Replacing the 32Gb msata drive with a 120Gb one, and using it as the boot drive with the original Dell image...

Having researched an earlier thread discussing replacing the msata drive and the process required to do so, I figured I would try this approach, to see if I could use a larger msata drive as the boot drive, and then replace the platter drive with an SSD also.

(1) Disable "Accelerated' from Intel Rapid Start Technology GUI.

(a) Launch Intel RST UI from the system tray.

(b) Select “Accelerate” Tab, click “Disable acceleration”.

(c) Click “Reset to available” to reset the msata volume to no longer be a cache drive.

 

(2) Change to AHCI in BIOS by following below steps:

(a) At the Dell logo keep tapping the F2 key

(b) BIOS screen appears, using left/right arrow keys move to advanced menu.

(c) Using up/down arrow keys move to SATA operation and change Intel smart Response Technology to AHCI.

(d) Then move to exit and select exit saving changes.

(e) Restart the Computer

 

What happened, was as I suspected, the Laptop now booted from the 1Tb drive, without the 32Gb msata drive being involved at all.

 

My assumption was that this would happen, so I set about to:

 

(3) Replace the 32Gb msata drive with a nice new Intel 120Gb one by doing this:

(a) Shutdown, remove the bottom cover and swap in the new 120Gb msata.,

(b) Reboot and then clone the 1Tb drive onto the 120Gb msata drive using my (previously created) bootable Acronis Recovery USB stick.,

(c) After cloning, reboot and enter the BIOS again.,

(d) Select the msata drive as the 1st boot device and ensure that it is set to UEFI.,

(e) Boot into Windows7 from the msata.,

(f) Uninstall the Intel Rapid Start Technology and its Manager.,

(g) Shut down and replace the 1Tb drive with a 512Gb ssd, onto which I will store all of my data folders.,

(h) Move the location of my data (My Doc’s Videos, Pictures, Music & Downloads) to the 512Gb SSD.

 

 This worked exactly as planned.

 

(4) There are only two areas that I need to tidy up:

(a)    During the boot process, I now get the Windows 'line going across the screen' rather than the holographic colours in the centre of the screen., and

(b)    Straight after that 'line going across the screen' disappears, there is about a 10-second period during which the screen is completely blank.