What's my computer up too ?

victor2

If you want to do a clean install, you will lose all your old software. If you copy an image over from the old drive to your new one, the associated problem will almost certainly go with it, albeit less noticeable on an SSD.
If you're going to keep your old drive in the system, make sure you get a new SATA cable for the new SSD - there should already be a spare power socket in the machine.
As I mentioned in your other thread, there's a minor tweak to the BIOS required, and mounting the SSD can be a bit tricky, as the drives are mounted vertically and the holes are spaced for 3.5" drives, rather than 2.5", which the SSD will be.
All do-able though.

Happychappy

victor2 wrote: »

If you want to do a clean install, you will lose all your old software. If you copy an image over from the old drive to your new one, the associated problem will almost certainly go with it, albeit less noticeable on an SSD.
If you're going to keep your old drive in the system, make sure you get a new SATA cable for the new SSD - there should already be a spare power socket in the machine.
As I mentioned in your other thread, there's a minor tweak to the BIOS required, and mounting the SSD can be a bit tricky, as the drives are mounted vertically and the holes are spaced for 3.5" drives, rather than 2.5", which the SSD will be.
All do-able though.

Victor, thanks I have ordered a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter, didn't realise I needed another SATA cable, I will look on Ebay, the reason for keeping the old drive was just in case something when I do an install doesn't move over, so intending to keep the old drive just for that reason ? otherwise the 2TB external drive is used to keep my libraries of music, photos etc. If you don't mind, when I get the drive I will ask you about the BIOS setting ? Thanks again

victor2

Happychappy wrote: »

Victor, thanks I have ordered a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter, didn't realise I needed another SATA cable, I will look on Ebay, the reason for keeping the old drive was just in case something when I do an install doesn't move over, so intending to keep the old drive just for that reason ? otherwise the 2TB external drive is used to keep my libraries of music, photos etc. If you don't mind, when I get the drive I will ask you about the BIOS setting ? Thanks again

I did the same regarding an adapter - it's of no use as the drives are vertically mounted. You will only need a new SATA cable if you want to have the old drive connected up at the same time as the new one. You definitely want to have the old drive disconnected when you do the new install - too easy to overwrite the old drive otherwise!

Just put a message on here (or PM if you prefer) when you want to change the BIOS. I found all the answers on the web, but believe I noted what worked on an Inspiron for me...

Happychappy

Victor thanks again, I have just looked on EBAY and see a mass of different cables called SATA, could you possibly let me know what the spec is or the exact description for the cable I need, I have googled the Inspiron and add SSD drive, and got the following, but not really which exact cable is required, most show a USB end for an external drive ?

Dell 530 Motherboard Connections
The Dell 530 has four Serial-Advanced Technology Attachment ports. While the first two, SATA0 and SATA1, are designated for hard drives and the second two, SATA4 and SATA5, are designated for CD or DVD drives, many hard drives will work with either set of ports. In addition, Dell builds the computer with two Personal Computer Interconnect slots. Either PCI slot can hold an aftermarket expansion card that adds additional SATA ports to allow you to install more drives.

Using 2.5-Inch Drives
Many solid state drives, which are drives that use flash memory instead of a mechanical hard drive assembly, come in 2.5-inch form factors, like a notebook computer hard drive. The Dell 530 will let you use an SSD and get the benefit of its quiet operation and fast data transfer speed, but you will need a drive adapter to fit it in the 3.5-inch bays.

victor2

Happychappy wrote: »

Dell 530 Motherboard Connections
The Dell 530 has four Serial-Advanced Technology Attachment ports. While the first two, SATA0 and SATA1, are designated for hard drives and the second two, SATA4 and SATA5, are designated for CD or DVD drives, many hard drives will work with either set of ports. In addition, Dell builds the computer with two Personal Computer Interconnect slots. Either PCI slot can hold an aftermarket expansion card that adds additional SATA ports to allow you to install more drives.

Using 2.5-Inch Drives
Many solid state drives, which are drives that use flash memory instead of a mechanical hard drive assembly, come in 2.5-inch form factors, like a notebook computer hard drive. The Dell 530 will let you use an SSD and get the benefit of its quiet operation and fast data transfer speed, but you will need a drive adapter to fit it in the 3.5-inch bays.

This type of SATA cable will do:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-inch-SATA-Serial-Cable/dp/B003WV5DK6/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1434274491&sr=8-4
Any such SATA cable will be fine, doesn't even have to support SATA 3, as the motherboard is only SATA 2 (although that is plenty fast enough).

This was the 2.5" to 3.5" adapter I got and couldn't use. The problem is that the drive is vertically mounted in the case, so you need holes in the bottom of the drive/adapter. There are screw holes for the 2.5" drive, but then threaded holes in the side which assume the 3.5" drive goes in horizontally. Pop your cover off your Inspiron and you'll see (this one has two drives installed at the lower right side)...

Happychappy

Thanks again, I have ordered the cable as above, I take it the spare power supply cable is in place and reaches without any difficulty?

victor2

Happychappy wrote: »

Thanks again, I have ordered the cable as above, I take it the spare power supply cable is in place and reaches without any difficulty?

Pop the cover off and have a look. If yours only has one drive installed, its power lead (the larger plug with 5 wires going into it) may well be part of a chain, with a spare one after or before it, not currently connected to anything.
In the picture above, there are two drives with the power lead going from one to the next clearly visible.

kwikbreaks

I solved my ssd mounting problem by using gaffer tape and a zip tie

NiftyDigits

Happychappy wrote: »

Thanks to all for your great advice, I am slowly going through this, in the meantime I have ordered the San Disk 240gb SSD which hopefully will arrive in the next couple of days, I then went to find out how to boot from this and leave my initial drive in place and my external 2TB Seagate drive which Acronis backs up to.

I have the original discs for Windows 7 Premium, I don't have the disc for Microsoft Office 2010, I bought this directly from Microsoft through my work home program, so have the emails for purchase etc

I have an old copy of Rosetta Stone and a couple of charting programs which I downloaded directly but that was possibly 6 to 10 years ago, I don't have the original discs but know they were on the old hard drive which somehow I transferred when I updated my computer to the current Inspiron, so therefore I'm really loathed to do a clean install in case I lose these programs and cant reload them without great expense.

Everything is loaded onto Acronis true image but i'm really not sure if I clean installed will everything work just like it did ? I have registered for the new Windows 10.

You might have problems with that configuration until you update the BIOS.

I've put together a package for you [URL="

https://mega.co.nz/#!iBkBlazQ!84wc4izwnYBTjd1FhJ_ReSNXQ8KMhtRbjytTvO3Gd_w"]here[/URL]

If you don't know how to update the BIOS using a Bootable USB drive, I can put together a Windows package for you or instruct you on how to flash through DOS(safer)

The BIOS updates the RAID firmware and DELL licence. What's your Service Tag?

Happychappy

NiftyDigits wrote: »

You might have problems with that configuration until you update the BIOS.

I've put together a package for you here

If you don't know how to update the BIOS using a Bootable USB drive, I can put together a Windows package for you or instruct you on how to flash through DOS(safer)

The BIOS updates the RAID firmware and DELL licence. What's your Service Tag?

Hi, Unfortunately the link doesn't seem to work ? I get the error message 404 Page not found on Hightail.com ? Thanks