Question Going to install an SSD in addition to the 1TB HHD on an old Dell XPS 8940. What do I do?

[militarydave]

I have a Dell XPS 8940 (10th gen Intel i3 - 10100 @ 3.60GHz/4-core, 6M cache with only 8GB RAM and 360W PSU with the 1TB HDD from late 2021. After upgrading to Windows 11 it is sluggish and painfully slow. I purchased a 1TB Crucial 3.0 NVME M.2SSD to help it out. This is a computer I only use for office work - no gaming or streaming or anything like that.

I have several files that I'm backing up to several external SSD's and would prefer to do a clean reinstall on the SSD (keep the HDD as a backup?). I've been told to switch from RAID to AHCI before installing the SSD.

I've also read that I can just install the SSD, go to "Disk Management" and select the HDD as a boot drive, but SSD as storage.

What would be the best option for me? Is there a step by step that I can follow or video anyone recommends?

Any help is appreciated!

 

[faalin]

download macrium reflect and clone the HDD to the SSD. afterwords remove the HDD and make sure the computer boots up to the SSD, once you're good throw the HDD in a safe or format it for extra internal storage.

 

[militarydave]

Ok thank you. I will download Macrium Reflect and clone it. Do I need to change the BIOS to AHCI from RAID? I would also like to get rid of the Dell "bloatware". I haven't used this PC in a long time as I have a brand new AMD Ryzen tower, but the XPS I feel is still decent despite being 3 years old.

I'm guessing I don't need to reinstall anything if using Macrium?

 

[faalin]

If you clone you will not have to reinstall anything.


Since it has a valid windows key, you could download the windows 11 media creation tool and make a usb install drive. Remove the HDD and install the SSD and do a fresh install, windows will reactivate itself. You would then have to download all the dell drivers and widows updates. I just did one of my old computers over the weekend and took about 2 hours.

If you go with the reinstall make sure no other drive is installed other then the drive you want to install on. widnows has a bad habit of installing the OS on one drive and the boot loader on the other. If the 2nd drive ever gets removed or the drive dies then the drive with you OS will not boot.

 

[militarydave]

Perfect! This is exactly what I needed. I'm going to go the Macrium route and clone everything. If something gets hung up then I'll unplug the HDD and use the SDD to do a clean install. I'm sure I can reconnect the HDD in the future and use it as additional storage.

 

[USAFRet]

Perfect! This is exactly what I needed. I'm going to go the Macrium route and clone everything. If something gets hung up then I'll unplug the HDD and use the SDD to do a clean install. I'm sure I can reconnect the HDD in the future and use it as additional storage.

-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Both drives must be the same partitioning scheme, either MBR or GPT
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Magician (which includes Data Migration), if a Samsung target SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, you may need to install the relevant driver for this new NVMe/PCIe drive.
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up

Verify the system boots with ONLY the current "C drive" connected.
If not, we have to fix that first.

Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

[Ignore this section if using the SDM. It does this automatically]
If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specify the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing
[/end ignore]

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD. This is not optional.
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD

(swapping cables is irrelevant with NVMe drives, but DO disconnect the old drive for this next part)
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------

 

[militarydave]

Thank you so much USAFRet! I will get around doing this tomorrow when my duty section is over. I was going to go with a Samsung EVO 970 but there was a sale on a Crucial P3 1TB (3.0, NVMe M.2). I will follow your instructions to the letter and report back any discrepancies. I did my research and per Dell and Crucial, this SSD is compatible with the XPS and is the same size (1TB) as my SATA HDD.