Upgrade Help - Hard Drive Scenarios

Hi all,

This will be my first time making upgrades myself to any computer. I'm not very computer savvy unfortunately. The search function on this website is not working for me so I've been using Google (as someone else suggested) to search the forums and it's worked so far but I'm still pretty confused on many things and would like to explore a few options on upgrading the hard drive.

The hard drive my system will come installed with is:
500GB 7200 RPM + 32GB mSATA Caching Drive

Scenario 1: Keep the hard drive + caching drive as is.

Before I purchase an SSD Drive, I am planning on testing out Intel's Smart Response Technology to see how well it performs in terms of game-loading times. From what I've read, I should see a significant performance increase in game-loading times versus an HDD alone. This system will be for gaming (1-2 games) and light browsing only so my usage patterns should be very stable. If I am not seeing faster loading times for games, I will then pick Scenario 2 or 3, depending on which other users suggest.

Scenario 2: Keep the hard drive + caching drive and add a SSD where I install games. (slave drive?)

I'm none too concerned with boot times for the OS, so keeping it in the HDD will be fine with me. Would this scenario be possible at all, with the OS installed in the 500GB HDD and games installed on the SSD? Will the SSD as a second/salve drive somehow interfere with the caching mSATA? Will there be some sort of performance decrease because the games are not installed on the primary drive?

Scenario 3: Make SSD the primary boot drive and the 500GB HDD an extra storage drive.

This scenario is probably the option that I like the most; however, it is also the option that scares me the most.

I saw the forum guide "HOW TO: Preserve AlienRespawn..." and read that there may be difficulty moving from the stock HDD to a new SSD.

My issue is that I am scared ****less about having to do a "Clean Install" and "restoring Alienware goodness." I feel that I am bound to make a mistake somewhere because all of this is so confusing to me. But I like this option quite a bit because I will benefit from both increased boot up speed and game loading speed.

So if I choose Scenario 3, what will I do about the mSATA drive? Is there a way to simply just turn it into an extra hard drive from caching drive? Should I just remove it and sell it off?

And also, since I am predicting that Scenario 3 will be the most difficult to do, anyone our there that can [practically] hold my hand through the upgrade process? LOL - I'd reward you with rep and gratitude!

 

Don't be so scared. There's always a possibility of screwing something up no matter which path you take. Not modifying your current HDD until the very end gives you the best chance that even if you do mess up you have your original HDD to fall back on and only need to install it. Speaking from experience (I did this SSD/HDD thing in March). Option 2 or 3 are your best options. Option 2 is the simplest. You install the SSD as a secondary drive. Leave all your files and the OS on the HDD. Install your games on the SSD. It will be a little more trickier to get your games to run fluidly since your OS will still run slow(er) that your game files being on an SSD and all. BUT, it is the simplest way to go about it.

Option 3 is what I did. I requires more work and lots of patience. What I did was this: First, I downloaded all the current drivers for my system, some from DelL Drivers & Downloads, some from the mfgr (Intel, AMD, etc). Having them on a flash drive from the start really helped speed things along.Next, I removed my old HDD and left it intact (I got an SSD and bigger HDD for the upgrade). I installed the SSD into the "HDD 0" slot on my system, they are marked with HDD 0 & HDD 1 on the caddys. I didn't install a HDD in the HDD 1 spot to ensure that Windows will install correctly on my SSD. You would want to unplug the mSATA drive as well to be safe. Then I did a clean install of Windows 7 from the Alienware Windows Disc that came with my system. Windows is not hard to install and putting in a new SSD its always easier than aligning your old HDD image to clone onto the new SSD. So, I clean installed. After Windows finished installing, I installed all my device driver software from my flash drive (including Intel Rapid Storage Technology...it is recommended for our systems since they have Intel SATA controllers). After I finished my drivers I let Windows Update do its thing. Then I installed all my programs and let them update if they needed to. THEN I installed my new HDD in the HDD 1 slot and copied all my files from my old HDD to my new HDD. There were a few other small things I did, but that is it in a nutshell.

The benefit of a clean install is everything runs fast from the get go, you have far less risk of data corruption than you would if you restored from backup. Obviously it takes much longer to do a clean install. But if you install your SSD and leave your HDD untouched you eliminate the risk of losing your files since your not doing anything to your HDD. After you get Windows up & running on your SSD and reinstall your HDD, you may want to delete the windows directory on your HDD so your system doesn't get confused on which drive to boot from.

Decide which route you want to go and let us know.