Attempting to add an SSD to an Inspiron 5767

[lilbits99]

Hey guys, wanted to see if anyone had any input on why my upgrade is failing.

I have an Inspiron 5767 with a 2TB hard drive and a Win 10 OS. I purchased an EVO Samsung 250 GB SSD to add to the system, not replace the HD in it.

I removed the optical drive and installed the SSD into its bay with a caddy. Once I booted back into the system, I initialized the SSD and then cloned the OS on the HD to the SSD (with the thought process to reformat the HD afterwards). Rebooted again, and I was able to confirm that the SSD had a perfect copy of the OS.

But everything went down hill from there. I booted into the BIOS and I had some difficulty getting the system to change the boot sequence and boot from the SSD instead of the HD. No matter what I did I couldn't get it done.

I took it to a friend who spent 2 hours on it and had the same problem -- not sure what all he did, but I know he was working in the BIOS because when it was returned to me a few hours later, it would not boot up into anything BUT the SupportAssist program for Dell.

Took some work but was able to bypass to get back into the BIOS and noticed not everything was set back to factory settings. So after changing all that, I was able to get back into Windows with no issue, but still have the same issue where an SSD is installed but the system will not allow me to boot from a different drive.

I'm a little more familiar with desktops than notebooks, so I'm thinking I'm overlooking something or perhaps its because its a Dell and how everything is integrated haha

Any suggestions would be great!

Thanks,

Brooks

 

[robert600]

here's what i would do .... remove both the 2TB HDD and the ssd from the caddy. Then put the SSD in the slot where the HDD came out of ... Do not connect the HDD. Now boot up with only the SSD attached. If that works, shut down the computer and put the 2TB HDD in the caddy and try to boot ... does that work?

 

[James Mason]

Specifically what Samsung Evo SSD?

Cause... looking at the service manual/specs, I'm not sure you can add a second hard drive to it.

If you replaced the optical drive, it only has a Sata 1.5gbps (This would be Sata1) connection, which will probably cripple the SSD.
And if the Optical Drive isn't in there anymore, does it still show up on the list of bootable items? you may have to tell it to boot from the Optical drive that's now an SSD.

http://downloads.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_inspiron_laptop/inspiron-17-5767-laptop_Reference%20Guide_en-us.pdf
http://downloads.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_inspiron_laptop/inspiron-17-5767-laptop_Service%20Manual_en-us.pdf

 

[robert600]

I've done what you are trying to do many times. I've never tried to boot from the caddy though. After cloning, i always shut down and put the SSD in the original hard drive slot. I'm not surprised really that booting from the optical replacement caddy is problematic.

 

[lilbits99]

here's what i would do .... remove both the 2TB HDD and the ssd from the caddy. Then put the SSD in the slot where the HDD came out of ... Do not connect the HDD. Now boot up with only the SSD attached. If that works, shut down the computer and put the 2TB HDD in the caddy and try to boot ... does that work?

I had thought about this the other day, as well. Something I think I'll attempt this weekend. Thanks for the 2-cents!

 

[lilbits99]

Specifically what Samsung Evo SSD?

Cause... looking at the service manual/specs, I'm not sure you can add a second hard drive to it.

If you replaced the optical drive, it only has a Sata 1.5gbps (This would be Sata1) connection, which will probably cripple the SSD.
And if the Optical Drive isn't in there anymore, does it still show up on the list of bootable items? you may have to tell it to boot from the Optical drive that's now an SSD.

http://downloads.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_inspiron_laptop/inspiron-17-5767-laptop_Reference%20Guide_en-us.pdf
http://downloads.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_inspiron_laptop/inspiron-17-5767-laptop_Service%20Manual_en-us.pdf

Hey James, it's the EVO 850 and it showed in the BIOS ... sort-of. I've done this a dozen times but not on a Dell. When you looked in the BIOS it came up with "Microsoft Integrated xxxxxx" I don't recall the rest. There were two of the exact same entries of where typically you would find the drives. Which was where the initial confusion began and then as I continued to look around in the BIOS it looked a heck of a lot more foreign than I would have suspected, which is why I called upon a friend but he grumbled at the task as apparently Dell's systems as of late have had some interesting integrated components that have caused real headaches for techs.

I didn't think about the speed of the connection perse when I installed the SSD into the optical bay, but I definitely knew that I needed to change things around to get it to boot from the optical bay where the SSD now sat, but the BIOS definitely was seemingly giving some fits while trying to get that done. I'm going to hit it hard this weekend again and see what I can come up with. You guys have pointed out some interesting things that I need to take a look at it.

 

[lilbits99]

I've done what you are trying to do many times. I've never tried to boot from the caddy though. After cloning, i always shut down and put the SSD in the original hard drive slot. I'm not surprised really that booting from the optical replacement caddy is problematic.

I thought just leaving the HD where it was and just booting from a caddy would be the easiest, but yea, it's definitely problematic. It's not on HPs, Acers, and MSIs though. Not sure what it is with the Dells -- could be just this 5000 series though. I have no idea until I look at the specs a little bit more maybe. I'm far more apt at a desktop but when I have put SSDs in notebooks its been a snap, but again, never in a Dell.