Installing OS on mSata drive

I'm about to try this tonight on my new Alienware 17 and a 480 Gig mSATA SSD. I'll report back if this all works for me. Thanks.

 

Yes this went great. I followed radji's advice through the thread and all the information I needed was there, and I'd like to thank pcscatman for starting the thread too. The only downside was (nothing to do with this thread) that I had bought the wrong 32 GIG's of RAM as part of my upgrade, the new Haswell processors need RAM running at 1.35 volts and I had bought RAM running at 1.5 volts. I bought the new RAM tonight (16GB G.Skill DDR3 1600MHz SO-DIMM laptop memory dual channel kit (2x 8GB) CL11 - 1.35V * 2) and now I have to sell the other RAM. This tech stuff never stops changing lol. Thanks again for this very helpful thread.

 

Haswell supports 1.5V RAM

 

Tell that to the beeps the Alienware 17 with the i74800MQ was making when i installed Vengeance Corsair soDimm RAM at 1.5volts. Then I researched it further and a Dell thread said it needs 1.35 volt low-power RAM. I'll tell you what, when the new RAM I ordered arrives and I install it, I'll pop back here with an update on how it went (crosses fingers). It might help someone.

 

But the BIOS, M/B has to too.

 

I guess that's another reason for me to buy Clevo, either 1.35V or 1.5V work.

 

Yep everything went swimmingly with the new RAM at 1.35 volts installed. Then I updated to Windows 8.1 from Windows 8 and all of a sudden my discrete graphics was "not detected" anymore. Windows was running off Intel integrated graphics Whhaaaaaaaaatttt!!!!. My lovely new GTX770M where are you!. After about 2 hours of newb sweating and web surfing I said ok I'll re-flash the BIOS with the latest update (which I already have installed), A08. Job done, all good been sailing ever since. Good thread.

 

Yeah but the Alienware 17 is sooo sexy

 

Clevo has a bling version too. I'll stick with laid back black and the monster under the hood.

 

I just got a 512 and 1 tb msata drive and tryed to install in a Acer Aspire 7735 , First i found my sata adapter had no 3.3v power so I borrowed a 3.3v regulator from one of my ide to msata adapters , I guess my acer is designed for mechanical drives only since it has no 3.3v on bus , then I cloned boot partition from my old ssd drive and all I get when booting with the msata internat is ntldr is missing , the msata show up in windows install and boot order (old legacy bios) updated to version 2.12 , If I put the msata in an external usb device it starts botting windows but ofcoz crash win stop 07b inaccessible boot device since there is no driver for that installed. is there a way to make the msata boot internally ? I seem to be able to use it in an older hp compaq nc6120 pc with original hdd caddy and ide to msata adapter card. then it boots windows xp. Might it work with a different kind of adapter to install the msata ? Also I find it odd that the plug used is the same as for wifi cards, I tryed installing it as a wifi card but it hangs the pc. I see my acer aspire one has internal wifi plug but also a similar plug on the back of the mainboard, can this plug support a msata drive if I solder a plug on ? I apreciate very much any hints.