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XPS 8500, HDD default SATA port
Dear all,
According to the XPS 8500 manual there are 4 SATA ports (0,1,2,3) and one MSATA1 port. Only the SATA 0 port is a SATA 3.0 (6 Gb/s) connector. I wonder if the factory installed Seagate 7200rpm HDD is connected to the SATA 0 port by default?
The reason why I'm asking is that I'm considering to install a 1TB SATA SSD (Crucial MX500 1TB) to the SATA 0 port. But if I do that, do I have to move the HDD to another SATA port? Also I think by default the factory installed a 32GB Samsung mSATA 32GB SSD (for cache). Would I have better performance if I installed a Dogfish Msata 1TB SSD to the SATA 0 port? The Msata 1TB is $173 and the Crucial MX500 1TB is just $109. I suppose that I won't get any performance gain if I go with the Msata SSD, right? Thoughts?
Also I think the original factory HDD was partitioned into two partitions: C drive (main) and D drive (WINRETOOLS, which is only 2GB I think). What's that WINRETOOLS partiton for, and if I "clone" the HDD to SSD, do I have to also "clone" that WINRETOOLS partition as well??
Also, would I be able to "transfer my existing Windows 10 license from the HDD to the new SSD, with a clean-install instead of "cloning from HDD to SSD?" I'm having issues to delete some "temp" folder in my current HDD C drive (e.g. "Syst2FC050D8_temp" and "Windows.old" folders).. any thoughts on how to handle this? Thanks!
Vic384
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September 14th, 2020 05:00
I think mSATA and SATA have the same performance. As the name implies, mSATA is SATA. I could not find where it says only SATA0 is 6 Gbps.
Here is a link regarding WINRETOOLS partition: https://www.dell.com/community/Windows-10/What-is-the-WINRETOOLS-partition-and-do-I-need-it-repurposed-SSD/td-p/7354610
Regarding deleting "temp" folders, have you tried right-clicking on the HDD (C drive), selecting Properties, and in the General tab click on 'Disk Cleanup", then clicking on 'Clean up system files'.
RoHe
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September 14th, 2020 11:00
The motherboard diagram in the Service Manual says SATA0 (#20 in the motherboard diagram) is 6 GB/sec. Don't know about the XPS 8500 (diagram is black/white), but SATA0 is typically a blue motherboard connector. All the other SATA ports are 3 GB/sec. And yes, Dell would connect the existing HDD to SATA0 because that's the boot drive port.
You can't connect an mSATA SSD to SATA0. An mSATA SSD is a slot mount. You need a "regular" SATA SSD to connect to SATA0.
I wouldn't waste any money on a big, new mSATA drive. Hardly anybody puts mSATA ports on motherboards these days. So you wouldn't able to move a new mSATA SSD into another PC if/when you replace the XPS 8500. A SATA SSD would still be movable.
If you move the existing HDD to a different (3 GB/sec) SATA port, you could either toss the 32-GB mSATA SSD or use it for a bit of extra storage. And 3 GB/sec is probably fast enough for normal storage on a HDD.
NOTE: You have to disable caching of the HDD on the mSATA SSD and reboot before you clone the HDD. Otherwise, the OS image transferred to the new SSD probably won't work...
RoHe
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September 14th, 2020 11:00