Swapping out the HDD for an SSD, clean install?

I have never done this before, doing a clean install on an alienware system. So I was wondering is there a work around for this? like instead of doing a clean install...say using something like alienrespawn to bring everything back to normal on the new drive after installing windows? or would I have to manually install every single driver again?

Also here is a question that I myself think is quite stupid but it wouldn't hurt to ask, is there any way to just copy all the contents of the current drive onto the ssd, and then just installing it into the m14x, starting it up and have everything work normally? lol.

 

hi mate,

i would recommend you to make a clean install, installing a image taken from an hdd and installing on an ssd can work but may cause problems...

if you just copy the files from your hdd to an ssd wont work because the bootesectors will be missing

just make sure before installing clean t get all drivers from the dell website because on the ressources dvd are some drivers missing...

also when you install your ssd make sure ahci mode is active for better performance.

 

Agreed, Clean install, worked with mine, not even one glitch. Before you install the OS, switch to ACHI, very important step. Remember to enable trim after install. ANd do these tweaks, you can pick and choose which ones.

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?49779-SSD-Tweak-Utility

Also lower your shadow storage, and file page, would save you a lot of GB.

 

Thank you both for the very informative replies.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

sorry, where would I do that?

 

BIOS, hit f2 during boot to enter the setup screen and it should be there.

 

This might help too. Perfect guide.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...er-install-order-guide-alienware-systems.html