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    Replacing HardDrive with SSD on XPS 15 L1502X?

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by YTC, Jul 8, 2011.

  1. YTC

    YTC Newbie

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    I had the xps 15 L1502x laptop for 4 months now. It works great but the boot time is rather slow. I'm thinking of replacing the harddrive with a solid state drive, but when I open the back cover of the laptop, I could'nt find where is the harddrive. I think it is hidden deep inside somewhere. I could easily seee the ram units but not the drive. Do you guys recommend to take everthing apart to locate the drive and slot in a ssd?

    Any guys out here have replaced their hard drive with a SSD care to give your comments?
     
    YTC, Jul 8, 2011
    #1
  2. grimreefer1967

    grimreefer1967 Notebook Evangelist

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    grimreefer1967, Jul 8, 2011
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  3. Rick 64D

    Rick 64D Notebook Consultant

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    YTC, look for other posts here about swapping the HDD for an SSD. I know I've posted several times about my experience with the OCZ Vertex 3 swap-out (all good).

    The hardest part is getting the palm rest off. It's very stressful, as you think you are about to break it, but work slowly and you'll get it off. If you look under the battery, push up on those two little clips to raise the palm rest to get started.

    I also recommend against cloning your HDD image onto an SSD. SSDs are particular about the "alignment", so do a fresh install of Win7 and it will properly align the SSD as part of the installation process

    Don't do anything, like formating, to the SSD. Just install Win7, then the drivers, then run the Windows Experience Index, which Windows uses to detect ...stuff..., and it will enable TRIM for you. Then make sure Defrag is off.

    Check the forums on the SSD manufacture's website for additional tips, and check this website for a lot of info on the SSD saga.

    Good Luck!
     
    Rick 64D, Jul 8, 2011
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  4. YTC

    YTC Newbie

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    Rick 64D and grimreefer1967,

    Thanks for your reply. Yes, indeed it is difficult to get the palm rest off and on. I'm struggling with it. Hopefully I could get it done soon. Thanks
     
    YTC, Jul 8, 2011
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  5. weapon

    weapon Notebook Guru

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    These machines are super quick with an SSD. For extra storage, I recommend putting your HDD in a caddy to replace the optical. You can then use an esata cable for when you need to use the optical drive.

    Also remember to disable drive indexing.
    Have fun!
     
    weapon, Jul 8, 2011
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  6. lotust

    lotust Notebook Geek

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    just go easy removing the palm rest. If I can do it without breaking a clip anyone can. Just go easy with a butter knife or a plastic tool, go very easy or you will scratch it.
     
    lotust, Jul 8, 2011
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  7. M1000000

    M1000000 Notebook Enthusiast

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    On the other hand I broke two credit cards getting mine off so don't be too timid either.

    It is really simple though - I'm no expert and having done it once could do it with my eyes closed.

    I swapped my hdd for a crucial M4 256Gb and haven't looked back. It's certainly the most substantial performance increase I've seen in years. You get used to it pretty quickly though - I just can't imaging a full reset/boot cycle taking more than a minute any more. It would drive me nuts.

    I may swap the optical drive out for a caddy and hdd at some point but right now a usb3 attached 2tb external is doing a great job and with a bit of housekeeping I have room for all the apps/data I need on the M4.

    Having had some good advice here I did leave 50GB of the drive un-partitioned for performance / longevity (not applicable to all drives though). You'll find more of this in the hardware/ssd forum here.
     
    M1000000, Jul 8, 2011
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  8. CASteinman

    CASteinman Notebook Consultant

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    Good grief. I've never seen a computer so hard to upgrade before. This is extremely bad design!
     
    CASteinman, Aug 4, 2011
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