XPS 15 9530 (Haswell) Disassembly Guide

Here are some notes for those who wish to replace their mSATA drive on their Dell XPS 15 9530. These notes are from seancho in the Dell XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge:

- 32gb msata is raided to the 1tb hdd. You have to de-raid them in bios before you begin, or bad things happen when you try to upgrade. : ) Make sure sata mode is set to ahci before you start.
- Tear-down guide is in the owners manual on the dell site. Swapping msata is pretty simple if you've done similar stuff. Bottom pops off after removing several T5 torx screws and releasing tabs around the carbon fiber bottom with a plastic pry tool, or guitar pick.
- You don't have to remove the battery. Just carefully disconnect the power connector. Then remove the ribbon cable over the msata.
- Dell oem windows 8.1 key isn't written anywhere on the machine. You have to use a program or script to find it.
- Dell oem key will not work with the windows 8.1 download tool. Torrents are your friend.
- Installed W8.1 edition is core, not pro. Choose your iso accordingly.
- use windows 7 iso to usb tool to make usb install media
- Dell oem key will not work for W8.1 clean install. You have to find another key to install with, then switch to your oem key after install, but before activation. Make sure it is a core edition key.
- Boot priority is F12 on startup
- W8.1 installer text is hilariously small in 1800p. Get a magnifying glass if your eyesight isn't good.
- All the latest drivers and bios update are on the dell site.

You can find the Disassembly Guide by downloading the Owner's Manual. It starts on page 10.

 

Thanks for pointing that out. A clean installation is the first thing I am going to do when I get my XPS. Or maybe I will simply go for Windows 7 :S

 

You can find the serial number on your computer by running Keyfinder ( KeyFinder | Magical Jelly Bean)

I wouldn't recommend Windows 7 at all for the following reasons:
1) Windows 8 is so much faster at booting than Windows 7, hands down. With an SSD you can boot into the desktop within 6 seconds.
2) You're paying for the touchscreen so might as well use an OS that takes advantage of it. I don't believe you can use Windows 7 with the touchscreen on the XPS.
3) If you can't stand the Windows 8 start screen just install Start8 to bring back the old start menu. You can also boot directly into the desktop in Windows 8.1, unlike Windows 8. You can avoid the whole metro UI if you want.
4) Windows 8 supports NFC, which the laptop comes with. Windows 7 doesn't.
5) Device encryption is supported by on all versions of Windows 8 and is enabled by default. This is not true for Windows 7.
6) Better support for Touchpads on Windows 8.1 than Windows 7. Some touchpads on Windows 7 were notoriously bad.

 

I am not sure if I need anything of that. I never really shutdown (only sleep mode). I don't really think I will need the touchscreen or NFC,.... also device encryption is a little weird in windows 8.

 

I forgot to mention the important reason: Windows 8.1 supports hiGh DPI. If you install Windows 7, you'll be stuck with tiny icons you can barely see unless you lower the resolution to 1080p. I think 1080p is the highest resolution a normal person can bear on windows 7.

 

I also dont think I will go for more than 1080p since scaling doesnt seem to work that well

 

Hoping that I can get some help here. I've disabled RAID and I've used Paragon Hard Disk Manager to migrate the OS from the HDD to the mSata. When I go into the BIOS to change the boot order, Under the boot options there is no drives to select from. Can anyone help me out here?