Adding 2nd drive to 17R model 5720

Hi, just noticed the title that this thread started as a 5720 question. Sorry, my question about caddy and bracket was about 17R 7720 SE, which I believe has a caddy and SATA connection for the second HDD (the Dell technicians may be able to clarify this so that people may not be misguided).

Hi,

The Inspiron 17R comes in two models 5720 and the 7720. The 7720 comes with 2 hard drive slots and 1 mSATA slot while the Inspiron 5720 comes with 1 hard drive slot and 1 mSATA slot. It also has a dummy hard drive slot but without any connectors. 

If you are looking to use the computer with 2 hard drives, 7720 is the right option. In 5720 you wont be able to add a second hard drive on the dummy slot; you will need use a caddy in place of the optical drive.

Please reply for any further questions.

Hello,

On the 17r SE, can I put an SSD in the 2nd hard drive slot and use that as the cache drive for smart response technology intead of using the mSATA drive?

Also it was stated that the mSATA was not tested above 32gigabytes. Does this mean that it will never use more than 32 gigabytes when being used for SRT? Like if I get a 64gigabyte mSATA drive and use that for the cache drive, will it use the whole 64gigabyte or will half of it be wasted?

Hi,

Inspiron 17R SE does support mSATA drive for caching. However, it requires a separate mSATA drive. A SATA SSD in the secondary hard drive bay would not be used for caching.



To setup the Intel Smart Response Technology, please refer to the link below:

http://dell.to/T4WsLk

Dell has tested the systems with up to 32 GB SSD which is sufficient for supporting the Intel Smart Response Technology. However, the 64 GB drive might also work.

Let me know if you need more information or assistance. I will be glad to help.

Hey Abhishek

I have inspiron 15r se with 1TB HDD.

I would like to add a mSATA card to my system to be able to use intel technologies.

Is it possible now?

I am skeptic because I have read online that systems which were not shipped with 32 GB mSATA card, doesnt have mSATA port for later installation.

Please clear this doubt and if possible post the pictures of the system and the daughter board where mSATA card can be installed.

Thanks in advance

Hi Anshul,

You can add a mSATA card to your system to use the Intel Smart Response technology. However, you may need some technical assistance in installing the new mSATA card as it is a field replacable unit and in seated in a daughterboard placed in the LCD assembly, which you can access only after removing the motherboard.

You can check the daughterboard removal procedure from the manual mentioned in the link below

http://dell.to/T6dKoh

The mSATA card is placed in the daughter board. (check the picture below)

Once it is installed, you can configure the Intel Smart Response Technology on this system. Please refer to the following link if you need any help in configuring the intel technology.

http://dell.to/T4WsLk

Please reply for any further questions.

Hi Anshul,

Thank you for the reply.

The 15R SE/7250 generally have a mSATA connector on the daughter board which is present on the top right hand side of the LCD assembly. However, some of the systems does not have the daughterboard for the mSATA drive.

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Please reply for any further questions.

Dear Abhishek !

I have a Dell 5720 Laptop with the factory HDD drive 500GB (seagate)

My question : Can I  install  an mSATA drive  as  an INDEPENDENTLY drive  (main drive) or

there is only one possibility to install  a boot accelerator drive  (32-64 GB)

If yes , I am ready to buy a big mSATA ssd   128 GB or 256 GB !

I d like  my laptop not  ONLY accelerate but  let   get function  with  my whole  operating system  to achive

a  maximum  speed not  only when booting but  all the  time !

I have UBUNTU 12.04 LTS  as  OS . because I hate viruses !

Please help  me  giving me a piece of good advices  how to  install a msata SSD  as main drive !

Which  mSSD  recommend  DELL  for  my  system ?

I  can buy  ADATA 128GB SSD SX300 (ASX300S3-128GM-C)

      or         256GB Crucial m4 mSATA 6Gb/s SSD

WHICH one  would be a  better  choice ?

Thanks  in advance

Hi zimike,

The 5720 systems support the combination of mSATA Solid State Drives with a SATA Hard Drive which enable the use of several technologies found in Intel® Rapid Storage Technology:

• Intel® Smart Response Technology: This technology utilizes the speed advantage of SSD in caching where the frequently used information is stored on the SSD instead of the Hard drive.
• Intel® Rapid Start Technology: This technology enables the system to boot back with-in seconds after getting into hibernation.

Hi zimike,

You can boot the system and install the OS on the mSATA by following the steps below.

• Restart the system and tap on F2 to enter system setup
• Under the Advanced tab look for SATA operations
• Change the setting from IRST to AHCI
• Save the settings by pressing F10 key.

Dear   Abhishek  !

First of all  many thanks for your rapid answer It must be   usefull  for me !

I am hesitating between  buying the recommended  32 GB mSATA SSD  or  a BIGGER  one

It sounds covincing not to do so(with a bigger one) !  There is no advanced guarantee for a perfect   function you said !

But you  encouraged me to do it if I wanna do so !

We did not talked about the next situation  yet :

My question would be :  if I'd  stay with my OS on the HDD  (present situation) and I  would buy  a bigger

mSATA DRIVE : f.e. 256GB  from crucial  and I activate IRST  for accelerating boot process... can I use

these drive as an independent drive so  as to download  files  on it??  when  yes .. how many minimal GByte  free places

must be  reserved  for memory operations for the CPU so as the  independent STORAGE-function  shell be beyond reproach too?  Can Dell  guarantee whether it works flawlessly ......????.......??????

How can I install  the above mentioned issue  in the  boot window ?

Thanks for your workmanlike answers

Hi zimike,

Thank you for your reply.  

If you have the OS installed on the HDD, you can use the mSATA drive for IRST. The minimum space required for IRST is 18.6 GB if you select the size allocated for cache memory as 18.6 GB the remaining storage space any remaining space on the SSD may be used for data storage using the simple data single-disk RAID 0 volume that is automatically created.

You can also check the Intel® Smart Response Technology User Guide from the link below for more information and detailed steps for IRST settings.

http://download.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/intel_smart_response_technology_user_guide.pdf

Hope this helps. Please reply for any further issues.

Dear   Abhishek  !

I  have  a problem  I 'd like to flash (update)  my DELL  bios   (device :5720)

But I  use UBUNTU 12.04     O.S.  not  windows 7 or 8

To flash  a system bios is a risky issue  !

I found on net a lot of similar successful  actions but  I  did'nt  do such a  bios update ever before !

In terminal (ubuntu) I got the following  system info :

imre@imrelaptop:~$ sudo getSystemId

Libsmbios version:      2.2.28

Product Name:           Inspiron 5720

Vendor:                 Dell Inc.

BIOS Version:           A03

System ID:              0x0564

Service Tag:             <ADMIN NOTE: Service tag removed per privacy policy>

Express Service Code:   <ADMIN NOTE: Express service code removed per privacy policy>

Does it mean I have  with  A03  bios  t.i.to say the latest  bios version for dell 5720 ...???

I think it is because of  :  

www.dell.com/.../inspiron-17r-5720

Thanks and regards  :  zimike

If there is nothing to do ,I would learn after all how to update bios versions in my case ?

Hi zimike,

Thank you for your reply. 

You may check the following link to update the BIOS on Ubuntu system.

http://dell.to/12pwmo0

Unfortunately, I do not have much expertise with Ubuntu operating systems to recommend you a resolution. Please try to post in the Linux forum on the link below, for more information regarding Ubuntu updates.

http://dell.to/TScynU

You can also check the following link for more information regarding Ubuntu on Dell systems.

http://bit.ly/ZpOf7b

Please reply for any further help.