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3387
August 27th, 2016 20:00
Sandisk X400 M.2 SSD compatibility with new XPS 8900, and cloning questions
I just got a new XPS 8900 up and running and ordered a Sandisk X400 1TB SATA III M.2 drive for it. I know, adding a PCIE SSD with an adapter would be much faster. But I am not a gamer and focused more on on-board back-up and storage capacity. And the new Sandisk card is getting good reviews and should give a nice speed boost. This will be my first attempt at installing an SSD and cloning to a new boot drive. I've gone through the forum and found some good information. A few questions...
One of the threads says that an SSD with both B and M keys (like this one) may not work. Searching the web I've not found comments from anyone that has tried this particular SSD in a new XPS desktop. Any compatibility concerns?
Another thread was posted on problems with booting the XPS 8900 when adding a new drive, but updating the BIOS to 2.1.3 seemed to be the fix. I confirmed that my machine already has this BIOS version. Again, any concerns?
My plan is to clone to the new SSD in the machine using Acronis or other software, then set it as the boot drive in the BIOS. Is there any reason to delete the operating system from the C: drive afterward, or can it just stay as a backup if any problems develop with the SSD?
I've already installed some basic programs including MSOffice 2007 and Windows Essentials so I can use the machine, but otherwise it is still very clean. When I do the clone will these run OK from the SSD drive without much messing around? And will they need to be uninstalled from the HDD?
Thanks!
X8900-2508BLK
i7-6700 / 3.4 GHz
16mB RAM
1TB HDD
Pontguy
4 Posts
0
August 29th, 2016 16:00
I'll answer some of my own questions. The Sandisk M400 SSD arrived today and I found an M2x4 screw at Ace Hardware to install it with. Installation was super-simple. I used a pair of tweezers to hold the tiny screw in place and then a jewelers screwdriver to secure it.
It seemed to take longer for the first boot which made me nervous but everything loaded without any problem. I restarted and pressed F2 to get to the BIOS and the new SSD was there! And then let the computer load Windows and checked device manager and again it was there!
As expected the drive did not yet show up in Windows because it was not formatted. I used Disk Management under Computer Management to initialize the drive. And now I have a new drive I: with 935 GB free.
So far so good. It looks like the Sandisk M400 should work just fine.
Next step is to clone. Still blazing new territory for me... when the drive is cloned will it stay I: or will it become C: ???
Pontguy
4 Posts
1
August 30th, 2016 15:00
All finished but the cleanup.
I decided on Macrium Reflect for cloning since it is free and seemed like it would work OK. I followed the instructions without resizing partitions because the SDD is the same size as the HDD. Everything went very smooth and I ended up with a clone J: drive. It took less than 15 minutes to complete.
I shut the computer down and used F12 on startup to force the boot to the SSD. It came up with the SSD as drive C: and the HDD as drive E: and I spent a little time making sure everything worked OK. Then shut back down and restarted using F2 to get to the BIOS, and re-set the boot order to the SSD first, then the HDD as second.
So now I have Windows on both 1 TB drives, and the machine is booting on the SSD as default. I don't see any reason to reformat the HDD since I have plenty of room for storage and if problems develop with the SSD I have a full backup of Windows loaded on the HDD.
Next step is to reload all of my files and the rest of my programs. Since storage is not an issue is there any reason why I shouldn't put my files on the SSD, and back them up to the HDD?
Bottom line, yes, the 1 TB Sandisk M400 M.4 SSD works with an XPS 8900. The boot time is noticeably faster and if I get around to it I'll see if I can get some benchmark speeds. Granted it will not be as fast as using an adapter card and more expensive SSD but I knew that going in.
I think I did pretty good for a relative rookie!
Pontguy
4 Posts
0
September 29th, 2016 22:00
Almost a month now and absolutely no problems. The computer runs great with the M.2 ssd.