1 Rookie
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4 Posts
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4455
June 2nd, 2020 13:00
Precision 7720 storage disk upgrade
currently I have 3 disks:
1. pm981 nvme samsung 512GB
2. WD SSD Blue 2 TB M.2 (WDS200T2B0B)
3. Seagate Spinpoint M9T 2TB 2.5-Inch SATA
I'v read manual
But still not sure is it impossible install M.2 4TB... chipset will not recognize such disk? or there is some chance it will work fine? or... can I install M.2 2TB instead of pm981 nvme samsung 512GB?
(HDD 4TB can't install coz it is 15 mm height)
jphughan
9 Legend
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14K Posts
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June 2nd, 2020 13:00
@Akurasan When Dell quotes maximum storage capacities in their system specs, it's either the highest capacity that was available to be ordered for the factory and/or the highest capacity that Dell actually tested with that system. In this case, 4TB NVMe SSDs probably didn't exist when the 7720 was released. There are MANY confirmed cases of people successfully using higher capacity devices than Dell officially mentioned in the specs across MANY Dell systems. The only POSSIBLE issue I can see here is that some high capacity M.2 SSDs place storage chips on both sides of the circuit board -- they're called "double-sided" -- and in some systems that have very tight spaces for their M.2 slot, that can prevent them from fitting into the slot properly and/or allowing the underside panel to close properly. But a Precision 7720 is quite a large chassis, so I seriously doubt you'd have that problem. But you definitely won't have a problem with the system itself working with 4TB of capacity. The last time there was a firmware limitation in terms of disk capacity was back in the Windows XP days when you needed SP1 and BIOS firmware that supported "48-bit LBA addressing" in order to use drives larger than 137 GB (or something around that amount). Since then, there hasn't been a practical limit. The 2TB limit you sometimes read about applies to disks set up as MBR, but if you're booting an OS in UEFI mode or you're not installing an OS on this disk at all, you can use GPT and you'll be fine.
Akurasan
1 Rookie
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4 Posts
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June 2nd, 2020 13:00
thank you very much!
nyc10036
4 Operator
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5.6K Posts
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June 2nd, 2020 13:00
Questions about Precisions both laptops and desktops should be posted in the Workstations forum.
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Critical1
1 Rookie
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27 Posts
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May 9th, 2021 12:00
I have 1TB and 2 TB NVMe SSD's and a 4TB SATA (2.5") SSD now installed and working correctly. -- OS is on the 1TB NVMe.
I tried to swap the 2TB NVMe to a 4TB NVMe. It fit just fine.
But I then could not get past boot (kept doing the "Auto Repair" routine).
Went back to the original (1+2+4 TB) setup and all is fine.
Did you ever get a 4TB NMVe to install correctly? What did you have to do? What make/model of SSD did you use? Thanks.
Liking Deals
5 Posts
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July 12th, 2021 06:00
There are some nasty issues which seem to be related to the RAID firmware/driver combination and SSD drives larger than 2TB.
Disable RAID in BIOS and enable AHCI, and it should boot.
You may be able to also get it to work when installing from a "full recovery" image (the large download, not the smaller download). But that install stopped working for me sometime in late June when a new driver was rolled out by Windows update.
It beats me why Dell has this issue and only wants to support SSDs that are 2TB max. I hit brick walls trying to make inquiries. I had the issue with the 7750 even.
For those type of enthusiast - high performance devices, the user expectation should be that you can upgrade to modern hardware capacities and not be stuck on capacities from yesteryear.
AHCI works "kinda" fine but a lot of the driver support options will be limited and I _believe_ to have observed a drop in performance. It really should "just work".
Edadmin
1 Rookie
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3 Posts
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August 27th, 2024 22:16
@jphughan
Well I have a Dell 7720 and I have incapability issues with anything larger than a 1 TB SSD in to 2.5 socket. I initially purchased a - less expensive - drive fro eBay that would just disappear from the system after a time. So I bought a NEW WD Green 2TB 2.5 drive and it's basically the same problem. I agree with your premise however, in practice I'm having the problem as stated above. I have the latest BIOS installed. Thoughts, help appreciated.