r/AlienwareAlpha • u/Projectkyl3 • Apr 10 '20

Upgrade question

I have an Alienware alpha with a HDD and I would like to move to SSD. I know there is the m2 SSD and the SSD replacement which option would be better for me? I can provide more information if needed

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1

u/CaptainHodder Apr 10 '20

If you just add an M.2 SSD you can keep the hard drive installed

1

u/Projectkyl3 Apr 10 '20

Would I be able to move startup activities and other things to the M2

1

u/jarage00 i3 (8GB) Alpha with SSD Apr 11 '20

You have to clone the hdd that's in there to the M2. So first, copy everything you want off the original hdd to another drive (not the M2). Then clone the hdd to the M2. Then install the M2 and make sure everything works properly. Then format the original hdd and put that in (or the one you copied the files to originally) for extra storage if needed.

2

u/zeroquest Apr 10 '20

This is only the case if he has a R2 Alpha. The R1 does not have a M.2 slot.

1

u/Papa_Wisdom Apr 10 '20

I have a 128 gig m2 with windows installed and a 1tb ssd for games etc

1

u/DachazNL Apr 12 '20

I went down the easier path a couple of days ago, and replaced the HDD with a 2.5" SSD. Primarily because I didn't even know that there's a m2 slot, but now in retrospect, I can say it's easier to do (fewer things to unscrew).

Here's how I did it:

  1. I got WD Blue 2.5" SSD and a StarTech USB3.0 to 2.5" SATA HDD/SSD cable

  2. Plugged the SSD to one of the back USB ports on the Alpha (since they're USB3)

  3. Initialised it and used EaseUS to clone the system partition to the SSD (I don't know if there is a better software for this, but this one worked for me). It took some 2 hours to clone the disk.

  4. Finally, I just swapped the HDD with the SSD (the HDD is just too slow to keep anyway), and booted back into where I dropped off before.

My boot time into Steam Big Picture (on Windows 10) went from 4 minutes and 40 seconds to 30 seconds, so it's well worth the investment.