SSD Questions on New Computer

ignatzatsonic said:

paulyjames said:

Okay this is what im going to say.


Tell me if anything i should change.



Hi I came to your place few days ago with my new laptop and i asked for you to switch the 1tb 5400 rpm hard drive that came with the dell xps with my samsung 250gb ssd. You did this and then wiped out the 250gb ssd and told me that was it and im good to go. I found out later on when i started downloading some bigger files, i could not do this due to everything i downloaded went to the C drive which is the 32gb one which only has 28.7gb total. When i checked it after you finished it has 2gb free or so. Then it was close to full and i cant download anything.


I read online that Dell had put windows 10 on the small 32gb thing and that is not what is suppose to be done. Its like an error on dells part. Thus its an error on their part since you cant put a OS on a very small hard drive though i believe this is called a cache?


I was told by others online that windows 10 is suppose to be copied to the 250gb ssd and it should not be on the 32gb ssd. Thus you cannot use the laptop at all because of this.


I was told that there has to be a clean install or clone/image of windows 10 from on the 32gb ssd to the 250gb ssd in order for me to use the 250gb as my primary hard drive. This is what someone told me as the instructions


If clone or image, "I want you to transfer the existing installation now on the 32 GB drive to the 250 GB drive, either by cloning or imaging. Make the C partition on the 250 GB drive as large as possible. Make sure the cloned installation is activated. Make sure the SSD is properly aligned. Make sure I have a working Internet connection. I don't want to use the 32 GB drive if possible.".

If clean, "I want you remove all partitions from the 250 GB SSD and do a clean install of Windows 10 to that SSD and activate it with my existing Product Key. Make the C partition on the 250 GB drive as large as possible. Make sure the SSD is properly aligned. Make sure I have a working Internet connection. I don't want to use the 32 GB drive if possible."


Which of these two options would you recommend? I was told once you do this, then i can use my laptop without any hard drive issues.


Also if you do this, what would happen to the 32gb ssd? Would you wipe it out, not doing anything to do it and leave it as is, do you need to switch the location of the hard drive of this with the 250gb ssd? Or could you just change it around? I was told online this isn't that important but the most important thing is i have to get windows 10 from the 32gb ssd into the 250gb ssd. I was told that if you copy windows 10 to my 250gb ssd... then that should appear as the C drive right?


Also, when you did this, i had thought because it showed around 2gb free out of 28.7gb on the 32gb hard drive, and 230gb free out of 232gb on the 250gb hard drive, anything i download would go to the 28.7gb hard drive and once it runs out of space, anything else that gets downloaded automatically goes to the 250gb hard drive. I was told by someone online that is not right because you need the 250gb as the primary drive.


How does this sound? What sentence would you like me to change if any?

You don't need 90% of that.

You aren't going to go in there and recite a 500 word memorized script. You'll get confused and probably confuse him.

Flip a coin right now.

If it comes up heads, tell him you want a clean install to the 250.

If it comes up tails, tell him you want to clone or image what is now on the 32 to the 250.

Or have him flip the coin or make the decision. It's the least of your worries.

Make sure the 250 is C when you pick it up. Have him confirm proper SSD alignment. Confirm that C has at least 200 GB free. Confirm Windows is activated with your own license that you got with the machine. Confirm you have your preferred browser and can get on the Internet.

The rest of it is unnecessary.

Hey. Well of course im not going to memorize all that. I was going to have my phone with me etc and then say those things but obviously not that detailed like what is on that.

Im just going to ask which he suggests for the clean install or clone/image then. I think i rather clean install since you mentioned this wont have dell bloatware.

Alright yes i will make sure drive C has 200gb free. That is obviously the most important thing here.

ignatzatsonic said:

paulyjames said:

Is he going to disk management necessary after he is done? Shouldn't him going to my PC which shows the C drive and the other drive with the how many gb free out of GB be enough?

What?

Be enough for what?

When he is done with everything, couldn't he just go and type pc which goes to my computer on windows 10 and thus thats where it shows how much space is free out of total gb etc? Thus you dont need to look at disk management like the pic i posted to know if he did it right?

ignatzatsonic said:

paulyjames said:

sonic, doesn't a clean install cost a good amount of money though? Does it cost the same or less than installing windows?


Thanks.

Uh.........a "clean install" is "installing windows". Yes, a gallon of gas will cost you the same as 4 quarts of gas and 16 ounces weighs about as much as a pound.

Why would you expect me to have any knowledge about his prices?

Well i think i saw installing windows there cost around $100 or so. So basically if Dell did not foolishly put this windows 10 into that 32gb, then i wouldnt have all these issues and dont have to pay all these things to get it fixed over and over again right?


What frustrates me is this sounded so simple but of course my computer has some strange configuration unlike most laptops with 1 hard drive.

ignatzatsonic said:

paulyjames said:

ignatzatsonic said:

What?

Be enough for what?

When he is done with everything, couldn't he just go and type pc which goes to my computer on windows 10 and thus thats where it shows how much space is free out of total gb etc? Thus you dont need to look at disk management like the pic i posted to know if he did it right?

You don't have to go to Disk Management to see how much space is used on a drive.

But........................Disk Management shows some other things that cannot easily be seen anywhere else. That's why we wanted a picture. That picture told us you had a bad situation.

okay that makes sense.

ignatzatsonic said:

paulyjames said:

Well i think i saw installing windows there cost around $100 or so. So basically if Dell did not foolishly put this windows 10 into that 32gb, then i wouldnt have all these issues and dont have to pay all these things to get it fixed over and over again right?

Whatever.....that's the price you pay for whatever mistakes you have made in this whole fiasco.

But if i had told him few days i needed him to copy windows 10 to the 250gb when i went there, i'm still going to get charged the price for that right?


So basically my mistake here was i foolishly bought this laptop with that ridiculous 32gb that came along with it right? The guy on the other forum told me that not Dell but the refurbished company made the error of putting the windows 10 on the 32gb hard drive. Again im not sure 100 percent if my computer is brand new or refurb since even though its called dell net outlet and i asked the seller about it, he said dell new outlet means unopened but its either overstocked and never shipped or it was returned but unopened return.

Well heres the thing. Last time i had bought laptops that no longer worked to see if he could repair it. I previously had these laptops looked at another repair shop and they told me they couldn't. I was out of the country at the time and i cannot get a good computer where im located. So when in the us, he looked at it and didn't charge me anything. Basically if he can't fix it, theres no charge which i was surprised.


On my mistakes. I agree with what you say here. However there is one reason why this was all caused. I needed to get the laptop as soon as possible. The thing is i dont stay in the us that long and have to fly out. So because of this, i needed to order a new laptop and get it quickly. At first i was just going to buy an asus zenbook on amazon which takes 2 days only due to amazon prime. Amazon prime is very good and reliable. That asus zenbook comes with a 256gb ssd and thats all. Thus i would not need to replace that hard drive with my old ssd because it came with it. But then i heard about the dell xps and it has very good reviews and this seller on amazon told me i would receive it in 2 days. The thing was this laptop has a quad core i5 processor so thats why i got it. The zenbook has i5 u processor. I paid around $1100 for the xps on ebay.


On Dell, it cost around $1250 before you do configurations so its just a bit more. The biggest issue here is it takes 6-8 days to ship. Even if i get it expedited etc, its still going to take a while since it has to be customized i believe. I cannot do this. I needed it in a few days max so i figure go with ebay since the seller has excellent feedback over thousands of reviews etc and he told me its Dell New Outlet which means unopened and brand new and either. I did saw that 32gb ssd but all i thought was... oh so theres like 2 hard drives there and thats the small one. I didn't think much about this but thought you could just replace the 1tb with the ssd.


Im pretty certain that i was very clear when i asked him it. I said i like for you to replace my hard drive that came with this new computer with my old 250gb ssd. When i asked this, he said sure but then said i need to have windows 10 installed and i have to buy a copy. Im 100 percent of this unless he misinterpreted wrong but i can't imagine how he can. He told me if he removes the hard drive, he needs to install windows 10 in it because he would have removed the hard drive. That made no sense based on what you guys mentioned. I said but i already have windows 10 here and i mentioned computer is activated as i activated it earlier when i got the laptop.


He then asked me the model of my laptop and i told him. Then he checked it on his computer and said wow this computer has a 32gb one as well and was surprised. Then said yes i don't have to install windows 10 in it. He then opened the laptop up with his screwdrivers and then said yep theres a 32gb and a 1tb hard drive and because of that, i dont need to buy windows 10. He said this 100 percent.


Well i told him im not good with computers so shouldn't it be obvious if he did it the way he did it, then i cannot use my 250gb ssd? I don't think i could be more clear that what i asked. I know i sound like im all over the place here with my posts but the way i mentioned it, it was very clear. I still do not know why he didn't copy the windows 10 to the ssd. the only thing that he mentioned to me was why would i downgrade from 1tb to 250gb hard drive and i said... the 250gb is ssd and the 1tb isn't. I'm guessing it might have been him not seeing any of these 32gb hard drives that comes along with the other one which might have confused him since Dell or their refurbers screwed this up.