Inspiron 11 3147 SSD upgrade : have you had success

Good luck smtrader. I just received the notification of your comment, so I just wanted to let you know that the Toshiba SSD is still working perfectly fine for us; as is the laptop itself. We also upgraded the OS to Windows 10, and some of the issues I used to have with the trackpad on Windows 8.1 are completely gone under Windows 10. My wife is using it right now as I type this on my other laptop. 

1: yes

2: Corsair Force GT 240GB

3: cloned Using EZGiz IV 4.3.8 UEFI with the Corsair 2.5" Drive cloning kit

4: Had bios A01 I believe, had windows 8.1 during cloning

5: worked without any issues

I later upgraded to Windows 10 and cloned the installed SDD to another Corsair ForceGT SSD without issues.  I did that to simply test the cloning process since my other Dell (Inspiron 17 5748 has trouble recognizing a Crucial Bx100 500GB drive).  After reading these posts it seems like each PC/drive combo has its own success rates.

NO!

SanDisk SSD Plus 240GB

Windows 7 Pro from flash drive

Tried everything

Keep getting "BIOS is not fully compliant"

Upgraded BIOS from A01 to A09.  No dice.  Very frustrating. 

Any idea???

1. no

2. Tried 3 different models - SanDish SSD Plus 240GB, Samsung 850 EVO 500GB, Toshiba 256GB Q Series Pro (Amazon.com is going to get sick of me sending these back).  

3.  Macrium Reflect Free.  Used recently for an SSD Upgrade on another Dell system and it worked fine.

4. None, then I tried many combinations of settings and all failed.  Have the latest Bios version - A06, 7/7/15

5. Same problem every time.  The ssd is recognized by the disk - it shows the ssd model and brand in the bois.  However it does not recognize the disk as bootable so cannot boot.  Also, I have already upgraded to Windows 10 prior to the attempted ssd upgrade.  A very frustrating experience!!  I would be nice if Dell gave us some information on why this is such a problem.  This is my son's computer for school and with all these problems his comment is "see Dad, I should have an Apple!"  :-(   

1. no 2. Tried 3 different models - SanDish SSD Plus 240GB, Samsung 850 EVO 500GB, Toshiba 256GB Q Series Pro (Amazon.com is going to get sick of me sending these back).   3.  Macrium Reflect Free.  Used recently for an SSD Upgrade on another Dell system and it worked fine. 4. None, then I tried many combinations of settings and all failed.  Have the latest Bios version - A06, 7/7/15 5. Same problem every time.  The ssd is recognized by the disk - it shows the ssd model and brand in the bois.  However it does not recognize the disk as bootable so cannot boot.  Also, I have already upgraded to Windows 10 prior to the attempted ssd upgrade.  A very frustrating experience!!  I would be nice if Dell gave us some information on why this is such a problem.  This is my son's computer for school and with all these problems his comment is "see Dad, I should have an Apple!"  :-(

That's weird. It should have worked with the Samsung 850 EVO since that is what many people, myself included, have have used with success. You could try updating the BIOS to the latest version of AO9; AO6 is an old version.

Also, cloning the hard drive is pretty hit or miss; I wasn't able to get it work for me. The way I did it was to download the windows 10 installation media to a USB flash drive and do a clean install from that (though you have to manually install all the Dell drivers afterwards).

Dell 3147 Drivers/BIOS download page:

www.dell.com/.../advanced

That is very weird. My Inspiron 11 is still working perfectly fine on with the Toshiba Q Series Pro, and the update to Windows 10 was quite easy. It took a bit longer than expected, but no issues at all. 

With the Toshiba, did you try the clone with the free software that you get with the SSD before installing it?

Thanks for the response NobleLion.  The bios version (A06) is the version the Dell support web site spoon-fed me when I updated the bios.   I assumed the support site knows best.  I did not try the alternative process - can I get Microsoft to download Windows 10 onto a flash drive if Windows 10 is already on the system? 

Thanks for the response NobleLion.  The bios version (A06) is the version the Dell support web site spoon-fed me when I updated the bios.   I assumed the support site knows best.  I did not try the alternative process - can I get Microsoft to download Windows 10 onto a flash drive if Windows 10 is already on the system?

Perhaps it was the wrong webpage or the model laptop you have is not the 3147? If you still have or can get the Samsung 850 EVO, you could try updating to the latest version A09 (just insert the original hard drive from factory and then boot up and run the automatic BIOS updater program). The 850 EVO also is generally regarded as one of the best consumer SSD's on the market right, both in terms of longevity and performance.

www.dell.com/.../advanced

As for the Windows 10 installation, the best way to do it is to use Microsoft's Windows 10 media creation tool. The instructions and downloads are at this link:

www.microsoft.com/.../windows10

I don't recall what the minimum flash drive size is, maybe 8 GB? 16 GB will definitely work. Basically, once you hook up the unformatted Samsung SSD and the bootable USB flash drive that the media creation tool created, the laptop should boot from the flash drive and present to you the setup wizard for installing Windows 10 to the SSD. If you happen to get errors to the effect of the laptop not being able to recognize the SSD, you can try again. I installed this SSD on two 3147's, and on the second one the Windows installation failed the first time, I think because it lost the SSD at some point. It's been a while so I don't quite remember if you have to manually set the motherboard to boot from the flash drive or if it finds the flash drive and boots from there automatically; I think it does it automatically.

Also, I actually had the BIOS tell me just a week ago when Windows was restarting and trying to do some updates that no bootable device was found. I just restarted with the power button and it worked again, so it seems this laptop can do some weird stuff with non factory hard drives.

accidental duplicate post

accidental duplicate post

@jamesd13,

You can use the Media Creation Tool by Microsoft. Here's a link to it (it is a US link, there is probably a link for other regions too)

Link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Go to section "Need to create a USB, DVD or ISO?" and click the "Download Now" button.

The link also has instructions on how to use the tool.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

1: Yes

2: Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB

3: a) Used the Samsung Data Migration v3.0 (downloaded from www.samsung.com) for cloning. You need to be very patient - after hitting "start", there was no sign of any progress/activity for the first 15 minutes; then the data transfer (approximately 80 GB) took about 10 minutes
b) After installing the cloned SSD, the first few times the laptop could not find the new HDD. You need to hit F2 or F12 to go to the BIOS to check. Once it identified the SSD, I "saved" the BIOS setting - made no changes except for the new SSD that it found by itself.
c) Now the funny part.
The first few times I thought it was not booting and not able to find the new SSD and OS, because it just showed a blank-blue screen, after showing the DELL logo. After about 10-12 restarts, I accidentally happened to touch the screen once while it was blank, and it immediately came up with the log in screen!! Now I know that it starts with a blank screen and needs to be touched to start (a mouse click, or any other keys on the keyboard do NOT work)!

4: No changes, except that i saved the BIOS settings after it found and identified the new SSD.

5: As mentioned in 3 above, two minor issues - a) the data migration - need to be wait after "start", even if you see no activity at all for a few minutes (15 minutes in my case)
b) After installing, it shows just a blank blue screen - I had to touch the screen for it to show the log in screen.
Now it works perfectly well and is real fast with the new SSD - easily worth the money and trouble.
Happy customer!

FWIW- I finally succeeded in getting an SSD in this laptop. Note in the process I also backed up to BIOS A07. THat cured the wakin gup from sleep problem and may  have influenced this problem as well. Using Refelct to clone the partitions, I tried a Micron M500 (256 GB)- no luck. Tried a 500 Gb Samsung 850 Evo based on others comments using their supplied software or Reflect to clone it and no luck. Even tried Seagate 600 which didn't work at first either (used Reflect again). Then I tried again using the Seagate Diskwizard instead of the Reflect software and now it worked. Huh- go figure. But it works well and boots very fast now. About 40 seconds from pressing the on button to a working desktop.  

Used 850 Samsung SSD 500mg no problem, It already had windows 10 so I rid it of MS spyware and settings. I believe it is better to setup on the 500 gig slow HD it comes with and then remove it and do a Image all the mystery partitions in a cradle or cables to a regular PC using Macrium Reflect free, if it wont work you may need the pro edition as it is for techs that go cross size and platform re-imaging hard drives.

Take image and then move it (it contains all of the partitions) that Dell uses. A main , recovery boot, and a couple of misc non labeled. If you are planning on dual booting linux I recommend Mint Rosa 17 XFCE as it works with the touch screen. Use minipartition magic or somthing similar and shrink main partition into two a 220 gig smaller partition then move all partitions top the right and apply. That leaves space for a nice linux partition. Just ignore the last ste[p if your not a linux geek. Go into settings , keyboard in mint after installation and uncheck repeating keys as they cause keyboard malfunctions in linux. Unclick and it's fine. Then go to the touchpad and change from whatever it's on to synaptics and it seems to work better. If you go dual boot linux rout there's a graphical boot interface you can load on linux and switch the default to Windows so if your not paying attention it will boot Win instead of linux.

8gig chip is available through amazon for $47 Just look for "8GB Memory RAM Upgrade for Dell Inspiron 11 (3147)". A guitar pick and jewelers Phillips and you can do it in no time at all.