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June 13th, 2013 09:00
Upgrading hard disks for my Alienware M18XR2
Hi,
Apologies if this is a really dumb question - but does anyone know if I can upgrade my hard disks on my laptop? they're the one thing that drags it down and I'm wondering if I can replace them with SSD's? if so has anyone any tips on how I do it? how many I can fit in? where I can get them from? can I get Dell to do it?
Sorry for the dumb questions, I've seen various posts on this but nothing about my laptop and I don't know what slots are in the laptop or anything like that.
Thanks for your help in advance.
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sandeep_par
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1.5K Posts
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June 13th, 2013 10:00
Hi KITS1973,
Welcome to the community.
The Alienware M18x R2 supports SATA 2 and mSATA SSD SATA 2 and 3.The following hard-drive options are available:
The HDD0 and HDD1 connectors will support SATA 2 and SATA 3. The HDD2 connector will only support a SATA 2 drive.
You can also find the instructions for removing and replacing the harddrive from the manual at the link below:
If you have any further queries, please feel free to contact us.
Thanks and Regards
Sandeep P
#iworkfordell
Alienware-Alexa1
361 Posts
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June 13th, 2013 10:00
Hi Kits1973,
No question is a dumb question.
You can install up to three drives 2.5 form factor and a mSATA drive. If you purchase the drives from a third-party company the warranty will not cover the drives.
Checkout this Service & Disassemble article for extra guidance. Send me a private message if you need more information.
KITS1973
5 Posts
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June 14th, 2013 06:00
Hi All,
Thanks for this, very helpful indeed. And thanks for re-affirming my confidence in these forums! I'm so used to people being very snotty to others it's nice to know there's a place to get help.
So just to confirm, I can get 2 x SSD disks and 1 'normal' drive into my laptop. I've found a video on YouTube showing a guy doing something similar... he talks about Raid 0 etc.... i won't pretend to know/understand that.... but basically ALL i'm after is to speed my laptop up. I love it, it looks epic and everything is great apart from the sloooooow hard disks.... so will doing that (2ssd & 1hd) improve that?
89fordprobe
83 Posts
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June 14th, 2013 07:00
Well I upgraded mine to dual 512 gig samsung 840 ssd's and in raid 0 64kb block size and it flies after all tuning im down to 4 secon post time in windows 8... I k ow I got a terrabyte of ssd but I got the original terrabyte drive left there as a storage drive and backup drive..
When install8ng make sure you install ssd in sata 0 and 1 it will be marked on the cage and you will need to remove a spaer from that cage aswell for the middle drive to be used..sata 2 is just that aparently wre 0 and 1 R sata 3 speeds.
MKe sure when setting up raid enable sata operation in bios for raid and use only the 2 ssd.s and not the spinning drive
Alienware-Alexa1
361 Posts
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June 14th, 2013 14:00
Hi Kits1973,
Turn to page 22 of the Owner's Manual for you to get more information on how to install the drives and their position.
You can get 2 SATA III SSD's for performance and 1 SATA II HDD for storage purposes. Checkout this guide on how to create a RAID 0 for your SSD's.
If you need assistance to install Windows 7 follow this link and to get the drivers for your system, just check this article.