Dell Inspiron 7577 - Teardown | Mods & Upgrades | Technical Details | Pics of Internals | Optimizing

I scored a Samsung 970 Pro 1tb NVMe for cheap from a coworker. Can i swap it out for my 128gb M.2 Sata ssd that came with dell? I know physically it fits, just not sure on MB capability. If so will i need a heatsink of any type? I plan to clone with macrium

(found this thread as well) Is it correct i need to switch from raid to ahci?)

thanks

 

It will work and you shouldn't need anything special to make it work. I wouldn't clone your drive as you would need special hardware to do so (external m.2 to usb). A clean install would provide better performance.

 

thanks i found a link about switching from raid to ahci if its setup that way. i need to check i guess

 

So i cloned the m.2 sata 128gb drive to the new 1 tb Samsung nvme drive using macrium reflex (free) and an external nvme drive reader. Installed NVMe drive into laptop and booted right up. When i went to extend the windows partition from 128gb to 1TB, it was not adjacent to the unused space partition. I had to download Paragon Partition Manager (free) and move the open space from the far right to the left, hopping across 2 partitions to get it next to the windows partition. Once I did that, I was able to expand the windows partition to the full available space. The speeds on this new drive are ridiculous. Another thing I did after everything was running fine was switch the drive settings in bios from raid to AHCI so I could install the Samsung drivers. It was a very simple command line process:

1. Click the Start Button and type cmd
2. Right-click the result and select Run as administrator
3. Type this command and press ENTER: bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal (ALT: bcdedit /set safeboot minimal)
4. Restart the computer and enter BIOS Setup
5. Change the SATA Operation mode to AHCI from either IDE or RAID
6. Save changes and exit Setup and Windows will automatically boot to Safe Mode.
7. Right-click the Windows Start Menu once more. Choose Command Prompt (Admin).
8. Type this command and press ENTER: bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot (ALT: bcdedit /deletevalue safeboot)
9. Reboot once more and Windows will automatically start with AHCI drivers enabled.

Anyway, i know i have could have clean installed but i enjoy learning in the process so I went this route. (also i didnt feel like reinstalling everything again...lol)

The speeds on the new Samsung Drive are crazy fast, up in the 3000's like everyone else's speedtests of them using crystaldiskmark

Hope this post helps others with same questions