Hi @RyanAdams welcome to this free user to user Alienware laptop discussion forum. This is not Dell Support.
Support for Alienware 17 (R1) Documentation includes the Alienware 17 Specifications (pdf) which says storage accommodates:- (1) Up to three 2.5-inch hard drives or solid‑state drives. NOTE: The third hard drive/solid‑state drive is optional and can be installed in the optical‑drive bay. (2) One mSATA full mini-card.
The mSATA is paired with HDD to make it a hybrid drive, so that the HDD has a fast response time. If the OS(C:) boot drive is upgraded to SSD, the mSATA storage is not used and can be used as a storage drive.
The Alienware 17 series progressed until it reached 17 R5, and this does not have an optical drive. Many of the more recent Alienware laptops do not have an optical drive.
Your storage options are to remove the optical drive and install third SSD. Replace the HDD and/or SSD 500GB with a 2TB SSD. Use mSATA full mini-card as a storage drive.
I knew a guy that had 16tb of storage in his 17. He had a 4tb mSATA drive as well as 3 x 4tb 2.5" SSD's. Finding an mSATA that large could be the hard part as it's dead tech as M.2 drives took their place.
Thank you very much @crimsom for your detailed and helpful reply, but i want to know how many GigaBytes or TeraBytes can my motherboard handle without problems. is it safe to put mSATA 1TB beside my HDD 1TB and SSD 500GB ? or is it safe to replace the HDD 1TB with HDD 3TB? i wish to know the limits
Any capacity drive that physically fits will work, but you won't find a 3T hard drive in 7 mm 2.5" format -- 2T is as large as these are made unless you go with a solid state drive, in which case there are in fact capacities larger than 2T that will work.
crimsom
7 Technologist
•
6.1K Posts
1
April 9th, 2022 23:00
Hi @RyanAdams welcome to this free user to user Alienware laptop discussion forum. This is not Dell Support.
Support for Alienware 17 (R1) Documentation includes the Alienware 17 Specifications (pdf) which says storage accommodates:-
(1) Up to three 2.5-inch hard drives or solid‑state drives. NOTE: The third hard drive/solid‑state drive is optional and can be installed in the optical‑drive bay.
(2) One mSATA full mini-card.
The mSATA is paired with HDD to make it a hybrid drive, so that the HDD has a fast response time. If the OS(C:) boot drive is upgraded to SSD, the mSATA storage is not used and can be used as a storage drive.
The Alienware 17 series progressed until it reached 17 R5, and this does not have an optical drive. Many of the more recent Alienware laptops do not have an optical drive.
Your storage options are to remove the optical drive and install third SSD. Replace the HDD and/or SSD 500GB with a 2TB SSD. Use mSATA full mini-card as a storage drive.
mSATA full mini-cards are not usually used as modern storage drives. mSATA cards are available, Example SSD 860 EVO mSATA 1TB Memory & Storage - MZ-M6E1T0BW | Samsung US, and you might get the mSATA full mini-card size form for your Alienware 17 (R1).
mattyb3
5 Practitioner
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1.7K Posts
2
April 10th, 2022 14:00
I knew a guy that had 16tb of storage in his 17. He had a 4tb mSATA drive as well as 3 x 4tb 2.5" SSD's. Finding an mSATA that large could be the hard part as it's dead tech as M.2 drives took their place.
RyanAdams
5 Posts
0
April 10th, 2022 04:00
Thank you very much @crimsom for your detailed and helpful reply, but i want to know how many GigaBytes or TeraBytes can my motherboard handle without problems. is it safe to put mSATA 1TB beside my HDD 1TB and SSD 500GB ? or is it safe to replace the HDD 1TB with HDD 3TB? i wish to know the limits
Best Regards
ejn63
10 Elder
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30.7K Posts
1
April 10th, 2022 05:00
Any capacity drive that physically fits will work, but you won't find a 3T hard drive in 7 mm 2.5" format -- 2T is as large as these are made unless you go with a solid state drive, in which case there are in fact capacities larger than 2T that will work.
RyanAdams
5 Posts
0
April 10th, 2022 08:00
Thank you @ejn63 , now everything is clear for me
Best Regards