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XPS 8920, upgrading to M.2 SSD
I have a XPS 8920 desktop computer with the 16 Optane M.2 which is used for cache.
Since having to reinstall Windows 10 it is not recognized now. Was thinking about going to a SSD with the M-2 beings the motherboard has the slot for it and my understanding is the M.2 is much faster than the regular SSD, price wise very little difference. My question is, can I pull that 16gig M.2 out, replace it with a 500 gig Samsung Evo 970 M.2 or does the motherboard somehow restrict me for doing that? I would clone the old hard drive over to the M.2 and change the boot order to boot from the M.2. Dell supports answer was format the hard drive, reinstall Windows again and try to get the Optane memory working again, not going to do that.
Any advise would be very much appreciated.
Thank you.
Vic384
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November 28th, 2019 12:00
You can replace the 16GB M.2 with the Samsung 970 M.2. I would first make sure that caching is turned off even though you say it is not working. You should be able to use Samsung Data Migration software to clone the old hard drive if you have enough space on the new SSD. You cannot change the boot order on your UEFI BIOS but either have to boot using the F12 Boot Menu or disconnect the old hard drive. If you wish to use the old hard drive as backup storage you will have to re-initialize it using a procedure like this: https://macrorit.com/partition-magic-manager/initialize-disk-gpt-mbr-from-cmd-diskpart.html
lynne4270
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December 4th, 2019 07:00
Vic384
Thank you very much. That is what I was looking for. Will order the M.2 now and let you know how it works out.
Thanks again for those great instructions.