XPS 8930 - need to upgrade SSD?

Question

Hi, I have a Dell XPS 8930 from January 2020.

It came with a 2TB HDD and a 256GB Micron 2200s NVME SDD. Windows 10 updated to Win 11, since 2021. The SDD is the C: drive and has windows system installed on it with around 160 programs, or apps as they would say now. There is no user data on C:, all the user data is on the D: HDD drive.

I recently got a message (not email) from Dell Support (Dell Assist?) to the effect that Dell was unable to check for updates as there was insufficent disk space.

The D: drive has over 856GB free but that won't be relevent.

The C: drive has only 15.8GB free and 204GB used, with a capacity of 219GB, so it has just under 14% free space. Apparently not enough.

I'm not getting any low disc errors, only the repeated message from Dell.

Storage Sense is on.

I checked Disc cleanup, but there was hardly anything to clean, less than 29MB.

So, in the absence of creating more space on the Micron SDD, I am considering updating the current SDD drive. I was looking at a Crucial P310 1TB SSD M2.2280 NVMe PCIe Gen4, which is meant to be compatible with the 8930. Does anyone know if that is correct?

The main issue is how to do the upgrade. As far as I understand it, I can only have one M.2 PCIe installed at a time, I could use True Acronis Image to copy the existing Micron SDD , but how do I get that image on to the new Crucial SDD?

Any suggestions greatly received. Thanks

dackuk · Accepted Answer

Well, to answer myself, after I had thought about it a bit more, the solution would seem to be get a USB 3 to Sata SDD external Adapter, something like this  FIDECO M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure, M.2 NVMe to USB Adapter, USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) SSD Reader. I need to get out more, I never knew they existed. Sorry to waste your time, though if someone is in a similar position it might save them wasting their time too.

ejn63 · Accepted Answer

If there is sufficient space on the hard drive, you can prepare a bootable flash drive with an imaging utility on it (Acronis if you already have it; TrueImage is much easier to use if you don't), and boot the system from that. Make an image of the existing drive to the hard drive, and then swap in the new SSD and reverse the process to write the image to the new drive.

Any standard M.2 2280 NVMe drive will work, but at PCIe 3 speed due to the age of the system.

dackuk · Answer

@dackuk​  Final update, I bought a  UGREEN M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure, Tool-Free NVMe Enclosure, 10Gbps M2 SSD Caddy with USB 3.2 Gen2 Supports M and M&B Keys and Size in 2230/2242 /2260/2280 SSDs   instead of the Fideco, as I have bought UGREEN before and am happy with its quality. I got the Crucial P310 1TB SSD M2.2280 NVMe PCIe Gen4. from Amazon for £69. Only 3 issues, one was the 4 part Crucial instruction video which starts at How to install an M.2 Crucial SSD in a computer - Prepare | Crucial.com assumes you have at least 2 slots for you to hold both SSDs in your computer, and that you install the new SDD first then copy the existing drive to it. All you have to do if you only have 1 M.2 drive is to swap over parts 2 and 3 of the instructions, and clone your drive first externally and then physically swap the drives over. No need to adjust the bios then, its just plug and play. The Crucials instructions for how to use Acronis True Image refer to a  previous version I think, however its fairly straightforward and logical. It took about 30 mins to copy the drive. The only problem with the Dell was the screw that secures the M.2 NVMe SDD drive into the motherboard has a really tiny screw, maybe 3 or 4mm in diameter. I ended up using a bit of blue tack to stick the screw to my screwdriver so that it wouldn't fall off into the motherboard. All in all, fairly easy when I discovered external SDD Enclosures. So from when I logged the issue here, purchased parts and the 8930's C: drive was updated, now with 761GB spare, was all done 21 hours, and my desktop works fine again, with no problems.

XPS Desktops

XPS 8930 - need to upgrade SSD?

Was this post helpful?