mSATA SSD as Bootable Drive - Inspiron 17R 5720

Hi gaz_0001,

Since you have 128 GB of mSATA HDD you can install the operating system on the mSATA.  Before installing you will have to disable the Acceleration and also change the mSATA operation.

To disable the Acceleration follow the steps given below:

Step1. Launch Intel RST UI from system tray.

Step2. Select “Accelerate” Tab, click “Disable acceleration”.

Step3. Click “Reset to available” to reset volume.

Next restart the system and at the Dell logo tap the F2 key every two seconds. This will open the ‘Setup Utility’ screen. Click ‘Advanced’ tab, and then ‘Sata Operation’, from the pop-up box select ‘AHCI’. Click ‘Yes’ as you are installing the Operating system.

Now you can go ahead and install the Operating system on the mSATA drive.

Hi gaz_0001,

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Hi,

I think from the reply that it is possible.

The instuctions look like they are based on mSATA SSD already been installed??  I do not have the mSATA drive whatsoever, and never have!

Cheers

Hi gaz_0001,  

Inspiron 5720 laptops are shipped with mSATA hard drive. You may check that in the BIOS screen. Restart the system and at Dell logo tap the F2 key every two seconds which will bring up the BIOS screen, mSATA device will be listed as shows in the picture below:

However to have the operating system installed on the mSATA drive, the size of the drive should be 128 GB and above.

Hi,

I just went through the post above.

Just needed some clarification, Ive heard that mSata can't be used as a boot drive for installing OS?

Also, can I install a 128gb mSata drive on my Inspiron 13z (5323) and use it as a boot drive with OS and some other applications installed on it?

Thanks!

Can you help, I am having the similar issue with 17R 5720. 

- I have updated the BIOS to the latest version

- changed the Satta opearation to AHCI

- I can see the mSata from withing the Windows. but it is not available in the boot menu. On the BIOS screen, it shows the added drive as the mSata drive 

I would like to install OS on the mSata (crucial 240 Gb). So what do I need to do to make sure mSata drive is visible in the BIOS boot menu.

I made an exhaustive research of this matter and I can say, that at this time, whith the latest version of BIOS you can not make MSATA SSD disk bootable from BIOS on Dell Inspiron 5720. It can be used only as a cash disk or data disk.

BUT:
There is an option when you CAN boot from SSD disk. And it will really speed up your laptop, but this is the method that we call in Ukraine as "through the ass", sorry for my language.

You can install Windows on your standard hard drive, install all the drivers. Than clone the disk to your SSD drive with Acronis soft or any other. After that you have to edit your Windows Boot Manager by bcdedit.exe tool and make your Windows boot from SSD.

Windows will really boot from SSD, it will boot fast. After that you can install all heavy programs on your SSD and use your laptop with SSD as a boot drive and also have your 1TB disk as data disk.

BUT:
1) you can not delete Windows on your standard hard drive

2) windows will permanently read some data from your standard hard drive.

AFTERWORD

Actually when I bought Dell Inspiron 5720 I already had SATA III SSD Intell 60 GB drive. And first I installed it as a main HDD and at that moment I understood that I would never use standard HDD. Everything worked so fast, the laptop was quite (if you dont use heavy soft and the fan does not work, it is just no sound, cool). Soon I bought Intel MSATA 120 GB as I wanted to have it as boot disk and additionaly use my 1TB HDD which I had when I bought the laptop.

Having spent tow nights I found out the only way how to do it. I did it easyly. It took couple of hours.

BUT:
1) the system still uses standard HDD, which means that you loose your ultimate speed in comparison when you use SSD only

2) after two month of quite practise I understood that HDD noise can annoy

3) battery life became shorter (with SSD only laptop lived 4+ hours (office soft + Internet)

After ONE day of practise I gave up this idea and bought Intell SSD 240 GB, installed it as a main hard drive and also bought 2TB external HDD for heavy data and backup. Now Im just enjoying my laptop.

Thanks a lot for the detailed reply. 

Actually This is exactly what I ended up doing last November. Laptop is working fine with new ssd 

I finally got my new Crucial 240 GB msata drive to be the boot drive by using the aforementioned workaround and it really did speed the system up.  When booting, the computer asks what operating system to boot to and I have the default set to the one set on the msata drive.  I have the wait time set to 2 seconds so I still have the option to boot from the old old drive.  I just want to say that I got some bad info from Dell regarding this issue.  I called up tech support and got to level three and specifically asked it the msata drive could be set as the boot option in the bios and they said yes, definately.  They said that the operating system would have to be reinstalled on the msata drive and then it would boot from it.   I can't say if won't but I doubt it if the boot option is not even in the bios.  Also, there is an option to boot from a file and I couldn't get any info on that but I'm thinking that if that's configured correctly, I would be able to delete the old operating system except one or two files and be ok.  I'm afraid to do that yet until I get some more information.

 have you got any success in booting mSata SSD ??  i am going to purchase 250 GB samsung evo 840 .. but if  i cant get real speed and performance of SSD then whats the point to buy ... please let me know .. if it  is working or not .. like a boot drive ... 

Yes it worked perfectly. 

Mine has been running for over a year. 

Install mSATA

Disconnect HDD Temporarily

Set mSATA as Bootable in bios.

Install windows to msata from USB,

Connect HDD back.

You will now have mSATA as C: drive, and the old 1GB HDD as d: or e: drive. But you can changee to d: drive if it goes in as e drive , like mine did.

Im opting out of this thread now. It does work and has been confirmed several times. Buy the drive and crack on with it. 

thank you so much for reply ...  as now i can confidently buy mSata SSD ...    thank you once again :) 

Hello,

I have a Inspiron 17R 5720 with one 1TB harddrive. There is a room for a second drive but that ia a dummy slot. So there is no connector.

There is above wifi a small sata slot. Can i here put a SSD and run this as primary harddrive?

And how to do that?