XPS 8930, how should I replace a 1TB HDD with a 1TB SSD?

Question

At the moment I have a 500GB C: drive which is getting close to full. I also seem to have a 1TB HDD as drive D: which has Windows on it, but nothing else (as far as I can tell). (I guess I must have set this up as a backup six years ago when I bought this PC, but I can no longer remember!) I presume I could just clone the C: drive to the D: drive and start using that instead, freeing up a load of space, but I'd like to continue to boot from SSD and maintain the startup speed I've got used to. So I'm thinking it would be a good idea to get a brand new 1TB SSD and use that as the C: drive. But I've got a bit confused about how to do this.

Should I buy a SSD that plugs (via a converter?) into the PCIE slot 4x? Or would it be better just to remove the old HDD and slot in an SSD in its place using a SATA cable?

If it sounds like I know what I'm talking about, appearances can be deceptive as I'm just repeating a lot of what I read here: https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/xps-desktops/xps-8930-adding-an-additional-ssd/64fbc0b593947f427cfd5d0f

If anyone can give me some advice/encouragement, and maybe suggestions as to what exactly I should buy, I'd be very grateful!

redxps630 · Answer

Best is to get a new 1-2 TB M.2 ssd

8930 motherboard has a M.2 slot for it

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/xps-8930-desktop/xps-8930-service-manual/procedure?guid=guid-3817bdd4-e065-4b7c-b93f-2a9b2cffb72b&lang=en-us

redxps630 · Answer

Do you currently have the ssd 500GB C: as 2.5' ssd or M.2 ssd? upload a pic inside

RoHe · Answer

@MatthewBest - I don't understand:  '...but I'd like to continue to boot from SSD...' You said 1T D: HDD has Windows on it. So does that mean 500 GB C: SSD doesn't have Windows on it? Something isn't right here. Windows Boot Manager should always be first in the boot sequence in BIOS setup, and it won't be happy if both drives have the OS on them.  So which drive is it actually booting from?

MatthewBest · Answer

Pretty embarrassing - I had no idea how dusty it was in there!

What I see here is: at the bottom I have two HDDs (one is my D: drive, the other is E: and F: drives, used for storage of music and pictures). The C: drive (SSD) is not visible in this photo but is on the top right - it is a 2.5" SSD attached with a SATA cable - this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-MX500-CT500MX500SSD1-NAND-Internal/dp/B0786QNS9B). I can see an M2 SSD (16 GB) - the blue rectangle (I think this is Optane memory, but how that works or what it does I have no idea). I also see an empty PCIE x4 Slot 4 just above the left hand HDD.

RoHe - sorry for being unclear. Both C: drive AND D: drive appear to have Windows on them - it loads from C: and D: appears to be completely redundant. What I meant was that I could just reformat the D: drive, then clone C: to D: and I'd then have loads of free space, but I'd be booting from a HDD instead of a SSD.

MatthewBest · Answer

Hmmm.  My photo of the inside did not seem to load, so here is a link to it: https://imgur.com/a/HdBgu2k

redxps630 · Answer

Replace the 16GB Intel optane w a M.2 ssd

or replace the 2.5” ssd with a larger 1-2 TB sata ssd

clone the OS on current 2.5 ssd to new ssd (confirm bios>sata operation is set as AHCI and not RAID ON)

format D and E hard drives

MatthewBest · Answer

I don't seem to be able to upload or link to a photo of the inside for some reason - at least neither is showing up for me.

redxps630 · Answer

Pic upload works for some user and not others depending on account level, browser, pc vs smartphone (type of smartphone).  Windows 10 Chrome works by uploading local .jpg file saved by Paint. In my case when I transfer iPhone jpg to pc, upload the transfered jpg does not work unless Paint is used to open the jpg and pic saved as a new jpg file then uploaded on forum. The bug has not been fixed yet

ispalten · Answer

@MatthewBest​  'New' members generally are 'inspected' on uploads, they do eventually appear, like the 9-01-2025 12:18 PM post. Can also load it to another place and put the link into the message. If you run POWERSHELL from an Administrator Prompt, and enter DISKPART, and then LIST DISK, you should see all disks, like I can: =================== PS C:\> diskpart Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.26100.1150 Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.On computer: IRVXPS8940 DISKPART> list disk   Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---  Disk 0    Online          931 GB  1024 KB        *  Disk 1    Online          931 GB  1024 KB        *  Disk 2    Online          476 GB    16 MB        *  Disk 3    Online         3726 GB      0 B        * =============================== Do they all show for you? If not, the drive might need to be formatted NTFS.

MatthewBest · Answer

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.On computer: DELLXPS-8930 DISKPART> LIST DISK   Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---  Disk 0    Online          465 GB    15 MB        *  Disk 1    Online          931 GB  1024 KB        *  Disk 2    Online          931 GB  6144 KB  Disk 3    Online           13 GB    13 GB        *OK, so I see Disk 0 (the 500GB SSD) is nearly full.  Disks 1 and 2 are HDDs and Disk 3 is the 16GB Optane memory.

redxps630 · Answer

good you successfully upload a pic  you can also copy paste data from ssd to the hdd then delete the data on ssd to free up space

MatthewBest · Answer

@redxps630​ so it’s ok just to replace the 16GB M2 SSD with a much bigger version? I wasn’t really sure what the Optane was for, so I thought I should leave it alone. If it’s not doing anything important then that seems like a good solution to me.

redxps630 · Answer

The 16GB m.2 Optane is Intel proprietary cache and not industry wide standard. It is not a ssd.

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000175253/optane-memory-module-frequently-asked-questions

When you are already using a sata ssd, the optane is not doing anything important. I would unpair Intel Optane from the sata drive.

‎XPS 8930, disable optane memory, not available in IRST | DELL Technologies

Next uninstall the optane m.2 chip. make sure you can still boot from the 2.5 ssd smoothly. When that is done you are ready to clone ssd to a larger M.2 or sata ssd.

MatthewBest · Answer

First of all, this is all very helpful, so thank you very much indeed.

If I am understanding correctly, my next steps are:

1. Disable Optane (in BIOS)
2. Switch from RAID ON to AHCI in BIOS
3. Remove Optane M2 chip
4. Install new M2 SSD - would this one be OK? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-Plus-PCIe-Gen4-Internal/dp/B0BYWB6237?th=1
5. Using DiskGenius clone C: drive to new M2 SSD.

At that point I have two SSDs that have the same stuff on them, one would be drive C: which is 500GB, and the other would be the new 1TB SSD, which I could presumably designate as Drive G:

How do make it so the new 1TB SSD is Drive C:? Can I just assign new drive letters in DiskGenius and reboot and the computer will now boot up from whatever is now called C:? Or is it more complicated than that?

redxps630 · Answer

I recommend use Windows own method to clone. you would need an external USB hdd (500 GB or bigger) and a small flash drive

after clone, delete all old partitions on old ssd.

it is not a good idea to have redundant OS on multiple drives

Optane memory and SATA drive can be unpaired using the Intel Rapid Storage Technology or Optane version 15.5.xx.xxxx or higher user interface. You can also unpair the Optane module using the F12 menu, Device Configuration option, to access the Optane configuration pages of the BIOS.

Once in the Optane BIOS Setup, select "De-concantonate" to unpair the Optane module and the paired SATA drive.

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XPS 8930, how should I replace a 1TB HDD with a 1TB SSD?

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