Altsein Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Hello guys,So I read that the A17 supports msata and went ahead and ordered one. Today I went ahead try to open it and find out where I can install it, sadly enough I could not find it.Anyone knows if the A17 supports msata for sure?Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svl7 Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 It definitely comes with one mSata slot. Two regular HDD slots are wired to Sata 3.0, the optical drive bay is also wired to Sata 3.0 and the last Sata 3.0 port is used for the mSata slot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onyoto Posted July 27, 2013 Share Posted July 27, 2013 It definately comes with one, I am typing this on an AW17 right now and it has a 64GB mSATA cache. The actual connector seems to be hidden though, you can get to both 2.5" HDDs from the base cover (as well as 2x DIMMs and the wireless card), my guess is the mSATA drive is under the keyboard with the other two DIMMs. Not sure how to get there though, I keep looking for a teardown review! At this rate I may have to make one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onyoto Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 I eventually got around to tearing down my AW17.... for another reason than just curiosity! See the pics of the mSATA / PCIe location. Under the keyboard, it's pretty easy to get at, take off the bottom cover, 2x HDD caddies, 1x optical drive and 1x battery. This will leave all the screws exposed with an encircled P next to them. Unscrew all of these (there is a hidden one under the foam around the end of HDD2) and the palm res / keyboard will come unclipped with a little nudge! A detail shot of the mSATA drive and the second pair of DIMMs. If you do buy and Aliemware with the mSATA drive already installed from Dell, it will have been setup with the chipset caching, which means some of the OS is on this drive too. Before changing out for a larger drive, you need to go into Windows first, completing setup and launch the Intel Rapid Storage Technology manager utility. Under the performance or acceleration tab, you can uncache the HDD. Once you have done this (it may take a few mins) all of your data will only be on the HDD. You can then clone this with an app such as Acronis True Image or Clonezilla. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Altsein Posted August 2, 2013 Author Share Posted August 2, 2013 Thanks. Managed to disassemble. You really have to be careful with those 22 screws that keeps the palm rest attached. Some screws are longer than others and you can easily find yourself with a little hole in the palm rest.For those who are wondering, i got a 250GB crucial and cloned the HDD to that Msata. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liziq Posted August 3, 2013 Share Posted August 3, 2013 i think it does have a msata, but i never use it. is it faster or have more feature？ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wong Posted August 4, 2013 Share Posted August 4, 2013 anyone know of any imaging/cloning software that works for the new alienware 17 with windows 8support? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marijuan Posted August 15, 2013 Share Posted August 15, 2013 I cloned W8 from HDD to msata by using "Clonezilla Image" (Free Software) and for resizing the 750GB HDD "G-Parted Live Image" (also free) and it works fine for me (hv w8 on the msata and replace the hdd with adding a ssd to get a quiet ssd only system) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zchay7e Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 Hi there,what brand is the msata ssd? I cant access those jpgs for some reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.