Windows 10: Just need a little help getting a ssd and Win 10 cleanly installed!

Hey I have a older Intel H57 mobo chipset which came with my Dell XPS 8100 Studio desktop and I know it's only sata 3 but would like to install a 120gb PNY SSD. I am a little confused because Dell has my single WD Black Cav 1tb HDD running in RAID in the bios menu. How should I go about installing the 120gb SSD for Win 10 x64 and a couple games also keep the WD 1tb HDD as a media, games, etc system storage drive? I have a decent amount of experience with Windows installation and computers in general just never messed with a SSD drive before. I know my mobo/chipset will limit the speed of the SSD but I think my system will still benefit. I have a i7 860 cpu, h57 mobo/5 series 3400 chipset, 8gb 1333mhz ram, Evga FTW 960GTX 4GB gpu, 600w psu, and the WD Black Cav 1tb 7200rpm HDD. Any advice, guides, or help at all would be great! Thanks!

:)

 

Adding an old SSD to new computer

To use the Old SSD for games, it would be recommended o just cleanly format it. Losing the Old installed Widnows in the old SSD is perfectly fine, since you will still be able to have its license online (On your MS Account).

Before cleanly formating it, please to to recover your important personal-old files first.

__________________________________________

System reserve shows up, when you have the old SSD, then is belong to the said drive. If you do not plan to boot from the old SSD anymore, then it is ok to Delete it together with the old Windows 10 installation.

__________________________________________

If your concern is that you have the Legacy version of Windows 10 (1511 and 1607), then I suggedt that you just keep the drive.

 

Installed Window 10 Pro on a ASUS U56E that had Windows 10 Home

I tried to do a clean install of Win 10 Home w/o reformatting the SSD but I kept getting to an install page for Win 10 Pro.

That is why I thought I might have to reformat the SSD.

So do I need to reformat the SSD first or is there some other way to install Win 10 Home?

Thanks!

 

Installing a 2.5" form factor SATA SSD is just like installing a regular hard drive, aside from it being smaller. It uses normal SATA power and signal connectors. Some drives come with cheap (stamped metal) adapters to allow them to be mounted in 3.5" HD bays. I have had trouble with those matching the holes that were present in my case. Some people simply use double-sided tape to hold the drive in place, not necessarily in a HD bay.

I doubt that being limited to 3Gb/s (gigabits/s) will be a serious speed limitation. Your PCI-E X1 slots are rated at 500MB/s (=4Gb/s), so adding a USB 3.0 (6.0 Gb/s) would be a waste.

 

Before you begin.. Dell is no longer suporting this computer and will not provide any drivers or firmware for windows 10.
So do it on your own Risk.

Does your Motherboard Support multiple HDDs.. I bet it does. Before doing anything please attach SSD on MOBO and ..
Check if OS is able to detect it. (Ports may not be compatible as 8100 is an Old device).
If you can see SSD in OS....
In BIOS you have to change sata mode to AHCI and install OS on SSD... after changing boot order to SSD first.
Now you can use windows 10 without issues.

You can take further trouble if you wish to configure Raid again.

Once OS is installed Download RAID drivers from Dell website..
Now Change Sata mode in BIOS to Raid.. Computer will fail to boot .. Press Ctrl + I and it will ask to choose your Cache drive select your mSATA.

I would recommend to as AHCI instead of Raid as Dell will not give you drivers compatible with OS 10

 

Apparently the machine is already running Win 10.

The case has a specified location for a second HD.

The BIOS has no AHCI setting. The choices are ATA and RAID. I'd leave it at RAID. No need to actually configure a RAID setup.

Savannahmick will probably be using a regular SATA SSD, rather than an mSATA device.

Jeepers - what has happened to support.dell.com? I don't see any Win 7 (the original OS) drivers available for download for the Studio XPS 8100. Can they be gotten with a service tag or serial number?

 

Yes I can get them with service tag F9JCQL1 and I still have driver disk also. Yeah Dell isn't really good about longterm support! I am going to upgrade but right now I still can score 8000 in Firestrike which is faster than 55% of the systems that run it. Plus money is tight I can game at 1080p with max settings and the old i7 860 at 3.6mhz is fast enough still for most things. Anyway bobkn I really appreciate your help and I am going to install the ssd first thing in the morning. So anymore help or advice would be great! Thanks for all the replies!

 

I don't have much to add. I tried to recall how to make the old HD not bootable. (Getting rid of the Windows folder will do that, but there may be better ways.)

An I7-860 system isn't exactly archaic. You already have a newish graphics card, which is the most significant hardware upgrade you could get.

A 120 GB SSD is probably adequate, but if you can afford a larger one, go with it. (I bought 120 GB SSDs at around $1US/GB. They're now closer to $0.25/GB.)

Additional recommendations:

Disconnect the old HD while installing 10 on the SSD. Your "digital entitlement" ought to activate 10 on the SSD after a clean install.

If you don't have a means of imaging the old Windows installation (external HD), this would be a good time to obtain one.

 

Hey THANKS! I only have one more question should I just use my disk that I created during my first Win 7 to Win 10 upgrade for the install to SSD? Or is there a better way? Also I am running the insider previews if that makes a difference and I see where there is a clean install tool for the insiders but I have to switch drives so not sure if I can use it. I am sorry but one more thing whats to best way to setup old HDD as OS storage and keep running programs from it? This is the last time I'll bug you for awhile! Thanks a million!

 

I've seen where it's advised to put your new SSD with the OS on the first SATA port (mine is on port 0) any other data drives on succeeding ports, any DVD/CD RW (optical) drive(s) on the last SATA ports.

If you've already got W10 on your box then you've got a digital entitlement key, should be able to install on the empty SSD and activate no problem. Also very good advice to have only the SSD you're installing W10 on in the box, you don't want the boot manager to inadvertently end up on a data drive.

By the way, I have a couple older Dell laptops from 2008 and 2011 (Latitude's, E6400 and E6420) and using the service tag on their site gives drivers, BIOS, manuals, etc...

 

Getting out of my depth here.

If it was me, wanting to install an insider build, I'd want an .ISO. I'm not sure which is the latest available through legitimate sources. I have downloaded an .ESD from an illegitimate source, and converted it to an .ISO. I may not use it unless I get sufficiently bored between now and 2 August.

I believe that there is no simple way to keep running installed programs from the existing HD after it is no longer the OS drive. That is for all programs that used installers, and that have all sorts of entries in the Windows Registry. (Some software runs without being installed, but that is for a small minority.) That's not to say it's impossible, but I don't know how to do it.

 

In the good old days (maybe as recently as a few months ago), Dell would allow download of drivers etc. without a service tag. Looks like they have tightened up.

I haven't purchased a Dell PC since 1995. (Or any prebuilt desktop PC, for that matter.) I used to sniff around their support area in an attempt to assist others. Looks like that door has closed.

 

You can Still download
Drivers from dell websites .. instead of using service tags you can click on choose a product.
Drivers Downloads | Dell India


The issue is that Dell Will sell same model number with 10 types of different chipsets.. be careful while installing if you dont have service tag

 

I installed Dell Detect from their site and let it tell me what devices are on my particular laptops, did a BIOS flash from A08 to A23 this morning before upgrading the E6420 to W10 Pro. The flash was successful and went without incident, upgraded to W10 Pro through windows update, that also went fine. After the download it probably took an hour to get installed and ready to use.

 

Hey thanks to everyone for the help and advice! I did go and swap the 120gb for a 240gb SSD since it was only $20 bucks difference! I have made both a usb boot drive for installing Win 10 and I even burnt a iso to a disc of the latest available preview for installing. I am about to remove old HDD and install SSD and begin installing but still can't decide if I should use the standard Win 10 x64 or the preview! Anyway I'll probably just go with the standard version then I can switch to preview later I guess! Arggghhh! Thanks again great help in these forums there is!