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    Help, with installing secondary HDD in optical

    Discussion in 'Alienware 14 and M14x' started by DC87, Dec 2, 2011.

  1. DC87

    DC87 Notebook Consultant

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    Okay, so I have installed my new SSD into the main bay where the stock hard drive was. This went problematic free aside from I may have broke the white clip holding the SATA strip for the optical drive. It came completely out (Don't think that should happen) Anyways I got the strip back in and used tweezers to secure the white clip.

    I did not put the stock mechanical drive into the optical slot YET.

    It all turned on fine etc, installed windows n drivers on the new SSD appears to be working perfectly.

    Now my question is.. when I go to install the secondary hard drive it still has windows installed on it along with my other files. I do not care for these files and would want them gone. My question is when I install the secondary drive and boot up, will it try to boot windows from the optical drive..?

    Also, how do I erase all the data off the secondary optical drive once it is in the computer (Or if I have to do it before hand).

    Thanks or any help, I'm lost >.<
     
    DC87, Dec 2, 2011
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  2. c1ro

    c1ro Notebook Consultant

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    Press F12 when you see the alienhead and red loading bar, choose Harddrive boot it should force booting from whatever inside the HDD bay.

    Anything in the optical port will be recognised as optical or external usb drive
     
    c1ro, Dec 2, 2011
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  3. DC87

    DC87 Notebook Consultant

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    Okie, Il try this when I get around too it.
     
    DC87, Dec 3, 2011
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  4. headphones989

    headphones989 Notebook Consultant

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    even if it starts via the optical drive you can just carry over the essentials to your ssd and then reboot, put in your cd or flash drive that you used to install windows onto your ssd, and then in the menu reformat your HDD... well that's mostly what i did :D!... but i had nothing on my HDD cause i swapped almost as soon as i got it :D!
     
    headphones989, Dec 4, 2011
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  5. KEEVS

    KEEVS Notebook Enthusiast

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    Above suggestions should work but worst case, I just popped mine in a external enclosure and formatted it before I ever installed the drive in the caddy. if you don't have an external enclosure/sata dock you can hook it to any desktop and format the drive that way as well.
     
    KEEVS, Dec 4, 2011
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