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    Adding SSD to M17x R1

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by wcdturbo, Jul 19, 2010.

  1. wcdturbo

    wcdturbo Notebook Consultant

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    Did a search, can't find a solution so here it goes.

    I went out and grabbed a small (40 gb) Intel SSD for my OS drive. I cannot get it to work in AHCI mode. All I get is a flashing cursor. As soon as I switch it to IDE mode, it works fine. The problem is, I was able to do the Windows 7 install in AHCI mode but the only way it will boot is by switching back to IDE. I read about the registry hack but if I installed 7 in AHCI, why would I need to do that?


    EDIT: NM, afetr some more searching I heard this may happen so going to try to registry switch and then change in the BIOS to see what happens.

    On another note, I am using the default MS driver that was installed with 7. Should I use the NVIDIA one or not? I saw on another thread that it was actually slower but I want to make sure that not using it isn't causing me problems also.
     
  2. dave-p

    dave-p Notebook Deity

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    I for one would stay with the Default MS drivers.

    The NVIDIA drivers slowed down SSD drives performance
     
  3. DR650SE

    DR650SE The Whiskey Barracuda

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    If you begin in AHCI, and then switch it to IDE, I think it is impossible to go back. Maybe I'm thinking ACHI->ATA->AHCI, but I have the 40GB Intel SSD running as my benching SSD and I've never had an issue with it in AHCI. I'd try a clean reinstall.