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    Clean install on new NVME SSD

    Discussion in 'Alienware' started by turbocat, May 9, 2017.

  1. turbocat

    turbocat Notebook Consultant

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    Hi Guys, relative newcomer on NVME, I have recently purchased a Samsung 960 SSD to replace the stock Toshiba which was running hot in my AW 17 r4.

    I have some experience with fresh installs on SATA Drives but wondering whether this is as straightforward and achievable using the Windows Media Creation tool or whether I need to use Rufus inorder to let the UEFI Bios see the NVME Drive to install windows to.

    I know I need to remove the 1tb mechanical HDD to make sure Windows installs to the one SSD.

    Are there any other things I need to be aware off to ensure a smooth process.

    Thanks

    Turbo
     
    turbocat, May 9, 2017
    #1
  2. MogRules

    MogRules Notebook Deity

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    Just grab the latest intel raid drivers and throw them on an external drive or flash drive and point the install to that when your installing windows and it should pick up the NVMe drive in Raid.
     
    MogRules, May 11, 2017
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    Aroc likes this.
  3. Aroc

    Aroc Notebook Consultant

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    The Windows 7 Media creation tool only (AFAIK) makes legacy (BIOS) bootable USB Flash Drives. I use Rufus to make UEFI boot USB flash drives for Windows 7, 8.1, or 10.

    Windows 7, IME, needs modified boot.wim and install.wim to install to NVMe. Windows 10 out of the box can see NVMe drives and install to them. So Win10 is pretty easy to install to NVMe.

    I do all of my Windows 8.1 and 10 installs as UEFI (For consistency, so I don't have to remember which are UEFI and which aren't). By default the system will try to boot a UEFI install disk, first, before giving up and trying Legacy/BIOS mode. Or you can use boot menu to choose.

    Also once installed as UEFI, the SSD will show up in the boot order list as "UEFI: Samsung 960..." or something like that in the BIOS or on the F12 boot menu.
     
    Aroc, May 11, 2017
    #3