x17 R1, SSD NGFF compatibility

Question

Hi guys,

I just upgraded from an Alienware 17 R2 to a new x17 R1 and was trying to swap my old m.2 2280 NGFF SSD's into the new system but when I switch on the laptop I cannot find the drive when it was installed correctly. I cant even find it on the disk management. I have browsed the BIOS and cant see an issue there either. I did not change any setting from stock as a matter of interest so I may have missed it entirely. Is this new x17 just not compatible with the older SSD's?

Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

crimsom · Accepted Answer

Hi @ScottZA welcome to this free user to user Alienware laptop discussion forum. This is not Dell Support.

Alienware x17 R1 internal drives are M.2 up to PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe cards. There is no compatibility with older internal Solid State Drives. There is always the option to have older external drives.

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ScottZA · Answer

Many thanks @crimsom I had hoped that they *may* be compatible as they are compatible in a new PC that I am building. Oh well. I use them for gaming and the like so an external is not really practical. I will just have to fork out for a new SSD. Such is life and we live and learn. Cheers for the speedy response.

ScottZA · Answer

@crimsom Yeah, I am busy doing so as we speak. 600 odd GB of games etc. Quite a lot. At least I will be able to delete all the 'junk' that I accumulated over the years.

ScottZA · Answer

Weird how both old and new drives are 'm.2' but not supported. Man, these kind of things make me miss when IDE and SATA were our only concerns.

crimsom · Answer

Hi @ScottZA  Logic says: if you have an expensive high performance system, why install a slow drive ?

crimsom · Answer

Hi @ScottZA  you have the option to clone (copy) NGFF drive and save contents within NVMe drive. The cloned NVMe drive can then be installed as an internal drive. Macrium Software | Reflect Free Edition

Alienware

x17 R1, SSD NGFF compatibility

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