Replacing SSD In Dell XPS Laptop And Windows 10 Pro Installation?

Well when i take out the 2.5inch ssd and the m.2 32gb ssd and put in the 500gb/1tb m.2 ssd, do i turn on and power my laptop then? Because when you do that, aren't you going to get message to start the windows 10 setup like when you get a new computer?

You would have to boot your computer from Macrium rescue media because you have removed the old hard drive. Then restore the image to the new SSD.


How do i do the part above? So you mean my first time turning on the laptop, i have to press f2 or something like that as oppose to wait and then it would ask me to start the windows 10 setup process?



Yes, if the image restore goes well and you included ALL partitions in your image file, your computer would look the same, but you would have more free space. When you restore the image, you are restoring Windows 10 and everything else in your chosen partitions. That's why you would NOT install Windows 10 on the new hard drive.

If imaging and cloning both fail, then yes, you would have to install Windows 10 and all applications directly on the new drive WITHOUT using Macrium.

You should have a plan something like this:

Try cloning. If it fails, try imaging. If it fails, do a clean install.



Okay so which one should i try first right now. Imaging or cloning? I will spend an entire day doing this so i just need like a 1tb external hard drive right? I have that with me.


If i do cloning, i need to buy certain products? At any point, do i need like an enclosure? I do have a 2.5 inch enclosure that i bought a long time ago.



When you mean my setup is strange, do you mean having 2 ssd's essentially on my laptop since almost all laptops have just 1 ssd? If so... the reason is because its the dell xps model. They gave this as an option. You either can have a 2.5 inch ssd and a m.2 ssd that is 32gb with a smaller 56wh battery or just have the m.2 ssd and the bigger 84wh or 97wh battery. Does that make sense?


All my files and programs are in the 2.5 inch 250gb samsung ssd. I never even put anything in the 32gb m.2 ssd until recently when i just transferred all my music files to it. Thus if you remove my 32gb m.2 ssd from my computer now, it should have zero affect on my laptop because everything downloaded and programs is used on the 2.5 inch 250gb samsung. Does that make sense?

Yeah, that makes some sense.

But........you say "Also im pretty certain if you remove the m.2 32gb ssd from the laptop, my laptop works as normal as it would be using the 2.5 inch 250gb samsung ssd... correct?"

I would want to be more than "pretty certain". If it won't boot without the m2, then your cloning or imaging problems become more complicated.

Hi there. Well im taking a guess take if the m.2 32gb ssd was removed from my laptop, it would work like normal. The only difference is when i click on my computer


Instead of it showing like 30gb of 232gb free in my 2.5 inch 250gb ssd and 22gb free of 29gb m.2 ssd, it would only show 30gb of 232gb free in my 2.5 inch 250gb ssd.


Put it this way. I never used the 32gb m.2 ssd ever since i used it and it always showed like 29.8gb free of 29.8gb on that drive.


Well...the ssd that im going to buy is going to be a m.2. So doesn't that solve the issue? I will be buying either 500gb or 1tb m.2 ssd.


Both the 2.5 inch samsung ssd and the 32gb m.2 ssd will be removed... to make room for the 84wh or 97wh battery that I will also buy.


In this laptop, if you want to put in the bigger battery, you have to remove the 2.5 inch ssd from it to make room for the bigger battery.


So again, Im planning to buy


1. 84wh or 97wh battery to replace my 56wh battery
2. 500gb or 1tb m.2 ssd
3. 16gb ram - upgrading from 8gb to 16gb

Im heading to bed now, i will reply back tomorrow.


But does it make sense in total what i'm trying to do here? Yes i know that having 2 ssds in the laptop sounds very strange. I had zero clue why it was like this when i bought it. I also did not know having 2 ssds in my laptop, the 2.5 inch ssd and the m.2 meant that was the reason i got the 56wh battery until much much later on.

Thanks man.

see comments:

paulyjustin said:

Well when i take out the 2.5inch ssd and the m.2 32gb ssd and put in the 500gb/1tb m.2 ssd, do i turn on and power my laptop then?

Yes. But ask yourself "how do I then boot my PC, since I just removed both of my hard drives"?

Because when you do that, aren't you going to get message to start the windows 10 setup like when you get a new computer?

No. At that point you have no operating system at all. For all your PC knows at that moment, your intentions are to install Linux.

You would have to boot your computer from Macrium rescue media because you have removed the old hard drive. Then restore the image to the new SSD.


How do i do the part above? So you mean my first time turning on the laptop, i have to press f2 or something like that as oppose to wait and then it would ask me to start the windows 10 setup process?

You would first have to make the Macrium rescue media, after you installed Macrium, but before you removed the hard drives. You would use Macrium menus and tell Macrium to make the rescue media on a USB stick that you would plug into a USB port.

You would then remove the old drives and boot from the rescue media by using F2 or some other key to bring up a boot menu. You would select the USB rescue media as the boot device for that particular boot.

That leads to the Macrium interface. You use the menus in the interface to tell Macrium to restore the image file you made to the new SSD.
Okay so which one should i try first right now. Imaging or cloning? I will spend an entire day doing this so i just need like a 1tb external hard drive right? I have that with me.

I would probably try imaging first. You wouldn't have to buy an enclosure or cables. All you would need is the USB flash drive to make the rescue media and an external drive on which to save the image file. The image file will probably be somewhere around 100 GB in size.


When you mean my setup is strange, do you mean having 2 ssd's essentially on my laptop since almost all laptops have just 1 ssd?

Yeah, I am just surprised to see that tiny M2 in there at all. That's why you need to confirm that your PC will boot without it.

If it will boot without the m2, then you would just need to include ALL partitions on the 250 gb SSD in your image file.

If it WON'T boot without the m2, you have a much more complicated problem.

If so... the reason is because its the dell xps model. They gave this as an option. You either can have a 2.5 inch ssd and a m.2 ssd that is 32gb with a smaller 56wh battery or just have the m.2 ssd and the bigger 84wh or 97wh battery. Does that make sense?

Yes.

see comments:

paulyjustin said:

Hi there. Well im taking a guess take if the m.2 32gb ssd was removed from my laptop, it would work like normal.

Why would you just guess??

You know you are going to have to remove the 32 gb m2 drive anyway. Why wait to do that? Why not do it right now so you don't have to guess?

Well...the ssd that im going to buy is going to be a m.2. So doesn't that solve the issue? I will be buying either 500gb or 1tb m.2 ssd.

An m2 2260? An m2 2280? Have you reviewed your laptops specifications so you know FOR A FACT what types of SSDs it can accept and boot from??? m2 NVMe? m2 SATA?


So again, Im planning to buy


1. 84wh or 97wh battery to replace my 56wh battery
2. 500gb or 1tb m.2 ssd

It's up to you to know you are buying a compatible SSD.

3. 16gb ram - upgrading from 8gb to 16gb

Buying 16? Or buying 8 to add to your existing 8? How sure are you that you really need more RAM?

ignatzatsonic said:

see comments:

Hi there. Well when you start up a laptop, you have to power it on so i was a bit confused with this.


The macrium rescue media... that has to be in a usb stick? Or it could be in an external hard drive? So if my ssd has about 200gb used up or so... is that how much will be used? My usb stick is max 64gb, which has about 50gb free. Is that enough for the usb stick?


Okay i would do imaging first. The only enclosure i have is a 2.5 inch one. So for example a 2.5 inch ssd or 7200 rpm hard drive, i have put it in enclosure and connected it to laptop before.


When you say image file is about 100gb, where did you get that number from? Does that number have anything to do with my ssd using about 200gb?



You say if it will boot without the m2, then its more simple. If it won't boot without the m2, its more complicated...



Well when i do this... there will be already the brand new m2 500gb or 1tb ssd i bought thats inside my laptop right? So how would this be an issue? Thus when i take out the 2.5 inch ssd, the 32gb m.2 ssd.. then put in the new bigger m.2 ssd 500gb/1tb. And of course replace the smaller with larger battery... and then the ram.

I'm not in the US at the moment. I also never ever opened my laptop up myself. I also don't even have the tools to do that. I don't want to risk damaging my laptop when im not in the US.



I will ask in the thread about the xps 15 9550. But im pretty close to certain it accepts m.2 nvme. That is the 32gb m.2 i have i believe. But there are 2 types of m.2 ssds? I will check this but i thought as long as its m.2, it works.



Yes I will make sure i get the compatible ssd. Would you agree just get the 1tb one for future proof?



I have 8gb ram on my laptop. Its 2 sticks of 4gb that came with it. I would buy 16gb... 2 sticks of 8gb. Then have my ram removed. I heard you should always use the same gb ram on each slot such as don't mix 4gb with 8gb.



My computer is fast. It lags sometimes but rarely. I also have like 30+ chrome tabs opened always. When i check task manager, i always have at least 70% memory used. When im doing my thing and using it a lot, memory usage is usually in the mid to high 80% range.


Would you say based on that, i should upgrade ram? I also heard from few ppl who said that nowadays, 16gb ram should be standard, not 8gb... I mean there is no harm in upgrading ram right?

see comments:

paulyjustin said:

The macrium rescue media... that has to be in a usb stick?

It should be an ordinary USB stick. Most any size will do--4 gb, 8, 16, 32, 64, etc.


Okay i would do imaging first. The only enclosure i have is a 2.5 inch one. So for example a 2.5 inch ssd or 7200 rpm hard drive, i have put it in enclosure and connected it to laptop before.

Why would you need an enclosure for imaging? As previously said, you would need a USB stick and an external drive to store the image file on. I thought you had an ordinary external hard drive in an enclosure already?


When you say image file is about 100gb, where did you get that number from? Does that number have anything to do with my ssd using about 200gb?

Yes. I am guessing about half of 200. It could be a bit more or bit less.

You say if it will boot without the m2, then its more simple. If it won't boot without the m2, its more complicated...

Well when i do this... there will be already the brand new m2 500gb or 1tb ssd i bought thats inside my laptop right?
So how would this be an issue?

Here's one way:

You say you have 2 totally separate hard drives. Suppose you are right.

Suppose your 32 gb M2 contains some code necessary to boot Windows.

Suppose your image file contains all the partitions on the 250 GB SSD and NOTHING from the 32 gb M2.

Suppose you remove the 32 gb M2 and the 250 gb SSD and then restore the image file to the new SSD.

Guess what--I don't think the SSD will then boot .

Why? Because your image file does NOT contain the necessary code from the M2.

As previously stated, you can find out if that will happen by removing the 32 gb M2 first before you do anything else. The laptop will either boot or not.

You say you are "pretty certain" the 32 gb M2 has only personal files. That doesn't give me any confidence.

I doubt if you know for a FACT exactly what your computer shop guy did or exactly what your current situation is.

If you have a 10 step process in front of you, there's not much point in being concerned with step 5 before step 1.

Your step 1 should be to understand the details of your current Windows installation so you can make an educated guess about whether cloning or imaging will work or if it will be complicated by your 2 drive situation and possibly fail. Rather than worrying about RAM or a new SSD or enclosures or batteries.

Or you could just give up on cloning and imaging and do a clean install.

see comments:

paulyjustin said:

I'm not in the US at the moment. I also never ever opened my laptop up myself. I also don't even have the tools to do that. I don't want to risk damaging my laptop when im not in the US.

Then don't do anything until you are able to do what's necessary.

I will ask in the thread about the xps 15 9550. But im pretty close to certain it accepts m.2 nvme. That is the 32gb m.2 i have i believe. But there are 2 types of m.2 ssds? I will check this but i thought as long as its m.2, it works.

"Pretty close to certain" wouldn't be nearly enough for me. But it's your money.

M2 drives come in various lengths. Most are called 2280. That means 80 MM in length. I have no idea what you need. It's up to you to find out.



Yes I will make sure i get the compatible ssd. Would you agree just get the 1tb one for future proof?

I don't use the term future proof. It's up to you to know how much storage you need and how fast that will grow. Why buy 1 TB if 500 GB will be enough for the next 10 years? You have to figure that out yourself.



I have 8gb ram on my laptop. Its 2 sticks of 4gb that came with it. I would buy 16gb... 2 sticks of 8gb. Then have my ram removed. I heard you should always use the same gb ram on each slot such as don't mix 4gb with 8gb.



My computer is fast. It lags sometimes but rarely. I also have like 30+ chrome tabs opened always. When i check task manager, i always have at least 70% memory used. When im doing my thing and using it a lot, memory usage is usually in the mid to high 80% range.

Then maybe you need 16.

Would you say based on that, i should upgrade ram? I also heard from few ppl who said that nowadays, 16gb ram should be standard, not 8gb... I mean there is no harm in upgrading ram right?

No harm other than to you wallet. Possibly no benefit. It's a case by case thing. I have no need for more than 8 personally.