Hopefully someone can help me, this is driving me round the bend, sorry for the long post.

I bought a new Lenovo Flex 2 14″ (Intel i5) laptop last week; with a view to making it even speedier I thought I would replace the OEM 500GB Seagate SSHD with a Crucial BX100 250GB SSD. Nothing I haven’t done before, easy I thought…..

I activated windows to get the key (using Belarc advisor, got driver/controller details etc) and swapped out the existing SSHD; the new SSD then showed in BIOS under AHCI and UEFI. I booted into windows 8.1 install from a USB flash drive (Using windows tool), it asks me to load a driver for unknown hardware so I load an AHCI driver (Intel Series 8 AHCI driver – 9C03) but it still comes up with the error message about incorrect driver on the volume. So I try diskpart in the windows install (list disk etc) and the disk isn’t listed even though its shown in Bios.

So I stick the OEM SSHD back in a boot back into Windows. I thought I had cracked the problem when I connected the SSD to the OEM windows install via a USB3 caddy, I was asked to initialise the drive and then create a volume. I used diskpart to make sure I created a GPT volume.

I then updated the BIOS to the latest version, updated the SSD firmware (via USB3 Caddy) and updated all the Intel AHCI/SATA/RST drivers to latest versions. I switched back to the SSD in the laptop and tried Windows 8.1 install again, which still showed in Bios, but was not picked up in Win 8.1 install. I even tried loading the updated drivers copied from the working SSHD, with no avail.

Next I cloned the SSHD to the SSD via USB3 (partitions and all) using Easeus. I put the SSD back in the laptop and tried to boot, but just got an BSOD error.

Booting into the Win 8.1 install with the SSHD in the laptop and the new SSD in the caddy allowed me to see the SSD in the win 8.1 install and allowed me to modify the partitions etc, but didn’t allow me to install win 8.1 to the SSD via USB.

I then completely removed the OEM SSHD from the laptop and booted into the windows 8.1 install with the SSD connected via USB. This allowed me to ‘reset’ the cloned windows install on the SSD via the win 8.1 advanced tools.

I am now in a position where I can boot to a fully working copy of win 8.1 from the SSD when plugged into the USB3 caddy but when I plug the same drive into the laptop SATA port it won’t boot. It’s still shown in the BIOS as a UEFI drive but doesn’t show in diskpart (but does when plugged in USB3).

So long story short, what the heck is the problem? Is the Crucial BX100 just incompatible with my motherboard/intel processor combo? I’m completely flummoxed as it works fine when plugged into USB.

Doing some research suggests that it may be something to do with a MSAHCI.inf/sys or STORAHCI.inf/sys file in the Windows/Inf folder on the SSD. Neither of these files are present in my build?

Any help is appreciated, I am too damn stubborn to admit defeat, though if not sorted soon I will return the drive for a different brand and try again.

I load an AHCI driver

[quote]updated all the Intel AHCI/SATA/RST drivers[/quote]

It’s still shown in the BIOS as a UEFI drive

IANAexpert but might you need UEFI drivers, not AHCI ?

Try sticking the ATA mode into “compatible” whilst you do the install, that should dodge the bullet of needing drivers at install time; change it back to AHCI once you’ve finished. You might need to disable Secure Boot too.

You also maybe need to turn off the platform protection or TPM stuff or whatever they call it in the BIOS when you install windows or else it won’t work (I did this on a lenovo yoga 2 the other day). I don’t have the machine to hand so I can’t check the exact name of the function.

EDIT: Secure boot, that’s the one. That’s the only bios change I needed to install windows.

Also, Lenovo whitelist drives in their BIOS. So some SSDs will work, and some won’t. You need one from the list that will work. Finding out what works will be trial and error or check the lenovo forums. I *think* if you can see it in the bios you’re good, but not necessarily the case. So check this too.

FWIW all I did was download drivers for the laptop to a USB stick, made a windows 8.1 install USB stick, install fresh windows, install drivers off stick, and off I went. No mucking about with partitions manually etc.

Thanks for your help all.

Try sticking the ATA mode into “compatible” whilst you do the install, that should dodge the bullet of needing drivers at install time; change it back to AHCI once you’ve finished. You might need to disable Secure Boot too.

I had wanted to avoid this as it seems to be a bit of a pain to get it back into AHCI once up and running, changing registry values. I have tried secure boot at various stages but not since I got windows running on the SSD via USB so will try again in the SATA port.

FWIW all I did was download drivers for the laptop to a USB stick, made a windows 8.1 install USB stick, install fresh windows, install drivers off stick, and off I went. No mucking about with partitions manually etc.

This… if only it was this, its how it always has been.

I’ll try secure boot and removing any protections etc, if not i’ll try IDE/Compatible mode.