Alienware mx17 r4 and SSD

Hi,

i need some advice.

I got an Alineware mx17 r4 with factory installet 500GB HDD. I bought an OCZ Vertex 4 128GB SSD for it. Then i created a recovery image USB drive using Alien Respawn. After creating the USB, i installed the SSD on HDD bay 1 changed boot order to secandory HDD first (as shown on youtube), inserted the USB and intiated reimage.

It installed the new image on the 500 GB HDD!!

Now i moved the HDD to Bay 1 and SSD to bay 0 and after changing boot order againg restored the image and it again insalled on HDD!!!

it is staill labeling HDD as C: and system disk and SDD as D:

whant am i dong wrong?

 

Remove HDD when installing simples , why leave it in there, do your installation then replace HDD afterwards. Also I would recommend a clean install for a SSD for maximum performance.

 

If it was me I would invest in Acronis Trueimage. Boot off that and image the OS across.

Before anyone questions it. Acronis will align the partitions and Windows will optimize the OS still, so imaging is perfectly safe. I did the same technique when I put my SSD in.

 

I did that after restore, i am getting the msg "no boot devices found!"

 

Ahh might be incompatibility between the alienrespawn and ssd, I don't know, you running windows 8 or 7?

EDIT:

I don't know how respawn works yet, havent used it, usually just do a clean install. I assume its because it might use the hidden partition on the 500GB HDD which contains the saved image, but it should be able to use the one off the USB, might be searching for it or something?

 

In BIOS it has the OCZ SSd, the remiage says that it sucessfully restored the system.

On the original HDD the restore works perfectly keeping in mid that the restore formats the target drive.

But on the SSD its not booting, strange!!

Edit - I am running Win 7

 

Maybe try using the plain windows 7 dvd that comes with the laptop and try and clean install then reimage it after it has windows on it?

You have to completely wipe the SSD of any partitions and volumes before you install windows btw. Leaving it with letter 'd' means its been formatted.

To be honest there will be little difference between the alienrespawn image and a clean install, you will just have to install .net framework, alienware programs basically.

Can't really help much more since I don't use it sorry.

 

Will a firmware update work?

 

Should I be using UEFI or legacy boot?

 

A firmware update I assume for the SSD would be recommended as it might be to fix any bugs/performance issues. Otherwise the BIOS update might help, the current version is A10.

For windows 7 and alien respawn you should be using legacy, but you can use windows 7 and UEFI, but it will require a clean install I think. (UEFI is faster/new/ windows 8 will be faster at booting as well)

Its nothing to do with those settings I think. Most likely because you have assigned the drive a letter, you need to format the SSD when your running the windows 7, so its an empty partition has no drive letters assigned. Then remove HDD and see if alien respawn will see the USB. Also try creating a DVD might be worth a try. Also you need to enable USB device booting in the BIOS maybe? Not sure since I used a DVD to install OS's

 

Thank you for all you help today.

I did format the SSD and it was assigned D:, I looking at the drive contents, it has the windows installed but it is not booting.

 

Just buy acronis and clone the hdd image to the ssd. It will take 30 minutes and your done.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

Just ordered. Will be here tomorrow. Lets see how it goes. But thi is a strange situation.