I recently got an Alienware Aurora R5 gaming desktop, in which I wanted to install a 256GB Samsung 950 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD and ran into a few problems. Couldn’t find anything conclusive online so here’s how I made it work and boot the OS:

1. Install the Alienware Aurora R5 System BIOS version 1.0.9 or higher.
2. Install the SSD into the M.2 slot and start the computer.
   • The M.2 slot is under the GPU.
   • You will need to find an M.2 screw because Alienware doesn’t provide any, and neither does Samsung. I used the screw from the Wi-Fi M.2 card. (very bad idea but the Wi-Fi card is less loose without the screw than the SSD)
3. Open Disk Management, format the SSD as GPT, create one NTFS partition.
4. Install Samsung Magician & Samsung Data Migration from the official website.
   • Samsung Magician will report the SSD as something garbled like aSsmnu gSS, ignore that for now.
5. Clone your OS hard drive to the SSD using Samsung Data Migration, then shut down the computer.
6. Unplug the hard drive.
7. Change the SATA Controller setting in the BIOS Setup to AHCI.
   • You can boot into BIOS Setup by repeatedly pressing the F2 key during startup.
8. Restart the computer again. You will get a BSOD about not being able to find the boot drive. THIS IS EXPECTED. 🙄
9. Restart again, the Windows UEFI will present you with boot options. Choose to start in Safe Mode.
   • Windows will magically recognize the SSD and boot.
10. Restart into normal mode. Windows will boot from the SSD just fine now. 🙄
    • Samsung Magician will recognize the SSD with no problems.
11. Install the Samsung NVMe drivers.
12. Shut down, plug the hard drive back in.
    • Hope it’ll keep booting from the SSD, otherwise play around a little bit with the boot order in the BIOS Setup.

And you’re done.

I don’t know why this is this complicated, but oh well. Nothing “just works” in Windows’ world.