How do I add SSD as Boot drive on new ALX

I think this should cover it:

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/p/19567309/20584895.aspx#20584895

I'll add this to above link info:

- Remember you can always disconnect original spinning HDD and save it as the fail-safe backup.

- You can change SATA boot order in BIOS

- Some have reported that if you created Dell Recovery Media (like to USB-Flash or USB-HDD) it can be used to restore machine with dis-similar hardware (ie with SSD installed as boot drive).

- Not sure why Samsung migrate/cloning tool doesn't work (it should). I use bootable Acronis disc for bare-metal restores (outside of Windows). There are other free Tools, including Windows-7 Imaging Backup and these:

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/download.html

http://www.easeus.com/disk-copy/home-edition/

Seagate and Western-Digital also have free cloning tools if you have their drives installed.

All above said ... a clean/fresh install is really better ... and doesn't really take that long:

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19376654.aspx

 

Thanks for the response, Tesla.

My first problem is to change the SATA boot order in BIOS. 

When I enter the BIOS boot screen, the SSD does not appear under UEFI BOOT: heading - only the HDD.

Both HDD and SSD appear under LEGACY BOOT heading, but the computer will not let me boot from there.

How do I get the SSD to appear under UEFI? Does the SSD need to be formatted in a particular way?

It sounds like it can tell there is no OS on it, so it's not going to let you select it as bootable. I think that is by design.

After you clone to it or clean-install Windows to it (basically, get Windows properly installed on it), it should let you ... or it might do it itself if it's in bay 0.

Can I use my Recovery USB (via Respawn) to load the OS on to the SSD?

If so, how?

I have tried to use the Alienware recovery disks, but it doesn't give me an option to load to the SSD, only the HDD (which already has the OS on it).

OK - do I need to format the SSD before doing this?

If yes, which format should I use?

From memory, there are two options - one is Master Boot Record (sorry, at work and can't remember the other format type)

cheers

This worked a treat! Thanks a lot, Tesla1856

am up and running with a 1Tb SSD boot drive, and a 2Tb data/back-up drive.

Hi

I have exactly the same problem as Lancelot but with a DELL INSPIRON N5010.

I installed a 128GB SATA Drive in my optical drive bay and then cloned the existing hard drive onto the SSD using EaseUS. I am now trying to get the laptop to boot from the optical bay SSD but i cant seem to get the laptop to do so. I see the cloned partitions on the SSD as drives A(Recovery) and  Drive B(with OS).

How do I designate the SSD as the primary boot? Note that I have changed the boot priority in the BIOS to the folllowing

1 CD/DVD/CD-R DRIVE   2 eSATA    3 Hard Drive   4 USB STORAGE DEVICE 5 DISKETTE DRIVE  6 NETWORK

I see two possible reasons why this i am having this issue...

1) cloning process was not perfect - unlikely as i can see in compute disk management as Active Healthy partition.

2) BIOS does not recognize the HDD in the DVD Drive as a DVD Drive but as a hard disk and so ignores it. i.e. there is some way it distinguishes between a SATA HDD and a SATA DVD Drive and ignores the HDD for boot priority 1 Therefore it skips to the second option which is HDD and the assumes that the existing HDD is what provides the best boot option.

The BIOS version on the laptop is A15 (latest available) on the DELL website. However I cant seem to find an option in this BIOS to choose which HD to boot from. Other UEFI BIOSs do have it.

Alternately, is there a way to temporarily disable the HDD from the BIOS so it can be tricked into booting from the alternate HDD (which is hte SSD). How did LANCELOT DU LAC disable his drive? 

One alternative is to swap the 2 drives with the SSD in the main bay but that is a major challenge to do give the HDD is so deeply embedded into the laptop.

Any ideas will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Hi Gang, I just have a question. and I do not have a Alienware System but I do have a XPS that is on the way. but can not find this info in the XPS section My Question as these are almost the same. Do I remove the 32 bit SSD on board card ? Or just leave it there and install my new Samsung 500 GB Drive in a bay slot? I will be using the new drive for a backup... Not sure if I will migrate or to a full install with W7 Pro yet on the new SSD Drive. Thanks for any help. Jeff On the way : DELL XPS 8700 Samsung 500 GB Drive A Holder for the drive from 2.5 to 3.5 And the 27 LED Monitor :-) Win7 Pro OEM Disk. System has W7 Home on it now.