M.2 boot drive for dell xps8910

[recDNA]

Dell customer support is useless. I can't find out if the m.2 slot takes an m keyed or b keyed m.2. I would like to use samsung nvme pcle m.2 pro 960. It is m keyed. Will it fit? Will i get full speed? (3000mbps)Do I need some sort of adapter?

The older samsung m.2 is b keyed and much cheaper but only gets 500 mbps max or less.

Which should I use? I appreciate the help because Dell is useless. They don't understand what I am talking about even though they sell both Samsung m.2. Please help if you can. My HDD is really slowing down my new computer.

 

[rgd1101]

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/t/20002981

 

[Red735i]

In the hope that I save SOMEONE the time it took me to find this info, I offer this solution....
#1, Dell will tell you you must reformat your HDD then put Windows 10 on your SSD, then reinstall ALL your application programs... They will also tell you that the Samsung SSD program to clone your HDD will not work... Nonsense.

This is the say way to get your Samsung EVO 960 SSD as your boot drive in a Dell XPS8910 computer....

VERY IMPORTANT: the XPS8910 BIOS does NOT allow you to pick the boot drive from a list. It picks only the drive with a OS on it. If 2 devices have OS on them, one of them will be ignored... usually the SSD. You will spin eternally if you try this route.

YOU NEED TO HAVE a USB Drive enclosure available to use, if you wish to use the HDD as storage away from your SSD.

#1: I will assume you have programs on your current HDD Boot Drive.
#2: I will assume you do not want to waste your time putting all those programs back on your SSD.
#3: At THIS STAGE, you want to clone your HDD onto some other drive, just in case you mess up.
4) Open the case, install the SSD into the M.2 Slot. ( The screw you muse have is a M2x2.5mm Teeny Tiny screw) . Install the appropriate drivers.
5) You will need to format the SSD. It will take some arbitrary Letter... You don;t care.
6) Start the Samsung Clone program from C: to the SSD.... When done ( it takes a while).... TURN OFF THE COMPUTER.
7) Physically REMOVE the HDD from the computer, put it into the drive enclosure.
8) Boot the computer. It will boot into the SSD. This is good. ( all you want to do is to be sure it all boots up correctly). You will NOT be able to boot off the SSD if you leave the HDD with the OS on it in the computer.
9) Plug in the USB HDD. Boot and Format the HDD to use in another location. This may first also require re-partitioning the HDD to get the maximum capacity. TURN OFF THE COMPUTER
10) Take the HDD out of the drive enclosure and put it back into the computer....
11) BOOT up the computer, the SSD should now appear as the boot drive, the the HDD will appear as some other drive than C:.. Probably D:
12) Close up the box, you are done.

What do you lose using this approach? You will not have a clean OS installed, It will be "dirty". Only by a complete, new install of Windows will the OS be clean.

1 alternative.... If you wish to install a new HDD, then skip steps 7,9 and 10. Install the new HDD into the computer at step 10. Format it then.

Remember, I told you to CLONE the C: HDD as the first step... if anything goes wrong, take the SSD out of the computer, put that C: HDD drive back into the computer and you are no worse off then when you started.....

 

[Red735i]

Additional pieces of data:
There ARE 2 M.s slots int eh XPS8910. One of them is too short to use the 24x80 size of the Samsung M.2 SSD. It is currently used by the WIFI card. Leave the WIFI card there. You can not use this slot for anything approaching sane behavior.

the M.2 slot in the XPS8910 is a PCIe x4 protocol device. The Samsung 850 is NOT compatible.Only use the 960.
In addition, you MAY be able to safely use other manufacturers cards, BUT be sure the protocol is PCIe x4. I have not tried this ( and the Samsung is not more expensive than the other brands, so why bother? But it's your computer.. so go for it.)