pangers94 Posted September 28, 2013 Share Posted September 28, 2013 Hi guys, I'm waiting for my AW18 to come in a few days. It comes stock with 750GB HDD and I already bought Plextor M5M mSata SSD 256GB to use it as OS boot. I also have a 500GB SSD from my old laptop which will be used as a third drive in the AW18. The question here is I've been reading on the internet that people are having problem to install additional drive on their AW18 because of the Legacy and UEFI bios and I don't understand any of these terms. My ideal plan would be: -Use the mSata as Primary OS boot -Use 750GB HDD as storage drive -Use the 500GB SSD as storage drive for games Before doing any of this, I will create a recovery image using AlienRespawn. I know that some people have run into problems adding additional drives, maybe anyone can help me by making a detailed instruction on how to accomplish my ideal plan...? I'm sure it will also help the other members that are having the same problem with me. Any help will be much appreciated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackheart Posted September 29, 2013 Share Posted September 29, 2013 IT should be easy enough to do. I suspect that the Legacy and UEFI bios issue would be with disk partitioning. Will you be installing the OS fresh, or restoring from a backup? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pangers94 Posted October 1, 2013 Author Share Posted October 1, 2013 Well I'm planning to clone all the data from the original HDD to the mSATA ssd then I'm going to format the HDD as the storage drive. Also, I've read around and people say that it is possible to use the mSata SSD as both OS boot and caching for the harddrive. Anyone know any particular step to take and settings to do this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p4izanagi Posted October 1, 2013 Share Posted October 1, 2013 i dont think the SSD can use as caching. as the S.M.A.R.T sensor on 64gb ssd caching is disabled .i dunno about but , im sure it can't, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vs3074 Posted October 1, 2013 Share Posted October 1, 2013 I never suggest cloning with ssd, clean is the best way to go here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pangers94 Posted October 2, 2013 Author Share Posted October 2, 2013 @vs3074 maybe I should consider clean install since the laptop will come with basically no program in it (except factory default programs from AW). Does installing the mSata SSD require any BIOS setting or specific step? Some people have recommended me to use the 256GB mSata for OS boot AND caching. They told me to create 2 partition, 64 GB for the caching and the rest for the OS. Anyone know how to do this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avensky Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Personally I did a clean install and put the OS on a 60gb msata drive. At first i was just testing the read/write speeds on the msata port and it was faiirly fast at about 400+ read/write. Runs about the same as an old 120 kingston hyperx 3k i used to have. For storage and games I use a 1TB samsung 840 evo ssd. I have all my libraries "hyperlinked" to my D drive as well as 32GB of pagefile set to D and 1-2GB on C. After playing with possible Settups for my hard drives I eventually put the 1TB ssd on the optical bay, the read/write speeds did not suffer what so ever from the port change, it still read/writes 500+ on crystaldisk. And Finally on the actual sata ports i have 2 1TB HHD's on raid 0 for very large Fraps recordings. This laptops chipset, Intel HM87, seems to support sata III speeds on the smata and optical drive which is amazing imoTo answer your question, the laptop did have trouble recognizing some of my hard drives but was not a problem after installing all the drives. for some of them you have to switch from dual graphics cards to integrated via fn+f5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avensky Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 @vs3074 maybe I should consider clean install since the laptop will come with basically no program in it (except factory default programs from AW). Does installing the mSata SSD require any BIOS setting or specific step? Some people have recommended me to use the 256GB mSata for OS boot AND caching. They told me to create 2 partition, 64 GB for the caching and the rest for the OS. Anyone know how to do this?From what I understand splitting msata into two partition for both OS and Cache is not possible. Irst uses at the whole drive when used for cache. if you firgure a workaround use 60GB or less for cache, any more would be wasteful.I recommend using msata as OS period, this laptop does not limit your ssd's performance what so ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clscold7 Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 It's interesting because on the Alienware website, when you attempt to configure an Mx18 with window 8 and an SSD it complains and says that it's not supported - then I come here and see people obviously using them. Does anyone know why their website does this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
divnstud Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 Don't worry about what their website says man. Do a clean install of windows 8.1 on your msata ssd and use the other 2 as data drives like you planned In the bios under boot settings you want to set the msata drive as your boot drive and then install. Download all the drivers and apps from dells website and you'll be all set. Save the desktop images before you format the 750gb hdd if you like AW stock desktops though. Other than that you should be all good! Have fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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