MSATA SSD as Bootable Drive? - Inspiron 17R 5720

[gaz_0001]

So,

I desperately need the SSD speed.

I know i can use the intels caching stuff, but i dont want to!!

Intel® Smart Response Technology:
Intel® Rapid Start Technology:

What i am looking to do is, put a 128GB mSATA SSD drive in the slot, fire windows into in and use this as my OS & APPS drive, (Drive C, and then use the existing drive, the 1TB mechanical drive as the storage drive (Drive D.

The dell site, say i can not use an MSATA SSD to boot with...i see no reason why!?

Can anyone advise?

Also, i cant find the spec of the mSATA...dont know whether its SATA 3 or SATA 2.

Thanks

 

[kenrivers]

What is the model # of your laptop? That will help determine whether it is SATA 2 or SATA by looking at the specs for your model. Have you read this http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/p/19486739/20277930.aspx ?

 

[gaz_0001]

Its a dell Inspiron 17R 5720. For some reason even the dell website cant even tell me whether the hdd or the msata ports are sata 1 2 or 3.

 

[kenrivers]

Its a dell Inspiron 17R 5720. For some reason even the dell website cant even tell me whether the hdd or the msata ports are sata 1 2 or 3.

I have spent several minutes searching for an answer and the best I could come up with is no answer. I did see that the hard drive upgrade options include two SATA-150 drives (SATA 1) but still does not answer the question about whether the controller is SATA 1, 2 or 3. However under downloads there are downloads for Dell SATA2 drives: http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/Product/inspiron-17r-5720.
The owner's manual didn't offer any clues either.

 

[gaz_0001]

Very ODD!!

 

[gaz_0001]

Yeah, i have no idea myself. I cant find the info on dell and also i cant actually ask dell, as their is no communication channell between me and them...other than a forum, of people who just volunteer to read specs and relay them back to the end user.

 

[akukkapalli]

So,

I desperately need the SSD speed.

I know i can use the intels caching stuff, but i dont want to!!

Intel® Smart Response Technology:
Intel® Rapid Start Technology:

What i am looking to do is, put a 128GB mSATA SSD drive in the slot, fire windows into in and use this as my OS & APPS drive, (Drive C, and then use the existing drive, the 1TB mechanical drive as the storage drive (Drive D.

The dell site, say i can not use an MSATA SSD to boot with...i see no reason why!?

Can anyone advise?

Also, i cant find the spec of the mSATA...dont know whether its SATA 3 or SATA 2.

Thanks

Yes . I can becuase i have implemented it on my week ago puchased dell inspiron 17SE 7720 .it came originally with windows 8 , 32 gb msata, two 750 gb hard drives. i did not like windows 8 . so i could able to install windows 7 ultimate on 32 gb msata . for that you need to replace ISRT IN BIOS with AHCL . Then proceed to instal on 32 gb msata . my pc wotking fine .

 

[SuperSlow]

Dell Inspiron 5720 does not give the option in bios to boot from the mSATA SSD. But if you install some OS onto the normal HDD and then install a second OS onto the mSATA SSD you will have a boot option menu and you can boot from the mSATA SSD. I have a 128G installed and it works great and the speed is amazing for Data basing in MySQL, it also works great for BF4.

 

[averyfreeman]

Hi,

I managed to get my 5720 booting from the mSATA drive, wasn't too hard. I had to clone a working UEFI copy of Windows first (I am running 8.1, but other EFI operating systems should work, such as EFI flavors of Linux, UEFI Windows 7, Windows 10, etc. -- Just note, they have to be installed to use this method).

I have not tried booting to a USB drive and installing an OS to the mSATA drive first, but I imagine that could work, and then you could do this afterward. Anyway, here's what I did:

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/p/19489063/20710817#20710817

1) Install the mSATA drive with your windows drive still plugged in

2) Use a cloning program (I used Macrium Reflect Free Edition) to clone the Windows drive to your mSATA SSD

3) Boot into the BIOS by restarting and pressing the F2 key repeatedly without any mercy of any sort

4) Go to the "boot" section and choose "Add Boot Option"

5) After naming your new option (e.g. mSATA drive") and leaving the first line selected for boot device, go to the "File Name" field and hit "enter"

6) Navigate to the "BOOTX64.EFI" file and select it

7) Hit + to put it at the top of your UEFI boot device priority

8) Hit F10 and save, restart, and give yourself a hi-five.

Now you can wipe that crawling 1TB and use it for your media library.

I adapted this information for the mSATA drive using another guide for creating a boot option for a USB thumb drive. For further reference (with screenshots) please see this Dell Communities Post: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19503569

So,

I desperately need the SSD speed.

I know i can use the intels caching stuff, but i dont want to!!

Intel® Smart Response Technology:
Intel® Rapid Start Technology:

What i am looking to do is, put a 128GB mSATA SSD drive in the slot, fire windows into in and use this as my OS & APPS drive, (Drive C, and then use the existing drive, the 1TB mechanical drive as the storage drive (Drive D.

The dell site, say i can not use an MSATA SSD to boot with...i see no reason why!?

Can anyone advise?

Also, i cant find the spec of the mSATA...dont know whether its SATA 3 or SATA 2.

Thanks

 

[chrisprunty20]

Just picked up a inspiron 5720 brilliant laptop sadly it's a prese t for a friend and im pretty hsppy with my l702x xps anyway i placed my msata in to the designated slot and voula recognised the drive and let me install Windows easily and no hassle at all windows boots in 5 seconds and the computer is insanely fast tempted to keep it for myself now ha