Ssd help for MSI GT70 dominator

So my msi gt70 dominator arrived today along with its samsung ssd. The thing is, the technician I hired won't or rather is afraid to install the ssd or to switch the hdd with the ssd because he finds it complicated and he might break something or cause a malfunction. He says that seeing as it is new, the msi stores here(philippines) might now know how to do it as well. So I would want to know if anyone has specific steps and guidelines which are simple enough to follow so that I may be able to use my ssd. My goal is to transfer the "built in" 1tb hdd to the second hdd bay and to use the ssd as the primary disk.

P.S. Is it difficult and/or dangerous to do? Should I just sell my ssd? Can a normal person without much experience do it?

Thank you for your replies.

 

Oh for chrissakes, just open the back-cover, stick it in and enable AHCI in bios if you don't have it enabled already.
I think it's a grand total of two screws. It slides neatly into the slot and is easily accessible.
Fire the technician, he's incompetent.

 

Exactly what I was thinking. I couldn't oversee him because im currently out of the city and wont be back til tomorrow and I wanted it finished by the time I get back. It would be stupid to add a second empty hdd bay if it were dangerous to do add another hdd/ssd right?

About the AHCI how do I do that?

 

It's most likely pre-enabled, but you can access the bios by spamming Delete key (or possibly F2) immediately after powering on your device (spam it to be sure it's detected).
Once inside the bios, don't mess around with things you don't know (well, you can change any setting you want to find what options there are, just don't SAVE unless you know what you're doing), just navigate the menus until you find the Storage options, and there should be an entry that allows you to toggle storage type between IDE (or legacy), RAID and AHCI modes.
Set it to AHCI, save and exit.

Before you do that however, install this Microsoft patch: ( Error message occurs after you change the SATA mode of the boot drive) - unless this patch is installed, if you're on a non-AHCI system mode with windows already installed and you try to toggle ahci on, your system may be incapable of booting.

So, steps:

1. Install the AHCI patch;
2. Shut down machine, remove back cover, stick the SSD into the free slot;
3. Reassemble, power on, spam Delete, find yourself in bios;
4. Look for storage-related menu, find the the toggle that enables AHCI mode;
5. Save and exit, either install windows on the SSD or try to migrate your data (I usually dislike data migration, prefer to have everything clean, so can't advise you here).

Note: Some machines refuse to detect SSD's with AHCI disabled, some do detect them but their performance is heavily impacted, since without RAID or AHCI modes enabled, you wouldn't be using the SSD's full speed. Even with AHCI disabled a SSD is blazing fast, much faster than a traditional HDD, but why slow yourself down, eh?

 

The bracket for the second drive needs to be fitted too, it should be in the box.

 

The msi box or the samsung box?

Is there a risk with opening the back panel and inserting the ssd myself? Like is there a chamce that I might break it? Can an inexperienced guy do it?

 

a VERY inexperienced guy can do it

 

Well that's reassuring btw, can I clone my hdd to ssd if i insert both hdd and ssd in the laptop? Or do i have to get the connector thing to clone it?

PS. The msi gt 70 dominator 895 does have 2 hdd slots right?

 

Yes, there are two slots. You can use sw like Acronis or - these are free - EaseUS Todo Backup or, even better, PartedMagic to clone your HDD to the SSD.

My advice - get PartedMagic, build an USB with the sw on it (use something like UNetbootin), stick the SSD in the Dominator, then boot directly from USB and clone disk-to-disk. Then temporarily remove the HDD before your boot from the SSD. If the SSD does not boot straight away - it happens -, boot from a Windows installation CD, then select repair and let it fix the SSD's startup.

And stop sweating over the replacement. It's as simple as removing a piece of plastic and putting it back again. (Just to make sure, remove the adapter and battery first, though that's hardly necessary for a simple HDD replacement...)

 

Brackets for ssds or hdds are notebook specific so it should be in the msi box.

 

Thank you very much for your help guys! That's why i love this site

 

Btw one more thing, i dont think msi gave me a windows cd along with my laptop so how do i perform a fresh install? Would you also recommend fresh install over cloning or are they just the same.

 

You would need to download an ISO of windows 8 and create your own disk to do a clean install or use the tool on the machine to create a backup to do a factory MSI restore.

 

Great! Im gonna have a busy day ahead of me then.

 

I recommend cloning, though that being a new PC a fresh install would not be too bothersome.

Download Macrium Reflect, make a bootable WinPE usb (included in Reflect), then clone your OS partition.

 

I cloned my 4 years old Asus, Win7 64 as I changed to SSD. Easeus Partition Master Free did it in a breeze, just had to change the boot order after cloning. All settings were SSD optimized.
Actually, to be exact I cloned both C: and D: (data) from the original drive which I now have as an additional backup as it's not needed in the system. Must say SSD on Sata II didn't give so much better speed but I got rid of the most annoying slowness.

 

I had to leave my tools in the airport since i forgot that i wasnt allowed to bring them without checking them in so ill have to buy a new one when i go back. I plan to install some games and software over the weekend but my problem is if i clone my os partition, will i have to reinstall my previously installed files?

 

If you clone a drive and replace it with one with an identical data set and model then the system wont know you have changed anything.

 

i see. i'll just wait until i install my ssd to install all my games then

btw, how do i find the specific file to clone? i mean how do i find the OS? im sorry if this question is noobish haha it will be my first time doing this.

 

You clone the partition where OS is - default is C:

 

Ayt. Thank you! Will ask for help if i encounter problems

 

Have there been complaints with regards to the usb slots of the gt 70 dominator specifically the 3 usb 3.0s? My external hard drives seem to disconnect randomly at some point which is a hassle because installations get cancelled halfway or movies will be forced to stop playing etc.

 

not much to offer, but at least re/install the usb3 drivers

 

USB 3 is built in Windows 8, no separate drivers afaik.

 

Guys my best friend got me a Plextor m5m 256GB mSATA SSD but my GT70 dominator pro 890 doesn't have an mSATA port. Is there a converter that you recommend?

 

Any one of these should do the trick.

Newegg.com - Renice Half-Mini mSATA to 2.5" SATA SSD Convertrer Adapter Board Model RN-MSATA-AD(MINI)

Newegg.com - SATA to mSATA Slot Adapter Module Engineering Test Converter tool W/ Screwdriver

 

Thanks for the answer. I've already seen these. I was just wondering if anyone had actually a personal experience with something like this.

 

Another question regarding my SSD. It seems that my computer is still going back to the C: drive (the original OS drive using the HDD) even after I cloned and made the SSD my primary boot drive. Isn't supposed to be that once you clone the original source would be wiped out? However, it seems that both my SSD and HDD C: partition still have the OS files. How do I address this? Also, how do I make my SSD the C: drive?

 

I cloned mine with Easeus Partition Master Free; it cloned HD to the SSD, assigned the C: (and D: ) letters to the SSD and removed the drive letters (C and D) from the HD. Simple; just had to change the boot order.

 

You just have to be careful the program will align the data correctly on the ssd or you get a speed penalty and lower endurance.

 

Easeus offers the option for the needed SSD optimizations.

 

Me and my best friend bought two dominator pro 890 notebooks and today we wanted to add a Plextor m5m mSATA SSD. After doing some research I found the best and most easy software for the job. It's Paragon OS to SSD 4.0. It costs 19$ but there's a coupon I can share if anyone is interested with 5$ off.

The procedure was this:

I put the SSD in an external dock as USB 3.
Booted with Paragon software.
It asks you if you want to expand the OS partition to use the whole size. I clicked yes.
In 3 minutes it was finished.
Removed the old drive installed the SSD and Booted straight to Windows in UEFI mode.
This was very important to me. A lot a software work fine with legacy bios boot but have a hard time with UEFI. With this software it was a breeze. At the and I put the old 1TB drive in the second slot and everything was fine.

 

It's the UEFI and all paths on the drive still pointing to C.

 

It does exactly what it's name says. It copies your regular hdd into your SSD and takes care of all the drive letters and optimizes the drive as SSD. After I finished the install I swapped the hdd with the SSD and placed the hdd in the second drive bay. It immediately booted into Windows in UEFI with the SSD as C drive and the old drive was D and E since it was split in two partitions from msi.

 

Well, I fixed everything now so thanks to everyone who helped I ended up using the f3 option on my gt70 which reinstalled windows and fixed the directory things or whatever you call that.