[holmes4]

It is a sticky.

[tompc]

I agree with the other poster that this is a very good tutorial for physically replacing your SSD, but beyond that the instructions are specific to one manufacturer's SSD which happens to also have a USB port. As a new owner (if it ever arrives) of both a $245 Sam's special AND the new $79 Crucial 32 Gb SSD (which was in stock as of yesterday), I'd like to have seen something more useful for those of us who want to clone their OS and have no USB port on their SSD. It would also be useful (although certainly not necessary) to see some commentary about whether to clone the drive right out of the box or whether to set up XP first (mine is an XP model and I plan to stick with XP for now).

Having only visited a few times, I'll say my first impressions are that this is a cool reference site.

Order details for the Crucial SSD (and 2Gb RAM) if anyone is interested):

Shipping option: Standard shipping (3-5 business days)
Order date/time: 03/04/2009 18:30:49
Days are calculated on business days which are considered Monday through Friday and exclude Federal Holidays within the United States.
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Item Information
Part Description Price ea. Qty Total
CT32SSDN100P00 32GB, Mini PCIe SSD $79.99 1 $79.99
CT885015 2GB, 200-pin SODIMM Upgrade for a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 (910) System $25.99 1 $25.99Line item subtotal: $105.98
Estimated tax: *
(Standard shipping (3-5 business days)) Shipping charges: $3.99
Estimated order subtotal: $109.97

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[timrlee]

Originally Posted by Dunhamzzz

Also with screws be careful when removing screws not to dead-head them, as then your drive will be stuck in permanently, this happened to me with both the WWAN and SSD!

OK I have been working inside laptops/pcs for years... and this is the first time this has happened to me!! Not the usual screwdriver i would use.. but i've completely dead-headed the screws... Any ideas? I was thinking on taking a dremel to it in the morning... then using a flat head to take it out but i'm afraid of damaging the SSD and more.

Anyone else got round this. I looked on google and to be honest there is a 'magic phone order tool' in the states which isn't really an option.

Cheers

Tim

[holmes4]

A Dremel is what a lot of people here have used successfully.

[nextel2010]

In RE: replacing STEC with non-usb (Crucial) SSD

Well, first off, I'd be careful with the Crucial SSD. Its listed read/write performance numbers are 40 MB/s & 15 MB/s, respectively. All else being equal (a big if), this would be way below the RunCore's R/W stats of 78/44 MB/s, and even below the STEC: See comments at crucial-32gb-ssd-for-mini-9-is-out%C7%83-t2645.html That, and the fact that it didn't come with a usb port, pushed me to pay $40 more for a same-sized RunCore, which was out of stock even, at time of order (I'm still waiting).

Clone the drive right out of the box or whether to set up XP first?....well, that's nearly the same thing, since your drive right out of the box (you mean the Mini?) is a clean install (unless you're referencing any extraneous software Dell installed), and if you set up XP first, it's also a clean install (even cleaner).

Otherwise.......if you plan to image the Dell-installed OS, first create a backup with the software of your choice (bear in mind previous caveats). If you don't have access to another PC, see (*) below on whether or not you need to build a PE (preinstallation environment) disk first.

Then physically replace the STEC with the Crucial.

Next, the disk alignment (optional, but recommended). Since you don't have a usb port, the easiest way is to use a Vista recovery disk (yes, you use it even if you plan to use XP as your OS), but you'll need to have an external usb optical drive for this (as you'll see later, it's a necessity throughout these processes). The advantage is that you don't need to use another computer. You can get a Vista disk ISO and instructions here: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum ... ostcount=3

After that, you can finish by either loading XP manually, using the Dell-supplied XP CD's, or restoring your Dell-installed OS image (which you saved before, right?). (*) I've read that you can restore with Acronis (I guess they have a bootable CD from which you can start up their software). Otherwise, you'll need to build a PE disk, boot off it, and then restore the OS using other software. For previously stated reasons, I recommend DriveImageXML. Links and information for the latter is here: http://www.runtime.org/peb.htm (Follow the links to build a Bart PE disk & add the DriveImage plugin). I've built a PE disk once before, and it was an involved experience.

As an aside, I would recommend doing a manual re-install from the Dell-supplied XP disks. All you need are the OS and drivers. You can choose whether or not you want to install any of the other Dell software. Also, it'll save the hassles of the restore, and theoretically, your system is still new anyway, so there's no data or other software to save.

There probably are easier ways to get an image onto a non-usb miniPCIe SSD; maybe other members can point out other methods.

Notes: 1) I have NOT actually ever restored a system image using a PE disk, so I can't say how easy (or hard) it is to do, 2) When I built my BartPE disk back then, I had an XP Pro CD; I'm not sure if a BartPE disk can be built from the Dell-supplied XP CD, 3) There IS a device into which you supposedly can plug a miniPCIe card, and allows access via a usb port, but it's only available from overseas, costs about $35 (before shipping), and there's NO guarantee that in the end it'll read the Crucial (or any specific SSD, for that matter). http://www.aeneas.com.tw/pdf/mp1.pdf

In short, if you need to do OS image restores or disk settings, having that little usb port can takes hours (days, if you're error-prone) off your task 8-) .

[lswartz]

Originally Posted by nextel2010

In RE: replacing STEC with non-usb (Crucial) SSD

In short, if you need to do OS image restores or disk settings, having that little usb port can takes hours (days, if you're error-prone) off your task 8-) .

According to Digital Discount RunCore does not have the USB port "* Unlike the Asus PCI-E SSD This drive does not include the Master Micro USB port. Through no fault of RunCore Dell decided not to put a USB bus on the PCI-E Slot."

[Dunhamzzz]

Originally Posted by timrlee

OK I have been working inside laptops/pcs for years... and this is the first time this has happened to me!! Not the usual screwdriver i would use.. but i've completely dead-headed the screws... Any ideas? I was thinking on taking a dremel to it in the morning... then using a flat head to take it out but i'm afraid of damaging the SSD and more.

Anyone else got round this. I looked on google and to be honest there is a 'magic phone order tool' in the states which isn't really an option.

Cheers

Tim

Same here - couldn't believe it just happened so easily, man were those screwheads brittle!
admittedly - I just tore my SSD out so its sitting there with 1 screw hole missing - try it if you dare!

[holmes4]

Originally Posted by lswartz

According to Digital Discount RunCore does not have the USB port "* Unlike the Asus PCI-E SSD This drive does not include the Master Micro USB port. Through no fault of RunCore Dell decided not to put a USB bus on the PCI-E Slot."

You misunderstand the text. The Mini version of the RunCore SSD does have a slave USB port, meaning that it can be connected with the supplied cable as a USB hard drive, making cloning easy. What it doesn't do is serve as a USB master inside the Mini allowing other devices to connect to it.

[bdnfarm]

...I'm trying to upgrade my new Mini 9 with a 32G Crucial hard drive but Dell just told me it will not support anymore then 16G....What's up with that...?? Anybody have a suggestion??

[davico_rosello]

Originally Posted by bdnfarm

...I'm trying to upgrade my new Mini 9 with a 32G Crucial hard drive but Dell just told me it will not support anymore then 16G....What's up with that...?? Anybody have a suggestion??

yeah! sure! and no more than 1gb ram too :lol: :lol: :lol:

but, forget the crucial!the stock ssd is even better! you will be happier with a 16gb runcore in a primary drive speed is everything! :ugeek: