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Aurora R7, M.2 NVMe bootable options
Hello all,
I have been reading a lot in this forum about how to upgrade the Aurora with a M.2 NVMe and it looks like everyone does something different. May this post serve as a reference, and also as a help for my case.
I just got the Aurora R7 with only the 1TB Hard Drive. Additionally, I have a 960 EVO M.2 NVMe from Samsung. I wish to add this to the machine as my main (bootable) hard drive. Therefore, the options could be:
- Copy the content from the existing Hard Drive into the new NVMe. I read that this might hinder the performance of the NVMe because of driver-related stuff?
- Do a raw install of Windows in the NVMe using a USB flash drive, and then change the bootable order in the BIOS. Do I need to format the factory HDD in this case so I can use it as additional storage?
- In case of doing the raw install, what software am I missing from Alienware? Can I download it?
Thank you
BrightBoyIT
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January 21st, 2022 12:00
So, I've found a very interesting issue with Inspiron and Alienware tech from 2014-2021. Samsung SSD's and NVME's will not work with them. I have tested this vigorously with several different brands of SSDs, all with the same result. It will not boot. I figure it comes down to a timing issue with the bios, since you cannot turn on or off the "Fast Boot" functionality.
Samsung SSDs are extremely good, never had much issue with them. However, on many consumer grade (oddly enough, enterprise/business class products don't have this issue) Dell products, the issue runs rampant. It doesn't matter if your using Intel or AMD processors either. The issue is the same.
To fix the issue, I've found that HP SSDs, Silicon Power, and Crucial use their own hardware, and don't depend on Samsung for their products.
Seriously, test it for yourself. It took me months to solve this through trial and frustration, only to have a Silicon Power SSD fire right up in an Inspiron 24-3455 without issue.