replace hard drive on XPS 15 9560 with installed Windows 10 Pro

As long as you do not make any setup changes, the original drive will be bootable on reinstallation (in the absence of the new boot drive you'll presumably make).

Dear @ejn63​ ,

Thanks for you prompt reply. 

Have never created a boot drive before for a PC. Any recommendations on sources to say how best to do so. Ubuntu being the target operating system for the new hard drive. 

Current disk partition looks like this for Windows 10. (C:) has Boot associated with it. Is this the Boot referred to?

Disk 0
Basic
953.85 GB
Online

has four partitions
All are Layout Simple, Type Basic, 

Disk 0 partition 1
499 MB
Healthy (Recovery Partition)

Disk 0 partition 2
99 MB
Healthy (EFI System)

Disk 0
(C:)
952.46 GB NTFS
Healthy (Boot, Page File, Cache Dump, Basic Data Protection)

Disk 0 partition 5
824 MB
Healthy (Recovery Partition)

Yours,

York

If you're starting with a new, blank internal drive simply make the boot install drive for your chosen OS (or download it as an ISO and use an ISO writer to make the boot flash drive).  Then boot from it -- the installer will take care of partitioning and installing the OS for you -- unless you want to customize the internal drive, which you can also do.

Linux installation is fairly simple now -- much more so than it was in the not too distant past.

Dear @ejn63​ ,

Have a USB 64GB flash drive for Ubuntu ISO image. Thanks for the clarification.

Now just need to get advice on best option for hard disk drive to purchase. One supported by Canonical Ubuntu for 24.04  and  compatible with XPS 15 9560 . 

Which is one of the reasons for posting here and staying with Dell, Dell having good support for Ubuntu.

Will leave the entire disk to Canonical Ubuntu Linux and have no plans to partition. Hope as you say the Ubuntu installer does all that.

Thanks.

Yours,

York

Dear @ejn63​ ,

What setup changes are meant here? Windows 10 setup? Hardware setup? 

Yours,

York

Dear Community,

Disk appears to be Intel SSD 600p Series 1 TB model (SSDPEKKW010T7X1) .

Intel SSD 660p has been discontinued.

https://www.solidigm.com/products/client/660p.html#form=M.2%202280&cap=2%20TB

Battery appears to be as 1636SMPDELL GPM0365 which is a 6-cell (97 WHr). 

So require SSD 1TB or 2TB  with  M.2 80mm PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4 that is compatible with the XPS 15 9560 . Form factor M.2 2280 .

Is there a catalogue/database of SSD 1TB or 2TB  with  M.2 80mm PCIe NVMe for the XPS 15 9560 . Need to cross check SSD candidates for XPS 15 9560 with Linux hardware support for Canonical Ubuntu 24.04 .

Current drive and battery are returned as;

***

Drive 

PowerShell 7.5.3
PS C:\Windows\System32> Get-CIMInstance -ClassName win32_DiskDrive

DeviceID           Caption             Partitions Size          Model
--------           -------             ---------- ----          -----
\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0 INTEL SSDPEKKW010T7 4          1024203640320 INTEL SSDPEKKW010T7

PS C:\Windows\System32> wmic diskdrive get model,serialnumber,manufacturer,interfaceType,mediaType
InterfaceType  Manufacturer            MediaType              Model                SerialNumber                         
SCSI           (Standard disk drives)  Fixed hard disk media  INTEL SSDPEKKW010T7  0000_0000_0100_0000_E4D2_5C66_EF90_4D01.

*** 
Battery 

DELL GPM0365

PS C:\Windows\System32> Get-CIMInstance -Class Win32_Battery

Caption                     : Internal Battery
Description                 : Internal Battery
InstallDate                 :
Name                        : DELL GPM0365
Status                      : OK
Availability                : 2
ConfigManagerErrorCode      :
ConfigManagerUserConfig     :
CreationClassName           : Win32_Battery
DeviceID                    : 1636SMPDELL GPM0365
ErrorCleared                :
ErrorDescription            :
LastErrorCode               :
PNPDeviceID                 :
PowerManagementCapabilities : {1}
PowerManagementSupported    : False
StatusInfo                  :
SystemCreationClassName     : Win32_ComputerSystem
SystemName                  : DESKTOP-PERD8MS
BatteryStatus               : 2
Chemistry                   : 6
DesignCapacity              :
DesignVoltage               : 12670
EstimatedChargeRemaining    : 100
EstimatedRunTime            : 71582788
ExpectedLife                :
FullChargeCapacity          :
MaxRechargeTime             :
SmartBatteryVersion         :
TimeOnBattery               :
TimeToFullCharge            :
BatteryRechargeTime         :
ExpectedBatteryLife         :
PSComputerName              :

@York Earwaker​ 

Dear Community,

Found a 1TB listed on the Dell website. Are there any other SSD's which would also be compatible with the XPS 15 9560?

For some reason the 2TB of the same type is not listed as compatible with the XPS 15 9560.

Candidate replacement SSD
https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/dell-1tb-performance-ssd-tlc-2280-gen3/apd/aa615520/storage-drives-media
Dell 1TB Performance SSD TLC 2280 Gen3
£209.99
£174.99 excluding VAT @20%

Yours,

York

Any standard M.2 2280 NVMe drive will work -- include a 2T.

Hi

I just (10 days ago) bought a 2 TB crucial NVMe from Currys (hard to believe I know) and I rang their contact line (0330 678 0393).

The nice man checked compatibility AND matched price and delivery against amazon, RESULT.

£99.99  

Dear @ejn63​ ,

Thanks. Will try a 2T M.2 2280 NVMe SSD then. Will ask similar question on Canonical community site for same compatible with Ubuntu 24.04 . 

Yours,

York 

Dear @anne_droid​ ,

Thanks. Will consider that option. Good price. Need to check compatibility with Ubuntu 24.04 .

Yours,

York

Well mine is currently running Tiny11 and Linux Mint ....

Linux SLaptop 6.14.0-29-generic #29~24.04.1-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu Aug 14 16:52:50 UTC 2 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

So ???????????????

Initially I installed Debian 13 onto it, so it is versatile.

Dear @anne_droid​ ,

Impressive list of Linux distros installed. Are they all installed on the same partition all at the same time?

The 2 TB crucial NVMe SSD from Currys is certainly a candidate for consideration. 

Thanks for the confirmation of this SSD brand working with Linux.

Based on comments elsewhere considering a Gen 4 SSD with PCIe 4 compliance as they are reportedly less expensive and backward compatible with Gen 3 SSD with PCIe 3 compliance. 

Need to determine PCIe standards for the XPS 15 9560 and not as straight forward as it could be.

Current working assumptions are the XPS 15 9560 has;

- PCIe 3 compliance CPU with Intel CORE i7 7th Gen 

- PCIe 3 chip set

Believe the PCIe standards release dates are as follows.

----------------------------------------
Generation   Released      Speed
----------------------------------------
PCIe 1.0      2003        2  GT/s
PCIe 2.0      2007        5  GT/s
PCIe 3.0      2010        8  GT/s
PCIe 4.0      2017        16 GT/s
PCIe 5.0      2019        32 GT/s
PCIe 6.0      2021        64 GT/s

C:\Users\yorke>systeminfo

Original Install Date:     05/09/2020, 11:08:31

BIOS Version:              Dell Inc. 1.23.1, 25/05/2021

But the PCIe constraints would likely be set by the motherboard and PCIe chip set and CORE i7 CPU. Likely the systeminfo values for original install date and bios version are a red herring. 

The communication at a very high level likely something like

CPU -> PCIe chip set -> SSD 

Finding it difficult to source a datasheet for the motherboard for XPS 15 9560. Would be grateful if someone could post a link to XPS 15 9560 motherboard datasheet .

Finding it difficult to source PowerShell code to return the relevant PCIe information for chip set and CPU. 

Further the online manuals don't seem to specify PCIe standards. 

https://www.dell.com/support/product-details/en-uk/product/xps-15-9560-laptop/resources/manuals 

Yours,

York

Prego.

Dear @anne_droid​ ,

The following micron crucial page show SSD's compatible with XPS 15 9560, com WS , some of which are 2TB and 4TB respectively.

Confirming the statement from @ejn63​ that a 2TB SSD would be fine.

Thanks both.

Yours,

York