Question about SSD's for M18x

So........

I currently have;

ID 0 Toshiba MK5061GS 500GB Non-RAID Disk
ID 5 Samsung SSD PM83 29.8GB Cache Disk (1)

I have run out of space to install games and need more storage. I don't want to reinstall windows or anything. Can I just buy an internal SSD (500GB) and add it into one of the open drive slots? Or will I have to reinstall windows?

Many Thanks

Mustang

 

You can, but i recommend that you make an image of the HDD and apply it to the SSD, that way your system will be much snappier and you can reuse the 500GB toshiba to be a data drive instead.

 

i 2nd the imaging of the drive to ur new SSD, I use Macrium reflect free edition for this.

 

No need to clone anything. You can keep things set up as you already have them. You have 3 x 2.5" drive slots available and it sounds like you are only using one of them. You just need to carefully remove your HDD caddy and ribbon cable and throw 1 or 2 new drives in the spare slots.
When removing the caddy you need to loosen the 4 screws holding in the caddy and use tweezers to CAREFULLY pull up the white ribbon cable connector tab. If you pull it up too quickly it will pull out from the connector and snap. Do not try to straighten the ribbon cable or it will break.

- Loosen the 4 screws and pull the connector tab up and pull the caddy straight up and out with the ribbon cable attached.

 

Hi,

I have installed the SSD in one of the empty slots but the SSD is not showing up anywhere when I switch on the laptop. Not in file explorer, not in device manager or in dsik management, any ideas what i've done wrong?

Many Thanks

Mustang

 

Also, the drive is showing in the BIOS on startup but just not recognised anywhere else. Not sure what to do.

 

Type in Disk Management in the start menu and you should be given the option to Create and Format Disk Partitions, or something like that. Just see if the drive is recognised in here. You may have to right click on it and make it a Simple Volume.

 

No, not showing up in disk management. Even downloaded Ease US software, that doesn't recognise the drive either.

 

If it's in the BIOS then it could be how the drives are set up. I can only assume it's because the mSata is being used as a cache drive and your system will be set to RAID. There is also the drive setup splash screen while booting. I think you have to press CTRL - I quickly as it splashes up during boot.
I used to have 2 x 2.5" Samsung SSD's set up in RAID and then an extra HDD for storage and it worked fine but I didn't have an mSata at the time.

The only other thing I can think of is that your sata cable is damaged just enough for the drive not to work in Windows. Just check that it's seated int he connector properly.

 

You may need to reinstall Windows after all.

You could try setting your BIOS to AHCI but I'm not sure what will happen. The OS is loaded on your HDD so it should still boot fine but the mSata probably won't be a cache anymore so you'll find that Windows will load slower

 

HI, thanks for your reply. I'm not experienced with messing the configuration settings, when I press CTRL-I and get through to them how should I configure them?

 

It's been a long time since I have played with storage settings so I'm probably not the best to guide you through it. If you are using an HDD with a cache mSata then you won't be getting the best performance anyway so you are best to do a clean install on the new SSD. Also make sure you put the SSD in one of the Sata3 ports on your connector. I believe Slots 1 and 3 are Sata3 and the middle slot is Sata2.

 

Hi,

Ok, so I've managed to get the computer to recognise the SSD, i've assigned a drive letter and am now cloning my existing disk to the SSD.

I'm presuming I can just swap them and as it's an SSD I should switch to AHCI and it should work. Fingers crossed

 

UPDATE:

Hi everyone, all up and running. Used Macrium Reflect to clone the drive, replaced it one for one and it booted without changing any configurations.

Thanks all for your help

 

very nice, glad you got it all set up

 

How did you get it working?

 

I just cloned the entire drive in the end. I bought two SSD's but one of them is not showing up anywhere now. Not in disk management, not in device manager, not anywhere. But if I plug it into USB with a SATA usb cable it shows up. Not sure what to do.