Upgrade Advice

[mfenn]

Hello, I was able to clone the hdd to the Samsung ssd. Now I need help on how to boot from the ssd and assign the hdd as only secondary storage.

Thank you!!

The simplest thing to do (assuming you're in AHCI mode) is to shut down the computer and unhook the SATA data cable (only) from the HDD. Then when you boot, the system will be forced to boot from the SSD.

Once you're happy that everything is correct, shut down the PC, hook the HDD back up. When booting, this time go into your BIOS and make sure the SSD is *first* in the boot order. Save and exit the BIOS. Once Windows boots back up, you can reformat the HDD and use it for storage.

 

[Team Spicoli]

Thank you. I forced the PC to boot from the SSD by unplugging the power connector to the HDD and the OS appeared to load fine. I then reconnected the HDD and entered the BIOS however I'm not certain whether the PC is still booting from the SSD as I didn't see an option for SSD in the boot sequence options. I recall something like "onboard device" or "internal OD device" which I presumed referred to either the HDD or SSD and I selected that for Sequence 1.

How I can check if the PC is booting from the SSD?

 

[mfenn]

You might have to drill down a bit in the Dell BIOS, but you should be able to see the model names of the drives and arrange them.

Anyway, whichever drive is considered to be the C: drive is the drive that you booted from.