Question Upgrading the drives on a Dell G3 3779 ?

[sparker781]

Good Morning Folks

I am in the process of upgrading my 4 year old Dell G3 3779 laptop. I am trying to figure out if the motherboard can take a newer M.2 PCIe NVMe drive. I have a 256GB SSD installed as my main drive which I also want to upgrade and a 1TB platter drive as my secondary. What is the best course of action? I hear the fan constantly running so I know that I need to do some housecleaning inside as well.

I appreciate the assistance.

 

[USAFRet]

https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/g-series-17-3779-laptop_setup-guide_en-us.pdf
The specs indicate it has a M.2 port.

What is the specific SSD in it now?

 

[sparker781]

https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/g-series-17-3779-laptop_setup-guide_en-us.pdf
The specs indicate it has a M.2 port.

What is the specific SSD in it now?

Apologies for the late reply. Drive 1 I believe this is a SATA Hard Drive 1TB and Drive 2 is KBG30ZMS128G NVMe TOSHIBA 128GB

 

[USAFRet]

Apologies for the late reply. Drive 1 I believe this is a SATA Hard Drive 1TB and Drive 2 is KBG30ZMS128G NVMe TOSHIBA 128GB

OK, you can swap both of those.

Larger NVMe drive to replace the 128GB Toshiba, and a SATA III SSD to replace the 1TB HDD.

We can go into details of how to effect this swap if you want.

 

[sparker781]

OK, you can swap both of those.

Larger NVMe drive to replace the 128GB Toshiba, and a SATA III SSD to replace the 1TB HDD.

We can go into details of how to effect this swap if you want.

I was looking at an M.2 and a SATA III SSD, IS that possible? And I'd need to clone my current hard drive so when I replace the drive I won't lose any of my data.

 

[USAFRet]

I was looking at an M.2 and a SATA III SSD, IS that possible? And I'd need to clone my current hard drive so when I replace the drive I won't lose any of my data.

Yes, that is exactly the combination I was referring to.

For your data, yes, cloning is a thing.

BUT...."lose any of my data" should never be a thing. Your stuff should already be backed up elsewhere, at all times.


How much free space do you have on the current HDD?

 

[sparker781]

OMG....The standard platter has 672GB available. The main drive with my OS was only 128GB and that has 12.4GB

 

[USAFRet]

OMG....The standard platter has 672GB available. The main drive with my OS was only 128GB and that has 12.4GB

Not sure what you mean here.

 

[sparker781]

the standard HDD has 672GB and the M.2 PCIe has 12GB left

 

[USAFRet]

the standard HDD has 672GB and the M.2 PCIe has 12GB left

OK...and what are you trying to do with these unknown drives?
'free space' is only small part of the issue.

 

[sparker781]

Well per our previous discussion. I believe my laptop can only handle 1 m.2 PCIe drive and the other has to be a standard drive? I am thrown off by what Dell means on their support page:

Dell Upgrade for my laptop

So they're talking Class 35 or Class 40

 

[USAFRet]

Well per our previous discussion. I believe my laptop can only handle 1 m.2 PCIe drive and the other has to be a standard drive? I am thrown off by what Dell means on their support page:

Dell Upgrade for my laptop

So they're talking Class 35 or Class 40

Yes.
1x M.2 NVMe drive, and 1x 2.5" SATA (can be HDD or SATA III SSD)

 

[sparker781]

so just disregard the classes I am good to go with the standard m.2 NVME drive and I can snag a pretty high capacity 2.5" SATA. Perfect. Do you normally purchase online?

 

[USAFRet]

so just disregard the classes I am good to go with the standard m.2 NVME drive and I can snag a pretty high capacity 2.5" SATA. Perfect. Do you normally purchase online?

A PCIe 3.0 drive such as a Samsung 970 EVO Plus would work well.

For the 2.5", Samsung 870 EVO or Crucial MX500.