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March 11th, 2014 20:00
Steps to replace mSATA drive
Hi,
I got a brand new XPS 15 (L521X) with Windows 8 (I upgraded to 8.1), 32GB mSATA and 500 GB hard disk.
I want to replace the 32 GB mSATA drive with 128 GB mSATA and make it my boot drive by cloning the HDD
I followed the steps given in this link to replace the built-in mSATA drive to a 128 GB drive but was stuck at step 2 - "Change to AHCI in BIOS"
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19476418.aspx
When I go to the SATA operation and change Intel smart Response Technology to AHCI, save and exit, the laptop does not boot and shows an unhappy face :(.
When I revert the SATA operation from AHCI to ISRT, it boots fine.
Am I missing something ? What other options do I have ?
Thanks,
Julius Peres
ejn63
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March 11th, 2014 20:00
You're not going to be able to clone the existing installation - you will need to do a clean install of the OS to the drive once you've changed it to AHCI mode.
JuliusP
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March 13th, 2014 19:00
Thanks for the reply.
I don't have an OS media to do a clean install.
Is there a way/option to do a clone of hard drive to mSATA ? Appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks,
Julius Peres
ejn63
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March 13th, 2014 19:00
Make your backup medium (Dell Backup and Recovery - flash drive, or DVDs).
Set the system to AHCI and use the backup to recover Windows to the hard drive.
Then clone the hard drive to the mSATA drive using a Windows-8 aware cloning utility.
JuliusP
7 Posts
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March 20th, 2014 12:00
Thank you for the reply.
I'll be trying this for the first time. Is there a link or place which provides more detailed instruction on this.
Also if something goeswrong during this process, will I be able to go back and boot from the hard drive ?
Appreciate your help.
Julius Peres
ejn63
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March 20th, 2014 13:00
Make sure you complete the first step before you begin - you will need that backup in case something goes wrong.
Otherwise, the process will be determined by the choice of cloning software you make - see the documentation for it on the steps in the process.
Note: most older cloning software (older Symantec Ghost/PC Backup, older True Image, etc. won't work with UEFI and Windows 8).