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.