Upgrade HDD to SSD

So I am planning to buy an M17x R4 and upgrade to a SSD myself. People keep telling me to do a "Fresh Install" of my OS and I have no idea how to do that on a notebook without the disc.

Probably thinking way harder than I'm supposed to but am I supposed to clone the drive then use the recovery partition?

 

You should receive a Win 7 disk with your R4 which can be used for a clean installation. A clean install is much better than trying to clone a HDD installation to a SSD. Bite the bullet and do it right.

 

Awesome! Thanks for the reply and suggestion

 

Why is cloning not good? I was planning on doing that when I install my SSD so I wouldn't have to reinstall the OS and try and find all the drivers online and get all the Alienware features back (it'll be my first gaming laptop so I don't know how to do any of that). Cloning seems like it'll be much smoother.

 

The pro of cloning is that, like you said, its much faster since you're transferring everything you had on the old hard drive to the SSD.

The con of cloning is that you may also be transferring any potential software, driver, etc. problem that you currently have on your hard drive to the SSD.

 

I highly recommend a clean install on an SSD as you will know it will be aligned correctly which leads to better performance.

 

Do they at least include a disk with the R4 with all the drivers and Alienware stuff on it? Or am I going to have to hunt around for it all (will it even start without any graphics drivers)? If not, I think I'll just risk the cloning.

 

The primary reason for clean install is to allow windows to properly detect your ssd and turn off defrag and enable trim. It had not been proven this will happen after windows install.

So to get the most out of your ssd it is best to do a fresh install.

 

I assume this does not apply with a mSATA Boot Drive (Stock) and a subsequent SSD purchase? (e.g.: 1 HDD, 1 SDD, OS on Boot Drive)

 

The "Alienware stuff" can be found here, together with instructions on what to do with it. http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ook-feel-after-clean-install-windows-7-a.html.

You will already have all of the drivers needed for your setup, unpacked and ready for installation, on the original HDD. Just copy the directory/folder d:\Dell to the SSD (which will then be the c: drive). All of the drivers will be found in the c:\Dell\Drivers folder. Install from there, starting with the Chipset drivers. The order is not particularly important, except that Alienware Command Center should be installed last. See here re driver install order and related matters. http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...er-install-order-guide-alienware-systems.html. (This was written for the R3, so some adjustments may be required; consider it a general guide instead of a detailed instruction set.)

 

Having recently gone through a clean win7 install onto an SSD, I was actually surprised how little time it took.

>>> just 20 odd mins to get it all installed and booted up.

The most annoying/time consuming part though I guess will always be the driver and application install and windows mucking around, but if you have a check list of things to do, it makes the whole chore much easier.

>>> the guides Rev posted are very handy in this respect!

Gd luck!

 

Hi My name is Luis and I work for Alienware, I would recommend you the fresh install to avoid any glitch or unwanted behavior from the SSD, also if you need assistance on this issue you can send us an e-mail to [email protected] including your service tag and phone number and we will be able to help you with your issue, as well if you require assistance or technical info on the SSD that you plan to get, you can let us know on the same e-mail or use [email protected] . #IWork4AW

 

I'm planning to do a fresh install on my new SSD too. But the problem is that the OS is already installed on the HDD with my Alienware. How should I go about doing this? Should I first boot up using my regular HDD and do a complete wipe and then do a clean install on my SSD? I will be installingl my SSD to my primary slot while moving the regular HDD to my second slot.

 

Just install Win 7 on the new SSD using the same COA number/key. There is no need to wipe the HDD at this point; in fact, by leaving it as is, you can always boot from the HDD should you encounter some difficulty with the SSD. Once you get everything working as desired on the SSD, then you can reformat the HDD. There is also no need to swap locations unless you just want to for some reason. If you intall the SSD into the second (middle) slot, you simply change the BIOS boot order to put the Second Hard Drive first. Then it becomes the boot drive (and therefore the c: drive).

 

Hmm I've read before that installing SSD card on your primary slot will give you a better performance. The guy may have been misinformed or I simple may have understood it wrong. Thanks for clearing this up. I was overthinking on things it seems

 

With the R4, you should get the exact same performance from either slot. There are differences with the R3, but those won't apply to you.

 

Hey Snake,

Can you possibly outline them differences for the R3?
I've got a Crucial M4 on it's way and I'm prepping for thes install/config and I've been scanning the threads trying to gather all the setup information and possible issues that may arise that I can.

For the R3,

1) Install SSD to Drive Bay 2?
2) Clean install of Windows 7
3) Possible BIOS upgrade/config?

-Thanks

 

If you're going to install the SSD on Bay 2, that's fine. You just need to set the SSD to boot before the HDD under the BOOT tab in your BIOS. You might just want to have only your SSD installed in the notebook. That way Windows will install on there with minimal headaches.

 

Hey, DrWhistler.

* Yes, install the SSD in the second (middle) drive bay (see Pg 81 of the Owner's Manual) to assure full SATA III operation. The other bay (Port 0) sporadically downshifts to SATA II. As Radji mentioned, you will need to change the boot order in the BIOS to put the "Second Hard Drive" as the first selection.

* A clean install is highly recommended with a new SSD. This may be useful -- http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...er-install-order-guide-alienware-systems.html.

* You need to use BIOS A08 (or earlier) in order to enjoy SATA III (6Gb/s) performance from your new M4. BIOS A09 (and thereafter) downgrades the storage bus interface operation to SATA II (3Gb/s).

Enjoy your new M4. Great drive.

 

i cloned mine and windows detected and enabled trim and turned off defrag on my ssd..

 

Wasn't there a chipset issue with the m17x R3's SATA controller that caused BSOD's when in SATA III mode? I thought I read that Dell issued a recall on the MB's because of it.

 

Yes, back in early 2011, Intel announced a Stop Ship on the Sandy Bridge chipset (i.e., Cougar Point, used in the R3). According to Intel, ports that were part of the original chipsets could degrade over time, potentially impacting the performance or functionality of SATA-linked devices such as hard disk drives and DVD drives. Alienware stopped shipments and issued a recall for any shipped systems to replace the defective motherboards with revised and presumably corrected parts. There is more detail here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...sandy-bridge-issue-what-does-mean-m17xr3.html. I've forgotten the details of exactly what was wrong or the risks/effects of continued use or how that might relate to recent BIOS changes to limit the performance of SATA ports. Not hard to conclude that they might not be entirely unrelated.

 

Probably why BIOS A09 downgrades the storage bus interface controller, yes?

 

It's probably a fair assumption in the absence of any other explanation, and none has been forthcoming.

 

Well...any "official" explaination from Dell will sugar coat how the BIOS downgrading to SATA II somehow improves performance with the sandy bridge chipsets.

 

I want to install a Crucial m4 256GB 2.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s SSD into my brandnew Alienware m17x. I have it with the 1TB RAID 0 (2x 500GB) 7200RPM. Can you give me a good explanation on how to do it without loosing my original data (OS, command Center) and progarams? Will I need to remove 1 500 GB hardrive? I need a deeper explanation as I have no idea what I am doing

 

The hang up is that you have a RAID 0 array. You will need to remove one of the RAID disks to install the Crucial SSD. I wonder if its possible to have one of the HDDs in the HD Bay 1, and the other on eSATA? Maybe that way the host controller can pick them up and you won't lose your data.

 

I need you to tell me if its possible and how to do it man lol this is why I asked you. I have no knowledge in this things. Thanks man!

 

Thank you for the information!

 

You've had this answered via PM, and in three threads.

Detailed answers too.

You have no way - with the current configuration you have (1TB RAID-0 ///// 256 GB Crucial M4 that you wish to install) to do this without a clean installation on the SSD.

 

Hi guys not sure whether to post on this thread or open another but here goes...

I've now ordered my m17x R4 (Should be here by end of june! ) with mSATA and 500GB HDD and ordered 2 256GB SSD's, I believe I can simply replace the HDD with the 2 SSD's, reconfigure the BIOS to RAID and I should be good to go?

Setting the BIOS to RAID won't affect the mSATA boot disk will it?

Also I read earlier on this thread that one of the drive slots sometimes changes to 3Gb/s from 6Gb/s, is this still something I should be worried about with the R4?

As always thanks in advance!

 

It will actually. Any time you change your laptops drive configuration, the laptop then treats all of the drives in a similar manner. It won't boot from the mSATA then, instead it will likely BSOD and go into a reboot loop.

It won't set the mSATA drive into RAID unless you configure it as a member of the RAID (I'm sure you won't be) but you will have to re-install the OS and the drivers due to the change in BIOS.

 

Ok thanks, sounds like too much work at the moment, will just install 1 SSD then.

 

You can try the registry hack to change AHCI to RAID or vice versa.

Changing from RAID to AHCI - Microsoft Answers

 

Hmm interesting, but I think something for the future, don't have delivery of laptop yet... Thanks for the suggestions

 

Hey guys ,
Can you please tell me which ssd's are compatible with the r4?
How will i noe if one is?

 

All 2.5" 9.5mm sata drives should be compatible whether they are hdds or ssds.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

and to install win 7 on the ssd , all i have to do is do a clean install on it?
No issues such as power, etc?
also , is 128 GB enough for all the programs? (as i have seen u have one)

 

I believe so, just go into the BIOS and make sure HDD configuration to AHCI. 128 GB should be more than enough for Win. 7 and usual programmes such as ms word etc. Also if you are worried about storage capacity, Crucial's 256GB M4 SSD gives a great storage/price/performance ratio.

 

Hey guys on the samsung 830 ssd when clean installing does tripm automatically turn on or do i have to do it manually?

 

Trim should be activated automatically during the installation process, but you will want to verify after installation is complete.

To verify, from an elevated command prompt, type “fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify” (no quotes) and hit Enter.
If DisableDeleteNotify=0, then TRIM is Enabled.
If DisableDeleteNotify=1, then TRIM is Disabled.