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June 2nd, 2017 02:00
XPS 8900 - OS installed on HDD not SSD
I recently bought an XPS 8900 from Dell Outlet. It came with a 32gb SSD and a 2TB HDD. I had anticipated that windows would be installed on the SSD, but in fact it's on the HDD and the SSD is empty.
Looking at the size of the Windows installed files, they're 40gb+ so to a some extent that seems to explain this, but wouldn't it be usual to have the OS on the SSD. Or is 32gb just too small for that?
Finally if that is the case what can I use the 32gb SSD for? Or should I just be looking to replace it with a bigger SSD and somehow switch the OS to that?
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Philip_Yip
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June 6th, 2017 19:00
That drive is used as a SSD cache drive. See here for more details:
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/uefi/#SATA
You would be better replacing it with a 512 GB SSD and clean installing Windows on it.
speedstep
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June 2nd, 2017 05:00
The 32Gig drive is a ready boost cache drive.
jamesjames100
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June 2nd, 2017 09:00
Thanks for your reply! Is that worth having with Windows 10, ie is the readyboost feature still useful?
If it helps what I have is an XPS 8900 with i7-6700 / 2GB Nvidia GTX750Ti and 16GB RAM
Am I better off losing this 32GB SSD and having a bigger SSD with the OS installed on it?
jamesjames100
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June 2nd, 2017 16:00
I've been reading a bit more about these 32GB SSD drives and when you say ready boost, is that the same as the 'Smart Response Technology' that's discussed? If so I'm wondering if this has been set up correctly as in windows explorer I see the SSD drive as the 'D' drive, 'DATA' with nothing on it at all.
jamesjames100
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June 7th, 2017 14:00
Thanks for this Philip, in the end I figured it out and got the 32gb working with the smart response.
So I was thinking along the lines of what you suggest, but with a 250gb ssd on grounds of cost. I just had a couple of questions if you can help, still slightly unsure about this. So firstly you're saying better to do a new install of windows 10 to the SSD instead of cloning it, why is that and is there a reliable guide you could point me to?
Secondly just in general out of curiosity I was looking at the configurations of new XPS 8920 that Dell sells and I can see that they have for example a 2TB hdd + 256GB M.2 PCIe x4 SSD, would that be set up in the same way with the 256 as cache or with windows on the 256? If it's just for cache why don't Dell install windows on SSDs?
vtoy116
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June 7th, 2017 16:00
In the XPS 8920, Windows is installed on the SSD. The M.2 NVMe uses an interface that is much faster than SATA III.
If you already have Windows 10 on your HDD it can't be that old that the system has developed a lot of clutter that it would need benefit from a fresh install. I would clone the HDD and save the work of re-installing all your applications. Usually a purchased SSD comes with cloning software. Also there is lots of free cloning software on the Internet. The alternative to cloning is to do a backup of your HDD and a restore to the SSD. There is also lots of free software on the internet to do that. Search the Internet there are lots of guides and videos.
jamesjames100
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June 8th, 2017 16:00
Thanks for your help with this, in the end Dell Outlet UK had a 20% discount on xps today and there was an XPS8920 with a 256SSD which worked out at the same price as my XPS8900 + buying the ssd separately (without the hassle of fitting it, etc) so I've bought that and am returning the 8900 - the graphics card is better as well and from what your saying seems like a better option in general. Thanks again!