs to be on, all my ssd's are on a raid card now, except my boot drive which I haven't had to mess with in a long time, but I'm certain this is your issue.

Just rebooted my system to check, my boot drive is in ahci mode. My ssd is much older than yours but I do also know that ide mode doesn't support trim in windows 7. Check it out and post back.

Quick question, when rebooting I accidently hit boot menu and noticed the SSD was an option. Does this mean it is showing up or?

yes that means its showing up, you may just have to update the firmware for your ssd.

Alright so I'm in IDE mode. So I should switch to AHCI mode?

Yes switch it, is this sdd going to be your boot drive?

Yes it will be my main drive

When I change my bios mode my computer is unable to start up and I get a message that says start up repair and it prompts me to use a system restore so something can't be right.

Go back into windows and right click my computer and then manage then disk management and see if your ssd is there.If it is,it might just need to be initialized.

Switching to AHCI in windows 7 -http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=313676

Alright when I access Computer Management and go to Disk Management, I am prompted to "initialize disk". I am able to select one option Disk 0 and then there are two partition styles I can select. What should I do at this point and what are the differences between the two styles?

So it has been detected but not initiated. What partition style should I use?

Alright, well I wish I could delete my first posts. I often prematurely answer to my own threads because I quickly worry if I don't give quick answers, my computer is at risk.

I went through the guide to Enabling AHCI mode After windows 7 installation and it worked like a charm. Thanks so much for that.

I still need to initialize my SSD though and I'm wondering which partition style I should select. My options are: MBR and GPT

Well, I searched the internet and figured it out on my own. Thanks either way for all the help guys! I really appreciate the feedback I received.

Good Job

Sorry,only had a chance to read this now.

Glad you were able to sort it out.