Dell inspiron 15R SE 7520 help needed about re installing windows 8 64

Hello everyone,

I bought a new dell 15R SE 7520 laptop yesterday with the following configuration:

Processor : Intel Core™ i7-3632QM Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.20 GHz)
Memory : 8192MB (2X4096) 1600MHZ DDR3
Hard Disk : 1TB SERIAL ATA (5400RPM) + 32GB MSATA3 SSD FOR MINICARD SLOTS - PM8
Graphics : 2GB AMD RADEON HD 7730M
Operating System : Windows 8 64bit Single Language

I have my 1TB Hard disk (DISK 0) partitioned as image below:



Also the 32GB SSD (DISK 1) is shown in the above picture as the 8GB disk assigned for the hibernation and the remaining assigned for the cache purpose.

I believe that the first partition called EFI system partition is the one which includes all the dell startup options and diagnostics (F2 button at the startup). The large one of 981 GB is my only accessible partition which contains the operating system and this is obvious for everyone here for sure. The last one of 11.96 is the recovery partition which I don't need it as DELL backup and recovery software is a crap and is not working which is a common issue and they haven't solved it yet so I decided to do all my backup and recovery manually as I used to.

I will remove the operating system which is installed but dell and I will install mine so I need to make sure that I do everything in the right way because this is the first time I deal with any computer contains an SSD disk for cache purpose and honestly I don't know how is those SSD disks work.

This is what I actually need to perform:
1- Remove all partitions except the first one for DELL EFI
2- Using windows 8 to re-partition my hard disk drive (1 TB). By the way, my current SATA configuration SET to intel smart response technology which prevent my windows 8 installation disk recognizing my 1 TB hard disk drive. I should switch it to AHCI before I install windows. I just made this switch once to check that my windows 8 will recognize my hard disk then switch it back without doing any installations.
3- I need to know if there is any needed configuration to get my SSD 32GB work as the current settings made by DELL to work as a cache.

I'm so sorry for many questions but I really need an expert to let me learn more about the SSD technology and the new intel smart response technology SATA operation.

Awaiting your response.

Best regards
Sameh Saad

Are you wanting to Upgrade to Win7? You are posting at Seven Forums.

If you intend to keep Win8 then I'd post at www.EightForums.com for more specialized help.

gregrocker said:

Are you wanting to Upgrade to Win7? You are posting at Seven Forums.

If you intend to keep Win8 then I'd post at Windows 8 Forums for more specialized help.

Thank you for your reply.
I posted a question here before I notice that there is a separate forum for windows 8. I already posted the same question there and I got a reply also. Thanks you again for your interest in replying me.

Best regards
Sameh Saad

Pretty much everything that needs to be considered during a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7
is in the blue link, and is largely the same for Win8.

However there are special steps here to install in UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with - Windows 7 Forums.

So far IRST has reinstalled itself with its driver, however I would read everything you can find for it to make sure you have it reinstalled correctly. If there's a IRST setting for the SATA controller on your new Win8 machine then that needs to be studied and understood completely.

This is why you might be able to get more complete help on EightForums, since we are Windows 7 guys here for the most part.

gregrocker said:

Pretty much everything that needs to be considered during a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7
is in the blue link, and is largely the same for Win8.

However there are special steps here to install in UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with - Windows 7 Forums.

So far IRST has reinstalled itself with its driver, however I would read everything you can find for it to make sure you have it reinstalled correctly. If there's a IRST setting for the SATA controller on your new Win8 machine then that needs to be studied and understood completely.

This is why you might be able to get more complete help on EightForums, since we are Windows 7 guys here for the most part.

Thank you so much for your valuable reply.
I used to learn before I crash my head in a wall and I got a great reply at eightforums.com for my inquiry which is 100% reply to my exact case.
Next step for me is learning what and how is the UEFA works as this is the first time I heard about it like the SSD as well.

Thank you again and have a great day
Sameh Saad

For more info on uEFI:
Windows and GPT FAQ
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
UEFI and Windows
Technical Note: UEFI BIOS vs. Legacy BIOS, Advantech(EN) - YouTube
Sample: Configure UEFI/GPT-Based Hard Drive Partitions by Using Windows PE and DiskPart