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July 6th, 2016 07:00
Alienware 14 (2014) Windows 10 Clean Install Issue
Good Morning All,
I was wondering if anyone could help with my clean install issue.
I had did the Win10 upgrade to my 2014 Alienware 14. The upgrade was horrible and slowed down the laptop considerably. I was going to re-install Windows 8.1 back on it but had the dumb idea to do a clean install of Win10 via flash drive. In multitasking with my macbook and other things I seem to have done a clean install but lost my mSATA boot up. So now my laptop boots super slow. Also, the laptop seems to have a good amount of bugs and runs slow as well.
How do I do a clean install with the mSATA + HDD so I can get the quick boot and faster machine?
Also, I apologize if anything is unclear in the post.....multi-tasking at work.
Much appreciated on any help anyone can provide on this
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Alienware-L_Por
842 Posts
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July 8th, 2016 12:00
Do you want to install Windows on the mSATA drive and use the HDD as storage, or do you want to install it on the HDD and cache it with the mSATA?
For the 1st option, re-start a clean installation and make sure you select the mSATA drive when the "where do you want to install windows?" screen appears.
For the second one, get into the IRST configuration and select to enable cache and put your mSATA as the cache drive.
Grimwulf-X
8 Posts
0
July 11th, 2016 07:00
I honestly don't even remember how it was originally setup. I never bothered to find out more until I was unhappy with the Win10 upgrade. I am guessing it was as a cache since I believe my Alienware m14x more than likely came with only a 32GB mSATA. 32GB would probably be insufficient for a clean Win10 install.
So how would I set up the mSATA as a cache? This is the only machine I have ever owned using mSATA to be honest.
Alienware-L_Por
842 Posts
0
July 11th, 2016 12:00
Here's how.
Grimwulf-X
8 Posts
0
July 14th, 2016 07:00
Hmm....so doing the re-install and Win10 and then installing the Intel Rapid Tech program already sets it to an enhanced cache mode. Load speeds of both the OS and mostly everything else on the laptop is still fairly sluggish compared to what it originally was before my upgrade to Win10. Something else must be prohibiting it from reaching the same load speeds. However, I have performed several wipes so nothing should remain on there.
I wouldn't imagine it would be the HDD causing the issue since it ran quickly prior to the Win10 upgrade.......I only gave in to the Win10 upgrade back in February of this year when I received my new Alienware x51 that came with Win10. I loved the features and the ability to stream games from my xbox.
Perhaps buying an SSD to replace the HDD would help? Any other ideas or things that I may be missing?