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m15 R6, transferring my SSD to a different slot
Hi there,
I'm planning to add another SSD to my m15 R6 (Samsung 980 Pro PCie 4.0 NVMe).
I read some posts about compatibility here in the forums but just want to be sure;
Slot 1 can support Gen 4 SSD while Slot 2 can only support Gen 3 (correct me if I'm wrong)
Currently, my Slot 1 has a Samsung Gen 3 PCIe NVMe SSD and Slot 2 is empty. I'm planning to move the SSD from Slot 1 to Slot 2 and install the new Gen 4 to Slot 1 so I can optimize the Gen 4 speed.
My question is, after transferring my old ssd to slot 2 and installing the new ssd to slot 1, do I need to reinstall everything or is it just plug and play?
GMPurEvil
6 Posts
1
December 2nd, 2022 20:00
Hi @John harper , hmm, I think both slots will support m.2 PCIe NVMe SSDs according to dell but one can only support Gen3 and that is slot 2. Slot one can support Gen4 PCIe NVMe SSD.
@crimsom guess this answers everything.
Got the answers from dell’s site and Chris.M
ejn63
10 Elder
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23.1K Posts
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December 1st, 2022 10:00
Assuming your boot drive is in slot 1 now, moving the drives is not going to gain you anything. If you're adding the faster drive, shift the OS over to it (by cloning or reinstalling) to it, and demote the slower drive to the other slot.
crimsom
6 Professor
6 Professor
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6.1K Posts
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December 1st, 2022 13:00
Hi @GMPurEvil welcome to this free user-to-user Alienware laptop discussion forum.
Disappointingly Dell support for Alienware m15 R6 Storage provides no clarification about which M.2 SSD slot will accept Gen3 and/or Gen4 NVMe cards. Please click on @DELL-Cares and send Private Message requesting clarification.
Installing a large capacity ultrafast M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD OS (C:) boot drive in the SSD1 Gen4 slot is recommended to get the maximum speed.
Crucial System Advisor database says Alienware m15 R6 Storage will accept 4TB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD card. Alienware m15 R6 | Memory RAM & SSD Upgrades | Crucial.com.
Clone (copy) the original PCIe Gen3 NVMe SSD OS (C:) boot drive content to the new PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD OS (C:) boot drive so that there is no requirement to install licenced applications.
John harper
346 Posts
0
December 1st, 2022 22:00
Yes you can. But simply moving it may not work. Some secondary slot doesn't have NVME support and only support SATA drive. Also moving it to secondary slots may disable some regular SATA ports
Regards,
John
crimsom
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6.1K Posts
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December 2nd, 2022 02:00
Hi @John harper where are the M.2 SATA slots and/or regular SATA ports on the Alienware m15 R6?
Hibilton
1 Message
0
February 27th, 2023 19:00
I am in the process of doing exactly this. I'm having a lot of issues with the gen 4 980 pro in slot 1. I cloned the original sad before I swapped them. But windows does not load on the 980 pro in slot 1. It is not even recognised. I have tried updating firmware, drivers etc.
It does work fine in slot 2 (gen 3 slot) but at least than half the read / write speed it should be getting if it were in the gen 4 slot 1.
If you managed to get it working please let me know what you did
GMPurEvil
6 Posts
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February 28th, 2023 08:00
Make sure you have both drives installed, Gen 4 in slot 1. To let your computer read the new SSD, watch this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu5IbAlw1Nk&ab_channel=TroubleChute
Next step is to change your boot set up and primary drive. It will be in your BIOS (restart and f2). Tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu5IbAlw1Nk&ab_channel=TroubleChute
Once you finish setting up the drives, I used my gen 3 as separate storage giving my laptop 3TB total memory. I deleted the boot on that drive. To do that, here's the tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcLU2dz8xJM&ab_channel=GMODISM
Happy gaming ^_^
crimsom
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6.1K Posts
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February 28th, 2023 09:00
HI @Hibilton the Alienware m15 R6 laptop review: More efficient, but the RTX 3080 is slower than in the predecessor - NotebookCheck.net Reviews says install 2 x Samsung PM9A1 PCIe Gen4.0 x4 NVMe 1TB SSD will provide 2TB storage. It is curious that BIOS fails to acknowledge that both slots are occupied. BIOS is looking for OS (C:) on only one SSD. At Alienware logo splash screen press and hold down F12 key to enter boot menu, check that list has OS (C:) SSD boot drive is listed as first. Make sure that second SSD is installed as a Data drive.
The Crucial System Advisor database says Alienware m15 R6 Storage will accept 4TB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD cards. At 2TB capacity and above the drive shall have GUID Partition Table (GPT) format (not MBR) so that BIOS boot list option UEFI is enabled. How to convert MBR to GPT drive to switch BIOS to UEFI on Windows | Windows Central.