Alienware 17 HDD question

I have an Alienware 17 r1 with a 1TB 5400RPM SATA + 80GB mSATA storage setup. I wiped all the data off the drive in order to use my 80GB mSATA not as a caching drive but to hold my OS and maybe 1 game at a time. But I didn't research it enough and discovered you can't do it while installing windows. How do I do this? Is it even possible?

If that is not possible, then how do I clean install Windows 8.1 onto the HDD and Cache configuration correctly with everything already deleted? Like when I deleted all the partitions and data in the setup I'm left with my HDD which is 99..something GB and the the cache drive underneath which is about 10 GB. What do I do in terms of creating partitions and such? Help me!

 

You should see a disk config screen before win starts. This has a hot-key to access it. If you do not see this then it might be that UEFI boot is not letting you see it? So try turning that off in the BOIS.. Compatibility mode should be 'on'.

Just delete the partitions on the drive in the text menu and then boot into the win install from dvd.

Good luck.

 

When I had trouble installing Windows on my other laptop, I had to turn UEFI security to OFF, sometimes just setting it in legacy mode will work better for some laptops.

 

So you can use the mSATA drive as a separate SSD? And it's a matter off accessing disk config through a hot-key on startup? Do I need to make a partition on the 80GB SSD when installing if that is the case? I'm not sure what to do in terms of formatting/partitioning with my storage setup, based on the instructions given in this video guide for clean install of Windows 8.

 

Windows will sort out the partitions. All you need to do is set the 80gb as the first drive in the bios boot order, then hit f12 when restarting to get the boot menu. Select the DVD and away you go.

If you see more than one partition during the install then delete both and re-create a single one before continuing the install.

 

OK thank you. How come that guy in the video makes a partition though? I don't really understand what they are.

 

TBH I never looked at it . A partition is simply an area set aside for an OS to use. It very low level and a basic feature of all disk drives. The format is the OS setting up the partition for it's use. It's how you might have a machine that boots with windows or Linux.

On original install HDs you should see a hidden partition that they use to put the factory restore in. It's a hot-key to access it and wipe a drive clean with a fresh install. You could probably use the one on the original HD but it's far safer to just install from DVD.

In windows it will show you the existing partitions and any that are unallocated. You want just one, using all the available space, and formatted by windows.

 

ok I've got into the disk management and made the two drives separate. But how do I set the 80gb as the first drive in the bios boot order? I can't see an option to do that in the bios? And what is compatibility mode? And finally should I use AHCI or RAID?

 

It's better to use RAID even when the drives are separated. Unless this causes that you can't see the drive.

To make sure you install the O.S in the right drive, you could physically take the other one out

 

It might not have the option to set the boot drive in UEFI mode. In this case you should get to select it inside the windows installer by selecting the 80gb as the install drive. It places a 'hook' on the default drive to point to the correct one.

The compatibility mode is needed for compatibility with hardware that does not support UEFI boot.

If you want to change the boot order then you may have to turn off UEFI but that will stop win installing in that mode so it's a suck-it-and-see since I've never used win 8.

Use RAID as this gives you the flexibility to add drives later and even combine them to a single drive letter. Use AHCI and disk access will be miliseconds faster and is only recommended for the avid benchmarker who wants the very best numbers. In use you will never see the difference.

HTH

 

I'm not seeing any options in my bios regarding a compatibility mode, the bios is the A14 version. Maybe it's different in win8?

I can use Legacy mode or UEFI with secure or non-secured boot. Under the boot section of the bios I can't seem to change the boot sequence for UEFI but when I use Legacy mode it allows me to. Regardless I have installed in UEFI and windows seems to automatically select the mSATA as the main drive so I guess its ok..

 

Yup, that was what I was getting at, windows will sort it. 'Compatibility mode' is the same as 'legacy mode' just different oem's using different terms for the same thing .

 

ok my HDD isn't showing up in Windows? only the 80GB mSATA shows up.

 

Run disk management and format the drive. It will have the partition, you just need to prepare it for windows to use. Easy job just right click on the partition .

 

In disk management I see the drive, it's 'unallocated'. Right clicking on it only gives me a 'new simple volume' option or 'properties'. Sorry I haven't got a clue what do do. Thanks for help

 

New simple volume is all you need. It should default to the total available space.

 

Yeah got it thanks!

 

Great! Always better to ask about this stuff, it's not that difficult to mess it up if you don't understand what is going on .

Remember though, the HDD will not be anywhere near as fast as it was when cached.