XPS13 9350 - SSD UPGRADE process

Hi all,

So I've purchased and have been enjoying use of my i5/8gb/FHD XPS 13 the last couple of weeks.

I ordered a Samsung 850 EVO m.2 as a harddrive upgrade.

I want to switch this out over the next couple of days and I've read some conflicting information on how best to do so.

This is my understanding of the order I should do things - please correct if I am wrong.

1. Create a Windows 10 bootable recovery USB
   My computer came with a Dell badged USB stick - Can I just use this?
2. Switch out my harddrives and boot from the USB
   Here is where I get confused. The evo 850 is a sata drive, so I'm not sure if I need to change anything in the BIOS?
   
3. Install windows onto the new drive.
4. Download and install Dell drivers.
   Is there a particular order I should do these in?
5. That should be it, I should be good to go?

Any help, comments or corrections would be most appreciated

Thanks very much in advance.

Andrew

 

Can anyone give me some thoughts on this before I begin?

Thank you.

Andrew

 

Is this a clean Install?

 

I'm not cloning onto the new drive - so I suppose it is

If I use the Dell badged USB stick, I'm not sure if it will include drivers or not.

Thank you.

Andrew

 

I can only tell what I did. I upgraded my SSD to a Samsung 950 Pro, but I suppose it is the same procedure.

- I went to microsoft and used "Media Creation Tool" for Windows 10 to create a Pen Drive to installation drive (saving as ISO file and the creating the pen drive did not work for me so I suggest to create a Pen Drive through the Media Creatin tool).
- I did not have to change any BIOS setting (in case this does not work, (1) you can change from "RAID" to "AHCI" in BIOS - whcih I had to do as suggested by me Dell support representative - or (2) you can disable Safe Boot, and enable Legacy Boot options, but I guess you will have to keep these setting after install, thus I suggest trying not changing anything besides option (1)).
- f12 for boot options
- regular clean install
- download Dell Driver if you had not done before (I suggest you do this with your current installtion, before swapping SSDs as you at least will need the Wifi driver beforehand)
- if your XPS i QHD I strongly to not use Dell's video Driver. Let windows install it and then update it via Device Manager.

That's what I did, and it worked. So here goes the traditional disclaimer fort you to do at your own risk... You can see my other previous posts concerning a few issues I had that so far I suppose I solved. They in the last few pages of the Official thread.

 

Ah, you have to use the exact same version of Windows you had on the other SSD, including language and 32bit or 64 bit so Windows recognize your previous activation of Windows 10.

 

@mrbernstein.

Thank you very much. This helps clarify things for me.
I'll download drivers first and give this all a go.

 

I am also planning to upgrade my SSD to 950 Pro or SM951 in near future. Can you please share your experience with new SSD? Is there any considerable change of speed on daily tasks? Any other difference or problem? Battery life affected or not?

 

The SM951 is the OEM version of the 950 Pro, there aren't many differences between the two (except v-nand which I believe the SM951a has). I've owned several of both and there are no real differences, I say get what is cheaper.

 

I picked up my SM951 512GB for $217 in eBay it was sold as " new other" with 99 hours use. I checked it with Crystal Disk info which showed 100 hours run time. I'm happy!

 

SOG?

 

I am planning on getting a Dell XPS 13 in China. I am trying to install windows again from scratch straight from Microsoft. Has anyone done this? There seems to be a problem or issue with installing English language packs on Chinese laptops so I am thinking it will just be easier to install an English version of windows fresh to avoid hassles with trying to install an English language pack. Does anyone have any experience with doing this on Chinese devices? Is the bios Chinese and will it change to English afterwards?