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65314
January 29th, 2012 15:00
Alien Aurora UEFI support?
I bought a hitachi deskstar 3tb drive which made this installation more of a hassle than i bargained. So to make this drive the boot drive I will need to have windows 7 x64bit installed on it but also support UEFI mode in my bios. I can't seem to find anything about UEFI there, am I supposed to install something first or will this motherboard never support it?
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skstylez
10 Posts
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February 5th, 2012 05:00
anyone know? i would like to use this new hard drive
RichardGK
72 Posts
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February 5th, 2012 07:00
I gonna make this sound dumb but Bios > boot > highlight Legacy > press enter > press enter again > UEFI/legacy option.
skstylez
10 Posts
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February 5th, 2012 23:00
I'm not seeing Legacy option I looked in f12 and f2 (boot option and setup)
Tesla1856
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17.1K Posts
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February 5th, 2012 23:00
What exact Release model Aurora do you have? If you don't know ... what processor do you have installed?
I think only the new R4 has uEFI .
RichardGK
72 Posts
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February 6th, 2012 02:00
Check the bios number. Im running the latest A02 here.
skstylez
10 Posts
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February 8th, 2012 03:00
I purchased mine in fall of 2010... My bios number is A11
I have an i7 920 quad processor @2.67ghz
Tesla1856
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17.1K Posts
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February 8th, 2012 10:00
That's a R1 with a X-58 chipset ... no uEFI.
Boot with a normal drive or a SSD and use the 3tb as second drive.
skstylez
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February 8th, 2012 16:00
god technology changes so fast... I think the best thing to do is convert it back to MBR and just use it as a 2tb launch drive
Tesla1856
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17.1K Posts
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February 8th, 2012 17:00
Yes, it does ... but this is only a problem because we finally crossed the 2tb barrier with 2.5tb and 3.0tb drives.
I like my solutions better because you can use full space for $100 ... for free if you have a working spinning drive laying around.
skstylez
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February 8th, 2012 18:00
Can you explain your process a bit more? I am booting from my old HDD as it is now, so i can store things on the 3tb drive. The problem is my new drive is a lot faster so I would like it to handle all of my programs. Don't games require windows to use?
Tesla1856
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17.1K Posts
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February 8th, 2012 23:00
As long as the boot drive is a circa-2010 7200rpm (like a WD Black or the original drive from WD) it shouldn't be that much slower.
Are you measuring with HD-Tune or Crystal-Disc ?
Yes, Windows has to stay on C: (boot drive) but you could move the SwapFile to D:. You could also install all Programs and Games on D: (or a partition on 3tb). Once the OS is loaded, not that much loads from Windows.
Again ... Windows-7 (only) takes 30gigs, so it can easily be installed to a 60gb SSD. They are pretty cheap now. Get a 120gb if you can afford it to give yourself some additional breathing room and even the option to install a few programs on SSD. You could also leave SwapFile on C: with that much room on SSD.
skstylez
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February 9th, 2012 00:00
so the use of an SSD is for running windows, what is the main difference from running windows off this HDD now? I have already purchased a copy of windows so if it helps and won't give me too many more headaches... i don't mind purchasing a few small items.
Fyi, my current boot drive is 5200 rpm & 500 gig
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
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17.1K Posts
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February 9th, 2012 00:00
Difference between 500gig @ 5200rpm and SSD ... speed.
That's not the original boot drive for an Aurora ... what happened to that one?
The original black Dell/AW Windows-7 DVD will re-install to this machine with no problems and you can use the Microsoft CoA on the Aurora. Use that new copy on a different machine.
skstylez
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February 9th, 2012 03:00
I am using the original boot drive.. it may be 5400 rpm i don't remember. I bought the new copy of windows for the new HDD, but it seems to be of no use without Uefi. I am not much of a techie, can you explain the whole SSD a bit more. Right now I have my boot drive as my old hdd, and as you suggested, will be installing games on the new HDD. So are you saying replace my boot drive with sdd?
By the way... I thank you for your help thus far!
Tesla1856
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17.1K Posts
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February 9th, 2012 12:00
The original Aurora HDD was likely a 7200-rpm "Black Series" Western Digital ... a fast drive. You can look in Device Manager for the exact model and look up specs.
I don't like to repeat myself. You do not need another copy of Win-7 and it has nothing to do with lack of uEFI. If you lost your discs, Dell will send you new ones once.
I already posted the software tools to measure performance. You will likely see there isn't much of a difference between these recent model 7200rpm spinning drives. No reason to get an SSD unless you want additional performance over what even the 3tb can do.
If you want to upgrade to SSD ... don't think of your PC as an "Alienware" and somehow special ... just research it in Google like a normal PC. It's a generic upgrade.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-upgrade-hdd-performance,3023.html
http://www.ssdreview.com/
http://thessdreview.com/
www.tomshardware.com/.../best-price-ssd,3070.html
The forum linked to the SSD drive maker you purchase from will likely be your best source of info. in the long-run. After you get "up to speed" ... if you have specific questions ... just ask.