How to install a Samsung 950 Pro in Alienware 17 R3 successfully.

Just installed mine into my 15 R2 and worked fine by doing a clean windows install, no workarounds or anything required. (due to the fact my hard disk doesn't work it didn't pose any problem for losing data (support call open to get that replaced)

Just happy my new machine works now thanks to the SSD!

Glad to see this drive is working with the new laptops.

thanks Ant. Back to my original question, how long to load windows 10 or gta 5? :)

Hi,

Is there a way to restore my restore partition? I replaced my HDD but now I don't have the restore partition.

Reinstalling Windows10 works fine, (all most just 1 unknown device) but I would like the restore area so Respawn can work again.

Willem Jan

Windows 10 login screen appears about 5 seconds from hitting the power button. Haven't got GTA5 so can't answer that one for you.

I did a quick comparison to my other PC  which has a SATA M.2 in it and it is noticeably quicker to boot windows and load apps, although normal SSD's aren't any slouches either. 

Not sure if its really worth all the hype / money but its cool none the less and given all the stuff I'd read about how much hassle these NVME PCIE SSD's were to get to work, I was expecting the worst.

Just installed mine into my 15 R2 and worked fine by doing a clean windows install, no workarounds or anything required. (due to the fact my hard disk doesn't work it didn't pose any problem for losing data (support call open to get that replaced)   Just happy my new machine works now thanks to the SSD!

The problem is they key.  Some people don't have an extra key to use.  Does it know the key automatically?

I didn't want to find all the necessary drivers plus the recovery partitions are all gone if you clean install so you have to reinstall what is missing.  Dell came with all the drivers needed but the Intel updated one.  All I had to do was run through device manager on everything to update as well as install NVMe and Nvidia but that's all.

You need to install everything like TPM, and many other secret software that probably isn't just found by device manager.  I didn't want to go through all that as some doesn't even show on Dells website.  I had bad experience with previous notebooks doing it the clean install method.

Doing it my method is the best way to keep everything.  It's like 100% factory and I can use all the software Dell offers for it.  When you clean install it would say stuff is missing.

thanks Ant. Back to my original question, how long to load windows 10 or gta 5? :)

Did you mean the Windows CD key? I was worried about that at first, but then remembered that Win 8.1 and above Its baked into the motherboard, so doesn't even ask for it.

As I said in my post, my mechanical HDD is doa, and not getting replaced until tomorrow, so no real option other than to fresh install off a standard win 10 install media created from the MS media creation tool.

If you follow the alienware guide on installation (IE install all the DELL drivers except Nvidia) and also install alienrespawn (now branded DELL backup & recovery) it does all the recovery partition stuff for you. (note default Win 10 home install did also create its own 450mb recovery partition). Nothing missing at all.

I've reinstalled about 3 times so far in the course of troubleshooting the hard disk (interesting problem where it works perfectly sometimes and not others) and putting the SSD in and windows is all good and activated. Actually quite painless.

I guess it all depends on if you've already got things on there you don't want to lose, or are happy to fresh install. 

I also found that operation was quite slow before installing the samsung NVME driver and using the OP setting in magician. This made a big difference in performance once I rebooted.

Either way, to the point of my original post, verified this works in the 15.R2 in the scenario I have which is a clean install. Don't have any desire to enter into a philisophical debate on the topic, what I did worked best for me and won't for someone else.

The best way to see what I mean is to hold the fn key then press the power button when the system is off.  There's a compete diagnostics test.  You can only do it if you have the original partitions.  You can use all the other alienware/dell features (outside windows).  If you clean install you can't do it anymore forever.

My method is straight forward and it would clone everything and make it look like it was from the factory while retaining all the settings/apps/files from the HDD.

The best way to understand to do it my way is when you hold fn key and press power button.  It goes through diagnostics.  If you clean install you lose that and probably other alienware things.

My method is straight forward and it allows you to completely migrate the drive as if it was installed from the factory.

I had to uninstall the dell stuff, like support assist and customer assist, because it made the pc seem to have problems but now no more problems.

Yep, familiar with the ePSA tool as had to run it a bunch of times for the support call I made for my hard disk.

Its on its own ROM in the UEFI BIOS and as such not impacted by a fresh install. (As per my OP my hard disk is dead and before I put the 950 in it couldn't even boot)

Take your hard drives out, boot and hit F12, run diagnostics and check it out.

If you're talking about the AW / DELL branded recovery option you get if you boot windows to recovery mode, installing respawn gives that back.

so you are saying I can use alien respawn w/ a brand new hard drive and no dell partitions and it would install windows?

Only if you've previously created an image on external media and have a hard disk the same size or bigger than the original. (Note I Didn't try this recovery as I just built the machine off a standard windows media)

What I was saying is that if you take a brand new 950 SSD out of the box, put it in your skylake based Alienware laptop with no other drives and just install Windows, it has no effect on the use of the ePSA tools etc. Once the drivers and DELL software is installed, its no different to the factory.

The windows install will create its own recovery partition and once you've installed alien respawn, it will bring back that option in the recovery menu should you need it later.

Essentially, what I'm saying is that you won't lose anything if you do the fresh install and install the right DELL software. The only thing you really need to look for is the SoundBlaster control panel as its a windows 8.1 driver, but again there's lots of stuff out there written about that.

but the problem is the Windows 10 activation