Installing SSD into a 17

So I'm patiently awaiting the arrival of my new 17. I'm assuming if i buy an SSD, the new 17 has drive bays which I can just install?

It comes with the standard 500G Hybrid drive.
I want to install an SSD for oS and use the drive for storage

 

Yes you'll have 1 SATA slots and a MSATA on the underside of the motherboard available with the standard 500g hybrid drive. FYI the HDD 2 in the corner stays cooler then the HDD 1 bay (not as close to the GPU) I noticed.

 

There are three ports available, and one DVD bay which can be used as a fourth port. All are SATA III.

 

Yes, you will be able to install it easily. Pretty much PnP.

 

Yep like Poras has said it is pretty simple....

2 screws on the bottom back side of the case, and then slide the whole bottom towards you and it will pop off ( This can be tight when it is new so you may have to tug a bit ) and then once you have that off you can see the bottom 2 caddies. As far as I know there should be drive caddies and adapters already in there but I can't say for sure as mine came with 2 drives installed. You will have 4 screws that hold the caddie to the drive and then 3 or 4 that attach the drive to the computer and viola, all set. Don't forget to switch the boot order if you want to use the SSD as the primary drive

 

So for best results, install the OS to the SSD, and use the 500G for storage ?

 

Yep, the SSD will out perform the 500G easily. You will be looking at vastly reduced boot and shutdown times and almost instant pretty much anything in your OS when loading and opening programs

There really isn't any other way to do it, having an SSD for your OS is the only way to go

 

Any recommendations for a os SSD space won't matter will be mainly os driven only.


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Hey evino, congrats on the new machine. I recently upgraded and added a SSD as well. In terms of space, it depends. I only have 256 gb on my new rig. I was going to buy a 500 GB drive but I decided to save the extra cash. I have 256 gb drive on my older rig and didn't encounter any space issues... so this also influenced my decision. If you have the cash, go for 500 gb. As MogRules stated, your new machine should have the second drive caddy, just swap the drives and install the OS on the SSD.

 

I'm also thinking about adding an ssd when my machine arrives. Does the system come with the windows disk so you can delete the hdd partition and install it on the ssd?

 

I too am thinking about adding an SSD to my AW 17. I'm running a 500gb HDD which came as stock. Can any of you guys recommend either a 256 or 500gb SSD please?

 

250GB Samsung 840 EVO's are like $140 now. You should definitely get at least 250GB's. The size is really up to you.

 

Thanks everyone for the replies. My 17 shipped today, via purolator!

Pumped to finally get this beast, havn't used one since my old m14x r2!

 

@ BKUK, yes the windows re-installation disk is included in the box.

As for recommending an ssd, I have used crucial with great reliability. A crucial m4 is still in my m17xr2. As J Dre mentioned , the samsung 840 Evos sell rather cheap with good specs/speeds. I read a number of positive reviews so decided to run with Samsung for a change. For space, like J Dre said, don't go under 250 gb as they are quite affordable.

 

Yes, it should have an Alienware Windows DVD to reinstall from without needing the restore partition. I never keep the partition on my laptops, I just blow them away and use the DVD. The only problem with the DVD is you need to get some of the drivers as the Alienware Windows DVD is basically just a Windows DVD with some Alienware themes, it does not contain all the drivers for your system. The good news is there should also be a drivers disc that comes with the machine so those will get you up and running although there are probably newer versions on the Alienware website.

If you have a single drive when the machine arrives you can also create restore DVD's and then just restore with those when you install the SSD and that will retain all your drivers and such

I find the easiest thing is I have a folder on my external HDD that just holds all the drivers and I can wipe windows and reinstall everything minus the windows updates pretty quick.

 

Thanks for your helpful information. So it is a case of just removing the underside and plugging into a spare caddy, selecting the boot order and format and install windows onto the ssd? Install drivers from disk then format the hdd ( 1TB 80G MSATA) so it is clean?

 

What is your plan for the mSATA? I had a bit of a tough time getting it to set up as an acceleration drive after I installed my SSD but I never really found out what caused it. After switching to my spare 750gb it worked flawlessly. It is pretty much as easy as you have described. The install for the drive is pretty straight forward, not much to go wrong there. I would wipe the 1tb drive while your reinstalling windows or it might have issues with the MBR from both drives. If everything goes smoothly then you can re-install Intel Rapid Storage softwareand accelerate the 1tb drive with the mSATA. If you don't wipe the 1tb drive and just install Windows to the SSD , once you install Intel Rapid Storage it may just pick up the accelerated drive automatically and be good to go. When I reinstall windows all I have to do is download the software and my drive is already set up because I didn't touch my storage drive during the re-install. After that is done you could always format the drive from windows I guess.

 

Ok so the Intel Rapid Storage software is required on the 1TB drive to essentially link the mSATA to it? I know you can either use it as storage or to boost the HDD I believe that to be correct? Adding the SSD kind of eliminates the storage option for me I would rather it speed the drive. I used to build my own PC's years ago but I feel things have moved on lol, I went to the m14x R1 and kind of lost interest in the building/adding aspects!

Is there an option when installing windows to the SSD to wipe the current HDD then? Many thanks.

 

Yes, you can wipe and delete partitions right from the windows install when your installing a new copy of windows if everything goes smoothly as it should then when you install rapid storage you will just have to select acceleration and point the msata at the HDD and it will do the rest, I do believe your system needs to be in raid mode in the bios for this to work so just double check that before you start make sure it is in raid BEFORE installing Windows or it will fail to load.

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Ok that sounds good I will remeber to read this thread when everything arrives! I think i'll go for the Crucial M500 240GB good reviews and well priced here in the UK.

 

I can't think of any absolute stay away from brands when it comes to SSD's. Just make sure they have a good read/write speed and you will be fine

I am contemplating a WD Black dual drive, the SSD/HDD hybrid drive that just came out not to long ago. Those seem interesting.

 

Another quick question, Is it important to disconnect the battery prior to installing the SSD as to not damage components?

 

It's good practice to do so.

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I wouldn't touch the internal components without removing the battery. After removing, I always hold the power button down for 20 secs...something a Slovakian electrical engineer friend told me. Although, I am not sure if it does anything extra.

Also, im not sure if you are reinstalling Win 8 or 7. I decided to keep Win 8.1 for a change and was unfamiliar with not having a traditional bios to get into. It took me some Googling to get into the UEFI bios to change the boot order and install the OS in the new SSD. It was pretty dumb now that I look back at the trouble I had..LOL. Just a heads up. I can help if you need it.

 

Is getting into the bios not as simple as tapping F8 at startup?

 

The first thing I'm doing when my new baby arrives is putting a Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD drive in her. I'm going to use Alien respawn to make a recovery disk and just use that to recover it on the new drive. There's a how-to about Alien Respawn in the forums, I believe it's a sticky.

 

Yes I've just read that sticky and seems like a very wise idea. I shall be doing this too. Seems like it will save time also as it's just an original image so no messing about with the driver installation.

 

I couldn't get to the BIOS setting to change the boot order by tapping F12. It would just proceed to start up as normal. There are several ways to get into the UEFI BIOS.

The one I found easiest was the following:
1. Install the SSD.
2. Turn on your AW and it will boot windows as normal.
3. Press the "Windows Key" + “C” and the "charms" show up on the right side.
4. Select "Settings" --> select "Power" --> Hold down "Shift" + select "Restart"
5. This will take you to a new window that gives you several options. Click on “Select a Device”. This will allow you to boot from a USB or Disk. The computer will restart and you will see a red bar along the lower right hand corner, along with options to select F2 or F12 to enter the UEFI bios or Boot options, respectively.

Once you have your new SSD installed and your Boot disk/USB in place, just press F12 assuming you completed the above. From there, select the DVD or USB with the OS. You know what do from there. And that’s it.