XPS 8900 Default SSD/HDD Configuration

What is the SATA operation in the UEFI BIOS?

Philip,

SATA operation is set to RAID On.

Robin

Re: I was anticipating that the default configuration of the drives would be that the SSD drive (or at least a 64GB partition on it) on it would be configured to accelerate the HDD through the Intel Rapid Storage Technology application. I understood that this was what was meant by Dell's advertising statement

I had the same expectation on the SSD/3TB configuration based on Dell's product writeup:

The cache dynamically recognizes and automatically stores your most frequently used applications and files from your hard drive on a compact and fast solid state drive. Get ultra-fast access to your favorite applications and files automatically with 32GB or 256GB capacities.

My unit came configured with the SSD as C: labeled as "OS" and the 2TB as D: labeled as "Data".  I can't really use that configuration as 256 is too small for the items I need on the OS device.  I don't want to be managaging the disk allocations -- that's what the " automatically stores your most frequently used application" feature was supposed to accomplish.

I'd like to see how it can be configured as described on the web site description, ...

The SATA operation should be AHCI so the two drives show up separately:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/updating-the-bios/#SATA

Thank you for the information. It confirms that this configuration does appear to be the standard.

I've used almost the same wording to Dell Technical support. They seem to acknowledge that the question is valid but  rather than answer it they try and convince me that the two separate drives are 'better'. The machine has actually been returned to Dell to set up but still came back as above.

I suspect that the 32GB SSD machines do work as stated (we have an XPS 8700 with a 32GB configured as noted) but the 256GB units would require the SSD partitioning to allow the partition (<64GB) to accelerate the HDD?  I don't know whether this is good practice though.

Would be nice to know how to do it and the pros/cons.

So if one is using a SSD as the C: Drive to boot, and a hard drive as a D drive, should one change the Sata config from Raid to AHCI?

I'm wondering if you ever got resolution on this and if so how.  I just got the xps 8900 with  SSD as the
C Drive and the 2TB as D drive and also not interested in managing the disc allocations but not getting much help. It's actually with the Geek Squad now but they are unsure what the best solution is either. 

Thank You, Tammy

I never got any reponse/support from Dell on this.  I think description of the SSD operation is out of date and misleading.

I had purchased Laplink PC mover from Dell with the machine expecting it to move over my applications.  I did not handle the C:, D: configuration at all and created bad registry entries.

In the end I had to reinstall all of my applications to get the C:/D: split to work correctly and in the long term I'm afraid it may become a maintenance problem.