New Dell XPS 8700 - adding an SSD and putting Windows 8 on it

Hi Billyboygolf,

I believe the best approach is a clean installation of the operating system onto the new SSD. You do not need to buy an operating system disc since you get a Windows 8 license with the desktop. However, you'll have to call Dell and request they send you the OS disc.

You'll want to keep the drive that's provided as your data drive, of course.

Osprey4,

Thanks for your input.

That sounds like the right approach. As long as I have a disc I should be able to do that.

 With a clean install and then reformatting the hard drive you could also avoid all the junk that's preloaded on it.

 I'll try to verify with Dell support that they can do that and post back the results.

Billyboygolf,

Were you able to successfully perform a clean WIN 8 install on the SSD after installing it in your XPS 8700?  I just received a new 8700 and am planning to install a Samsung EVO 250 GB SSD, and would like to use that SSD as the boot drive with WIN 8.  Dell Tech Support told me to order the WIN 8 recovery DVD from their website, which I did, and use that to install the OS on the SSD.  The SSD is arriving today, and I want to have everything ready for the installation.  I'm concerned that the recovery DVD that Dell sent me will not perform the correct "clean / fresh" WIN 8 OS installation on the SSD, although they assure me it will.

What was your experience?  Do you have any tips?

Thanks in advance!

~M

I'd  use the Win 8 built-in backup utility or something like Acronis to image the hard drive before you do this. That way if something goes amiss, you can quickly reimage the (wiped) hard drive back to a Win 8 boot drive.

The Dell OS disk only installs Windows, but not any of the drivers. Even if Dell sends you a Utilities DVD along with the OS media, those drivers are likely to be outdated. So downlad all the latest Win 8 drivers from Dell's support page for the XPS 8700 and burn them on a DVD or copy to USB stick so you'll be ready to install them once you install Win 8 on the SSD.

Thanks Ron!  Those are good ideas.  I will be sure to backup the hard drive before I make any changes, so I'll be able to restore the system to its original state if anything goes awry.  That's a great suggestion to download all the updated drivers in advance, so they're ready to load locally - I hadn't thought of doing that!

Thanks again!

~M

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