Hey guys, I have a Alienware 17 r2 2015. I opted out of getting the included SDD, but now I'm kind of regretting it as the HDD is SO SLOW! I have been looking online at getting a single SDD M2 drive. My question is how do I migrate info and instal the new OS without a disc. As we all know, there is no optical drive for the new laptops. So how do I install windows 7 onto the new SDD? Second question is how do I set up the HDD as a backup? Do I need to reformat the HDD before installing the new SDD? I'm confused as hell. So if anyone can help me with this, that would be great! Thanks all!
HDD To SDD
- Thread starter Devlin
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Alienware_ALX_R4
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If you get a samsung or Transcend drive you will will get software for that. I just did this not to long ago. I bought a 512GB Transcend 2.5in Drive, and 512GB M.2 Sata Drive.
derickstabb
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I also have this question. I have a m2 crucial mx200 250gb that I want to install and make my primary OS boot drive and use the existing 1tb HDD as data. Someone told me to just install the m2, plug in the flash drive with the alien respawn recovery backed up, boot it up and install the OS to the SSD. Is it really that simple?
derickstabb
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Meant to reply to this, I took out the 1tb HDD and replaced with a sata 250gb ssd, and 2x m.2 500gb ssd(s). Plugged in the USB I used to make the recovery drive using alien respawn, booted up and it installed the 8.1 and the factory settings/drivers to the sata ssd as if it came straight from alienware. For those who are wondering!
paragon software will migrate your 8.1 install to an SSD. Afterwards you just switch your boot drive. It's pretty cheap at $20 to have something do all the work for you.
http://www.paragon-software.com/technologies/components/migrate-OS-to-SSD/
http://www.paragon-software.com/technologies/components/migrate-OS-to-SSD/
Just an update on this. I bought an SSD and migrated my OS using Paragon's software as I mentioned above. Everything went smoothly until Alien Respawn screwed up my backup. I still have a backup that works but Dell's software doesn't let me create a new image of the hard drive with the correct backup image location. So I'm going to wait until Windows 10 is released at the end of this month and hopefully use it's built in imaging to create a backup. If that doesn't work, I'll probably end up buying Norton Ghost.
There is one 2.5' drive bay and 4 M.2 slots. The M.2 slots are used for the SSDs so you'll have 3 slots available for more SSD storage.
Which software particularly are you looking for? Most of it is available through Dell's support website. If it's software that came with your order such as office, you'll need to log in to your software locker on dell's site.
I should've been a little bit more specific. I am looking for all the alienware software to control the lighting on my laptop and any other software for the 17 r2. I have looked on the dell website and I can not find any.