SSD settings: ACHI?

Hello Folks, new Alienware owner here

I cloned my HDD to a Crucial M4 256GB SSD and install O/S on both.
I've set the boot up from the 'second hard drive'.
It has automaitically set it up as 'RAID'

All working good but there is a strange boot up screen where it asks to press 'ctrl + I' which I am unfamilair with.
Can I get rid of it somehow?

Now I am noticing all the advice to have the SSD set to ACHI.
Mine is set to RAID at the moment.
CrystalDisk reads about 469MB read etc..

Should I still go ahead and change to ACHI?
And if so how should I go about doing this?

I don't want to do a fresh install, yet, as it seems to be a lot of work and an element of hit and miss.

Also how can I check all is working as it should be?
I don't really game so may have to rely on benchmarks to check all is working to standard.

All advice appreciated

M17x R3 2760QM 4GB stock memory GTX 580M 256GB SSD 320GB HDD

 

You find everything you need in that thread I created not too long ago.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/612562-problems-when-installing-ssd-help.html
Set up in RAID will give you that "ctrl + I" if you have an SSD. That page never showed up when I was in AHCI. Also, you NEED a fresh install (hehehe sorry bout that!!! ).
You right, it IS a lot of work. But if you follow the "edit" in the first post you will get through this in no time You will also have real SSD speeds (Apparently this is STEP ONE for tweaking SSDs, you HAVE to be in that mode unless operating 2 SSDs.) that ctrl I page will disappear.
Apparently though there IS a way to boot up in AHCI without fresh install, you need to change some settings in REGEDIT, which I am not familiar with... and I also don't know if its good (As good as a fresh install).
You said you're a new alienware user... my advice to you is make that fresh install right away, before you have too much to reinstall good luck buddy!

 

You need a fresh install.

I cloned my SSD too and I ended up getting low 4k seq speeds. Cloning the SSD puts the partition alignment off.

 

Thanks for the replies.

I think I will play with it for a while and then when I have messed it up a bit and have some time on my hand I will attempt a fresh install.

Had 'AC Power not compatible..' this evening. Did the 'remove battery and power and drain and then reinsert all' and it worked.

3D Vantage gave a low score I think:

3DMARK SCORE P14599
GPU SCORE 13315
CPU SCORE 20542

CrystalDiskMark

Seq 477 228
512k 364 178
4K 17 8
4KQD32 123 8.4


How do the above figures compare?
Haven't optimised anything yet.

Also I have one stuck pixel.
Hard to find. Wasn't planning chasing it as it doesn't bother me.

What do you guys think?

 

On my 128GB, I get:

Seq 479.6 196.9
512k 362.7 179.3
4k 23.33 44.68
QD32 312.3 179.2

You should be getting higher scores than that with a 256.

As you can see, the 4k scores are way low. as nalien noted, cloned drives tend to perform poorly.

 

Ssd size doesn't increase benchmarks. That's all the controller and firmware. Your nbers look good.

 

here follow this... You will need to do the have disk procedure to reinstall your wifi driver. Extract it to some place like C drive and then guide have disk to that location.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...install-ssd-instructions-recommendations.html

However, I couldn't find the alien respawn software on my resource disk

 

Well just for curiosities sake I did a clean install in ACHI mode.
Took about 3-4 hours with the windows update up to date.
But fairly straightforward thanks everyone's help an guidance

Results?

The boot up screen interruption (ctrl+I) is finally gone.
Infact the whole RST software appears missing. Sure I installed it??

Boot up time is same. Roughly 17secs from windows screen
Crystaldiskmark is similar
3D Vantage mark is similar

So I feel I have not gained anything!
Most bizarre.

Do I need to do the SSD optimisations again? Does new install reset them?
Are there any other settings I need to change?
Why does WEI on list my intel HD and scores 7.2 when I have Gtx 580?
Is Intel RST important? Should I reinstall? Or is it installed and hidden?

 

I had RST installed without problems. Your 4k speeds are very low. Are you on firmware 0009?

Only thing I did was disable hibernation/sleep mode and move the page file to the data HDD.

Did you check the Dell support site for newer drivers for your system?

 

I used all the drivers from the website with the clean install last night.
The ssd tests remain same.

Also did you see my thread about sound distortion at about 70% ?
Would appreciate others thought before contacting Dell.

 

Did you installed all the drivers from my list (first respond), either from the DELL ressource disk or DELL's website? if you don't see it in the tray then look for it on their website.

17sec from windows screen? how long from the time you press the power button.

Yes, as those settings are in windows, everything is reset once you install it (It's not a reset, it's really just set up as standart)

 

Those CrystalDiskMark results are lower than expected for a 256GB M4, particularly the 4K scores. Be sure that (a) your SSD is in Port 1 (the middle drive slot or cradle) to assure full SATA 3 performance and (b) your M4 firmware has been upgraded to 0009 ( http://www.crucial.com/support/firmware.aspx), which provides a substantial performance boost. SSD tweaks/settings have to be reset after a clean install. Check here for some useful tweaks: The SSD Optimization Guide - The SSD Review. I ignore 11, 13, 14, 17 and 18 for my own use. Here are CDM results for the 256GB M4 in my R3 for comparison; your results may vary, but should be reasonably close.

​

 

471.8 231.7
367.5 176.7
22.20 8.398
123.5 8.426

seems the results are a little worse now except 4K read up from 18 to 22

I followed all your SSD optimisation exactly
Only difference is I clean installed on a previously cloned copy from original SSD

 

Yes, all from your list except a couple that were different from your list i.e the audio driver.

36 seconds from pressing the button

I have a copy of this current set up and of course the original set up is in recovery so i can move freely now between the two.

I wonder if having a recovery portion on the SSD is affecting it

 

Are you sure that the firmware has been updated to 0009? Those look like 0001/0002 write speeds. A fresh install facilitates partition/sector alignment and provides better performance than cloning, but I don't know how much; some say a great deal.

 

well I am in a big mess.
I tried to recover to factory settings but it won't boot up in HDD. Keeps booting up in SSD. Tried to use Alien Respawn but this has given a D recovery drive and E drive and G drive and an H drive recovery!

whats going on
I can I erase SSD completely removing all the cloning partions and any recovery it had on there and access the recovery on the HDD?

Please help
P.S Disk info does confirm FW0009

 

go to bios and change your boot order to HDD and not SSD.

 

I tried but keeps booting in SSD.
I wonder if I may have deleted/quick formatted the HDD to get more space?!
But the recovery is protected I thought.

 

Is your boot working from SSD? You may have deleted the HDD contents, I am not 100% sure.

 

Yes SSD working fine.
I wanted to recover HDD windows and from there completely reformat SSD to remove any cloned partitions. And the do another clean install.
But this where I encountered my problem of not being able to access recovery in HDD. I change mode to raid to allow access to HDD but keeps booting in SSD. Recovery mode with F8 now shows no factory reset as it once did day before yesterday

 

Why don't you boot from windows CD and format and reinstall windows on your SSD? Delete all partitions associated with your SSD.

 

I can do that.
But I also have an image backed up after a clean install.

I just was going to redo a SSD install after a complete wipde of the SSD first.
Hence why I needed to boot up windows on HDD.

after a Respawn the windows files are there in the HDD.

But cannot seem to boot from it.

 

I've lost track here, but if the HDD was originally set up with Raid as the SATA protocol, then switched to AHCI to install the SSD, the only way it will boot from the HDD is to reset SATA to Raid, assuming the original Win 7 is still present and the HDD is still bootable.

 

You've lost track BUT I've lost my mind!
You are right and I tried it but I think I might have formatted the HDD. Thought I could access the recovery in HDD but couldn't find a way. Ended up with a total mess!

Doing fresh install after formatting the SSD.

 

Sorry, but the truth is you'll have a faster, more stable installation when finished. You do have SATA set to AHCI now for the installation, right? Best of luck.

 

Thanks for everyone's help.
I'll see how this goes.

 

It is now 04:39 in the morning and I have just completed the new clean fresh install.

My SSD results:

474.9 251.6
377.5 236.1
19.19 42.25
191.4 173.8

No tweaks yet but finally its near where everyone else is !
Oh by the way I accidentally deleted the recovery portion in the HDD!
I still have the alien respawn image on USB though.

I was trying to get rid 31.3MB partition that I don't where it came from and not sure how to get rid of it.
I tried to format and extend the remaining OS volume to include but wasn't able to do it.
Now off to bed for a few hours !

 

Good work. Much, much better results.

 

Thanks.
But I have speaker/sound problem from the left side which I suspect is a hardware issue. Spoke to Dell this morning. They are offering a technician or refund but not replacement. Technician will fix speaker and stuck pixel screen.
Don't really want to be without a laptop.
Not sure what to.
Any quick responses?

Edit:went for speakers replace and LCD screen replace. I don't want to wait any longer than I have to. And I suppose, and hope, they will do a good tidy job.

 

My conclusion to this whole SSD affair is that cloning with a recovery partition has an impact on the SSD performance for the lower CrystalDiskMark tests.

Only when I reformatted the whole SSD did the scores reach everyone elses.
I'm sure there is a lesson there but how significant it is if at all is beyond me

 

My new boot time is 29/30 seconds from pressing the button.
Thats about 7/8 seconds faster now.

I haven't used all the optimisations since with 256GB I have plenty of space.

 

I didn't see much improvements from optimizations.

I don't know what Revelator did, but I think he got a factory monster.

 

I didn't notice any improvements with optimisations to be honest. My figures both before and after remained the same. My gain was from SSD reformat and new clean install.
Windows 7 treats SSDs well it appears. Although I suspect they will have benefits longer term.

 

Don't know if someone already told you this but never use SSD+HDD RAID0. NEVER. The ONLY RAID you can use is for safety of data so all data will be saved on HDD. It is RAID1. But HDD should be not much bigger than SSD. Or it will be a waste of space.

 

Since this thread is still going and the problem within it seems resolve (good job Dr no) I have a question of my own now about SSDs:
How full can they be without being slowed down ?! (talking about an old 128 SSD Kingston here.)
thanks for the people who are gonna give me an answer, I looked a bit in google but they wouldn't give a number so I want to know if it starts at like 50% full, 75, or 99% xD (okay maybe not 99% lol but just need a rough estimate)

 

Just to confirm this is what I did in the end.
I have given up trying alien respawn on the HDD.
I suppose I could always install windows on the HDD and then alien respawn.
But I am not going to need any of Dell stuff anyway so why bother.