M4700 Owners Thread

You can install Windows 8 from a USB drive. The Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool can be used to prepare a USB drive but only on a computer running Windows 7 (I couldn't get the tool to work on Windows 8). There are other ways to go about it, just Google.

 

tijo, thanks. I guess I should be able to copy the DVD to a bootable USB stick and go from there. It just occurred that I would also need to re-istall all the drivers... mmm I need to think a bit about how I'm actually going to do this.

The HDD is unlikely to fit in the optical bay. I couldn't actually check it as I couldn't pull the HDD out. For some misterious reason the screw to the HDD latch seems smaller and is really tight...! Anyway I opened the optical bay and seems too tight for a 9,5mm HDD.

I confess I'm really happy to have this much needed machine but at the same time, frustrated on this on this subject. I haven't made the order myself, but passed all the specifications to the techie, clearly listing msata primary hard-drive and HDD as additional storage. This would leave me with an optical drive too.

My guess is DELL didn't have an msata and suggested a regular 2,5" for the optical bay and no one was smart enough to realize some additional swapping was required to ensure the OS on the SSD... duh! I'm just not sending it back because I already waited for too long.

Well, I think for the moment I'm going to port the OS to the SSD on the optical bay, by clean install or image, and keep it there for a while. At some point in a near future, I'll just replace the HDD with an SSD. Something I was planning at a later stage when SSD prices drop a bir more. Or get an msata, tough I belienve msata is also SATA 2.

 

You can always add an optical drive later, any standard "ultra slim" 9.5mm drive should fit. I bought an aftermarket BD-RE drive to stick in my M6700 but non-BD drives are very cheap.
(Maybe when you buy a mSATA drive you can dump the HDD, move the SSD to the internal slot, and install an optical drive if it would be useful for you to have one.)

 

Aaron that's a good idea too!

Discs are still a widely used media. I don't personally use them much but I'm sure the day I need it, I'll regret not having one on my laptop...

How did you do with the cover? Did you order one from DELL, or used the one provided with the BD drive? I assume you'll just accept a colour mismatch between the laptop and the drive cover.

Ok, it's getting late here... 4am now. I'm going to check how exactly I'm going to bring the OS to the SSD, and then I'll worry on bringing the SSD to the SATA 3 port!

Thanks!

 

tns,

If the HDD drive from the primary drive slot has more than 7mm it is not gonna fit into optical caddy bay. I had the same problem, as I asked in this thread if the optical bay can hold 9mm drive, but the answer which I misunderstood was that the bay itself has 9mm. I got my m4700 with 500gb 9mm HDD as primary and 320gb HDD 7mm secondary as I was planning to swap them in place and then replace the 320gb with the SSD drive. No chances.. Primary 500gb 9mm drive is NOT gonna fit into optical drive..

 

polk,

As far as I know only the primary drive slot is SATA 3, the optical bay is SATA 2. Anyway, SSD in that slot still makes huge difference as beside high transfer when copying large amount of data, the more visible improvement is when working with multiple small files.

The part number of my caddy is: 0857YV, but I am not able to find it on the Dell's search part site. I was also trying to locate my HDD, which part number is: 0PCJG4, without a luck. I would be glad to hear what do I do wrong and how can I find this parts on the site..

As for the drive preinstalled in the caddy I could only choose between the optical drive itself and the caddy with a hard drive. I couldn't choose the caddy without a drive, which I don't understand why.

There is a row of three buttons over the ESC key, which has nice dimmed LEDs. Between these buttons and the ESC key are the LEDs indicating: storage usage, battery charging, wifi enabled, bluetooth enabled and.. some other symbol with number 9 inside, which I am still trying to find what it really means. Anyway, these LEDs are too bright for me as I do like to often work in rooms without full sunny day light level. The darker it is, the more this LEDs are a pain.

 

The symbol with 9 inside would be the numlock icon.

 

Indeed, thanks tijo!

I guess you can also give me some hints for F3 and F5 function symbols? What are they for?

 

F3 is likely the scroll lock, not sure, F5 is touchpad enable/disable.

 

I used the bezel that came with the drive so the color is slightly off, but it's hard to notice unless you look at it close. Fine with me.

You *can* stick a 9mm drive in the optical drive bay with an appropriate caddy. Your caddy must have very little wasted vertical space below where the HDD actually sits.