How to install a Samsung 950 Pro m.2 into an Alienware 17 R3 successfully.

This worked perfectly!  I used Paragon Disk Manager to clone the partitions to the Samsung 950 Pro. It would be nice if the BIOS let you select the boot drive without disconnecting the HDD (in my case a Samsung 850 Pro).  No reboots were necessary...it booted from the 950 Pro first time. Thanks ANTDX316

That speed is impressive.  I have two 850 EVO's in RAID 0 and Your M.2 is way faster.

Thanks for the post.

That speed is impressive.  I have two 850 EVO's in RAID 0 and Your M.2 is way faster.   Thanks for the post.

feels faster than my intel 400gb nvme on 5930k being on this alien 17 r3 950 pro 256gb

I go in and out of real-time Dota 2 games and alt tab like a beast with browsers up no problem.  The HDD lag is horrendous in comparison.  I thought SSD would work on netbook way back but nope.  The SSD is so quick the CPU cannot keep up and it's slow.

It should be illegal to sell a 2015 gaming laptop with HDD as C:.

raid/achi doesn't work with NVME I think

it doesn't even get detected with intel RST

I just know things run ultra smooth and alt tabbing and multi tasking is no issue

A quick FYI:

Anyone running the 950 Pro on anything but a device with a PCIe 3 M.2 interface is wasting their money.  SATA 3 maxes out at 600MB/s, which means you'll theoretically only gain ~60MB/s with the 950 Pro over that of the 850 Evo/Pro series.

•  You're registering speeds above that only due to RAPID mode, which utilizes the 1.5GB/s+ speeds of RAM to speed up transfers

It's a great write up, however you're making things far more difficult than they need to be with cloning a drive...

Many end users like the simplicity of using a third party program to "clone" a drive, however, as the writer touches on, this has some inconveniencing caveats.  There's not only an easier and far less complex way of accomplishing this natively with Windows via WIMs, it will also leave you with a complete backup of your partitions (something everyone should have).

Requirements  

• External Drive or secondary internal disk with free space equal to the largest partition you want to clone
  • I'll be using the drive letter  Z:\  to represent the External Drive

• If you have:
  • Older [legacy] BIOS ( i.e. not UEFI ) firmware
    • You can proceed to the Steps below without issue 

• • • If you're not familiar with DiskPart [command line], it's recommended you partition your new drive via the Windows GUI, prior to proceeding to the steps below.
      • Each created partition must be at least 11% larger than the original partition
        • It's obviously recommended you create a partition more than 11% larger, however 11% is the absolute minimum.

• • UEFI firmware
    
    1. Install new drive internally
    2. Boot into Windows Setup (using a DVD or USB drive)
       • This step prevents issues from occurring with the EFI GPT layout of the first three partitions.  We're not going to actually install Windows, we simply need setup to create the required partitions
    3. At first screen prompt, press Shift + F10 to open a command prompt, and type:
       
       1. diskpart
       2. lis dis
          • Find the new disk and remember it's disk #
       3. sel dis 0
          • Where 0 is the disk # for the new disk
          • The following commands assume the new disk is empty, as this will destroy all partitions on the new disk
       4. clean
       5. convert gpt
       6. exit
    4. Proceed through Setup until you reach the partition layout GUI.
       1. Select the new disk as the install disk
       2. Verify you have 3 partitions preceding the System partition (do not touch any of the partitions preceding the install partition)
          1. Resize the System partition to whatever size you wish 
          2. Create any additional partitions you want after the System partition
             • Each created partition must be at least 11% larger than the original cloned partition
               
               • It's obviously recommended you create a partition more than 11% larger, however 11% is the absolute minimum
             • If it allows you to specify where you want each subsequent partition to begin, increase the start MB by 1 for each one
       3. Click next for the install to begin, however, once the installer moves onto copying setup files (step 2 or 3), hit cancel.  
          • This will cancel the install, but leave the partitioning structure in place.
       4. Reboot and proceed to the steps below.

Steps

1. Boot into WinRE (Recovery) or WinPE (Pre-Installation Environment)
   1. Non-UEFI Firmware ONLY Using DiskPart, create and format the new drive with whatever size partitions you want.
   • • Each created partition must be at least 11% larger than the original partition
       • It's obviously recommended you create a partition more than 11% larger, however 11% is the absolute minimum.
2. In the command prompt, type:
   • Notepad
     
     • (while diskpart would accomplish the same, it may cause confusion for users with UEFI firmware)

3. Press CNTRL + O and navigate to This PC
   
   • Take note of which drive letters are assigned to the partitions you want to clone (drive letters often change in WinRE/WinPE)
4. For each partition you want to clone, type the following (replacing the CaptureDir drive letter with the applicable drive letter of the partition you want to clone ):
   • DISM /Capture-Image /ImageFile:Z:\SystemPartition.wim /CaptureDir:C:\ /Name:"Windows 10 Pro" /Compress:Max /NoRpFix /CheckIntegrity /Verify
     • Compress: Max can be changed to Fast or None, however, it's recommended to leave it on Max, as these WIMs will also serve as backups once you've cloned the partitions.
       
     • You will need to perform this for every partition you want to clone
       
       • If you don't have a drive with enough capacity for more than 1 wim backup at a time, proceed to Step 6 and redo Steps 5 and 6 for each partition needing to be cloned.
5. Apply the WIM backup to the new disk:
   • DISM /Apply-Image /ImageFile:Z:\SystemPartition.wim /Index:1 /ApplyDir:N:\ /verify
     • Where N: is the drive letter of the partition on the new drive you're applying the WIM to
6. Once you've performed #5 and #6 for the System partition, and the new disk has been installed internally in HDD slot 0, you will need to perform the following commands for Windows to boot:
   1. Bootrec /FixMBR
   2. Bootrec /FixBoot
   3. Bootrec /RebuildBCD
7. Reboot the PC
8. For all other non-system partitions, the capture and apply commands can be performed from within Windows (within an Admin Command Prompt or Admin PowerShell Terminal)
   
   • The System partition can not be captured while system files are in use and is why you must be in WinRE/WinPE to do so.  
   • However, because the time it takes to capture a WIM image varies on the used capacity of the partition being imaged, it's recommended to do capture and apply commands on non-System partitions while booted from Windows, allowing you to still utilize the PC while the apply and capture commands are completing.

Yes, RAPID mode would have had to have been enabled

No, a SATA to M.2 adapter will not make a difference since it's not the adapter, but the SATA 3 interface that limits the speed to a maximum 600MB/s

To JW0914, wayyyyy too much info tl;dr applies here

To JW0914, wayyyyy too much info tl;dr applies here

So providing a detailed response on a far easier way to clone a drive is too much information?  Or was it the fact I demonstrated why installing a 950 Pro in anything other than a device with a PCIe 3 M.2 interface was a massive waste of money?  **scratches head**

I'd assume in this specific situation, more information would be better than misinformation.  Perhaps you should take the time to read my post since you've repeatedly demonstrated you're not that knowledgeable about the issues I touched on.

• Instead of not reading something because it constructively criticizes your misinformed opinions, perhaps you should look at it as a learning opportunity.  Not only does your hubris shine brighter than the sun, it's simply ignorant to not read a post when the writer is politely showing you where your position went wrong on one issue, and offering help on the other.

Considering many with UEFI firmware have issues ensuring the 3 smaller partitions are configured correctly, it's simply easier for users not familiar with GPT partitioning for EFI on Windows to allow Windows Setup to setup and configure them.  Initially, I didn't have the UEFI part in there, however it's one of the most common issues users changing out drives have... If you're not going to do something right, don't do it all. 

To provide a real world example of why the 950 Pro is a wasted investment unless you have a PCIe 3 M.2 interface, compare my screenshot below of my 850 Evo mSATA to the results of the 950 Pro hooked to a SATA interface.

So 850 series, and the like, basically max out the SATA port (@~600MB/S in a real world scenario).  

Thanks!  Rob.

So 850 series, and the like, basically max out the SATA port (@~600MB/S in a real world scenario).     Thanks!  Rob.

No... not exactly.   The 850 Series maxes out at 550/520 for Pro and 540/520 for Evo [R/W].

Samsung utilizes RAPID mode to essentially create a virtual RAM drive on the backend, and since RAM transfers at speeds in excess of 1.5GB/s, you experience a phenomenal increase in file transfer speed.  However, RAPID mode is only able to do this for one SSD, regardless of how many are installed.  

Anyone wishing to can use a small program called ImDisk to create a virtual RAM drive, however anything you store on it takes away from available system RAM.  While it comes in extremely handy when needing to make large file transfers or for transferring many small files, it carries some risk since RAM erases as soon as power is lost.  So if a desktop loses power or you reboot, all information left on the virtual RAM drive will be wiped.  Provided the end user keeps this in mind, almost anyone can find a use for using it.

I had supercache 5 for that kind of stuff.  I was getting 6.6GB sustain on DDR3 1600.  Now they have supercahce 6 and I have DDR4 2133.  I need to wait for them to give me my license again.

I agree with @AntDX316. Your heart  may be in the right place @JW0914, but your directions are unnecessarily complicated when simply cloning from 1 disk to another accomplishes the same task without subjecting the user to potential showstopping errors.  The command line and disk portioning  aren't something novices should be toying with.