Configuring newly installed SSD into new alienware 17

Just received my new alienware 17 and grabbed a 500GB SSD to put in as the main drive. Installed it into the empty slot and was looking for help getting it configured to become the new main drive. The boot menu in the BIOS is way different from what the owners manual indicated and Starts with Windows 8 fast boot as an option and doesn't list a boot order.

Thanks in advance!

 

Hey there

Can you specify what is the current configuration of your AW17? (single drive, msata cache ssd + storage... )

And what do you plan to do exactly? Clone your existing primary drive and copy it to the new SSD? Or do you plan to reinstall the OS from scratch? In the first case, there are some guides on how to accomplish this as you'll need to do some tweaks in the registry to set things up. The 2nd option, which I personally prefer is to reinstall from scratch, but you'll need an original copy of the Windows installation disc, as well as a product key for it.
In my case, my AW17 shipped with Windows 7, so I bought Windows 8 separately and did a clean install on my Samsung 840 Evo SSD. I never bothered using the Alienware provided recovery disk, and anyway you can't boot from it to do a clean installation (someone please correct me if I am wrong).

If you're interested in the clean installation, here's what I did:
1- My AW17 shipped with an mSata SSD used to cache a 1TB drive (used as OS drive).
2- I bought a Windows 8 iso from Microsoft and a Samsung 840 Evo.
3- Installing the SSD is straighforward and based on your post, you did this already.
4- Put in the OS disk, set the DVD drive 1st in boot order, then the SSD.
5- Install Windows normally on the SSD. Do NOT format the old primary drive yet in case you want to copy some files from it.
6- Boot into Windows normally (the newly installed one), copy any files you need from the old drive, then format it.
7- Install all drivers (which you can download initially and keep aside till you reach this step)
8- In case you have an mSata cache drive, run Intel RST and make sure it is properly configured to accelerate your old storage drive.

Hope this helped!

 

Actually my problem lies with getting the boot order setup. The boot menu is nothing like the one in the manual and doesn't let me select which drive I want to boot first.

The main bios page shows the drive detected but the boot page is really wonky.

The hard drive configuration it shipped with was a 1tb and and 80gb msata cache.

I've done a backup of the alienware autopsy on to a key drive and it also came with a windows 8.1 disc and I do want to do a clean install

 

It's weird that it looks different, can you send a couple pictures of the boot screen in the BIOS?

 

Heres a pic of the boot menu of the bios
https://ton.twitter.com/i/ton/data/dm/500053939728154625/500053939740758016/X68y8V1p.jpg:small

Here it is when configured for legacy boot
https://ton.twitter.com/i/ton/data/dm/500069755253161984/500069755265773568/-gYJsXpB.jpg:small

and here is what it lists when you enter the legacy boot option
https://ton.twitter.com/i/ton/data/dm/500070038897168384/500070038913953792/qODdSyQu.jpg:small

Here's the main Bios screen, showing the hard drive
https://ton.twitter.com/i/ton/data/dm/500052160038850560/500052160047230979/evewi9xe.jpg:small

 

Maybe you should try this: F12

 

I twent into the f12 menu but it doesn't look like there are any permanent ways to change boot order there, only 1 time selection unless I'm missing something.

 

on f12, you shood be able to set where to boot from...usb..cd...hdd1 hdd2...and you set the permenent order

 

EDIT: Figured it out. In order for the legacy options to show in the bios I had to boot into the F12 menu and change it to legacy there, then enter setup and the options showed up under legacy boot!

Thanks to everyone for the help in my moment of silliness.