How do I increase my storage space on an Alienware laptop?

Magic Pink · June 2022

i am as ever a huge pc dummy but my storage space is hella full and i would like to get one of those whats-it-called seperate storage drive thingamabobs to run bigger games on.

is that possible to do on an alienware? they seem pretty "you get what you buy no changes ever" sort of brands.

BahamutZERO · June 2022

You should be able to at least swap out the drive inside for a bigger one. What model is the laptop?

Magic Pink · June 2022

BahamutZERO wrote: »

You should be able to at least swap out the drive inside for a bigger one. What model is the laptop?

I think it's a 17R but I already checked that and they said it's not possible. It's a REALLY big internal drive tho like 2TB that's why I was looking at an external

BahamutZERO · June 2022

So there's no space for another drive internally, and you don't want to replace the existing drive? If you want an external drive, you can get a USB-connected external drive, those are basically universal as long as there's USB ports. USB connection is not as fast as an internal drive though, and you have to worry about the cable getting pulled out which is annoying, but if you have no slot to add another internal drive that's your only option yeah.

Jazz · June 2022

Magic Pink wrote: »

i am as ever a huge pc dummy but my storage space is hella full and i would like to get one of those whats-it-called seperate storage drive thingamabobs to run bigger games on.

is that possible to do on an alienware? they seem pretty "you get what you buy no changes ever" sort of brands.

That's funny you should say that; I have an older Alienware laptop (a 2017-era 17 R4), and it's a very flexible machine as far as upgrades go. Since I've had it I've added more RAM, changed out the spinning-platter drive, and added a second NVME drive (in addition to the boot NVME drive, and it still has an available 2230 size slot for a third one). About the only things it forces you to stick with are the CPU and GPU, as both are soldered to the motherboard.

Their philosophy may well have changed over the last five years; certainly my machine, which is big and heavy, pre-dates the introduction of MaxQ, and "thin and light"(-ish) gaming laptops. I can easily see how those machines could be less flexible when it comes to upgrades, while a bigger machine like mine can afford to offer more user-serviceable options.

Mugsley · June 2022

@Magic Pink looks like your system has room for a M.2 drive and a 3.5" drive. You should be able to either add or replace to give yourself additional space.

This should help.

https://youtu.be/SBvVuOPa-xM

The PC Build Thread can help recommend replacement drives.

BahamutZERO · June 2022

When I did a search it seemed like there were several model iterations of 17 R laptop over several years, do all of them have those 2 slots?

Magic Pink · June 2022

BahamutZERO wrote: »

When I did a search it seemed like there were several model iterations of 17 R laptop over several years, do all of them have those 2 slots?

they do not, sadly

Magic Pink · June 2022

Thank you all! That was very helpful.

Jazz · June 2022

BahamutZERO wrote: »

When I did a search it seemed like there were several model iterations of 17 R laptop over several years, do all of them have those 2 slots?

Alienware's naming conventions leave a lot to be desired, it can easily get confusing as to which model is being referred to.

(The 17 R4 in that video is the one I have - again, a five-year-old model now.)

Magic Pink · June 2022

so i bought one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07V1X8G4L?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

but the games don't seem to be running very well and sometimes crash if they're installed on it. it's connected with a type-c cable. what did i do wrong?

edit: nm, looks like it's just a few games that don't like to run on the ssd

BahamutZERO · June 2022

running off an external drive shouldn't do anything bad except make load times longer sometimes, that's strange

V1m · June 2022

It might be worth double checking that the port you plugged it into is a USB C 3.2 and not some lower spec USB C.

Magic Pink · June 2022

BahamutZERO wrote: »

running off an external drive shouldn't do anything bad except make load times longer sometimes, that's strange

It was Agents of Mayhem. Frame rate kept hitching and it would CTD whenever I pressed start.

wunderbar · June 2022

Honestly, what I would recommend is to always run games off the internal drive when possible. Move games/content you don't need access to on a regular basis to the external drive and leave the internal drive for the things you're actually using on a regular basis.

If you need the 2TB of space in the laptop for productivity purposes like working with large files/video editing etc then sure. But if you have a 2TB drive that's mostly full of games.... well move the older games off the internal drive... or just uninstall them.

BlindZenDriver · June 2022

I'm late to this thread, but there is a couple of things which can be done to help make more room on drives which many doesn't use. Depending on the hardware it may even improve performance as well.

What I am talking about is having Windows compress some select folders, like for example the folders you have installed programs in. Since it is handled by Windows it will be transparent to the programs you run, simply put Windows compresses files stored in the folders you select and automatically decompress them when needed.

Depending on how your drive is formatted it may be as simple as this:

Right click the folder you want to be compressed and select "Properties".
Click the "Advanced" button.
If the option is shown, the check the box next to the text "compress contents to save disk space".
Click the "OK" button and then the "Apply" button.
Then the files will be compressed, depending on how many it can take a while. In the window you'll be able to see the total size of the files and how much space they take up on the disk, depending on file types you'll gain anywhere from almost nothing to 50% or more of the space the uncompressed files took up

For you to use the compression build into Windows you need your drive to be formatted in the NTFS file system, it should be pretty much standard for internal drives - with external drives it is more likely they are in FAT32 and if so they need reformatting.

There is also something else you can do to free up space, that is getting rid of temporary files, files stored by Windows for use if uninstalling updates to Windows and older version of for example graphics drivers - and there can also be some to delete in your download folder. Now all this is more complicated and deleting the wrong files can cause problems, so take care and if in doubt then don't delete until you're sure. A tool like Treesize Free can be handy to spot where the is possible gains.

Magic Pink · June 2022

wunderbar wrote: »

Honestly, what I would recommend is to always run games off the internal drive when possible. Move games/content you don't need access to on a regular basis to the external drive and leave the internal drive for the things you're actually using on a regular basis.

If you need the 2TB of space in the laptop for productivity purposes like working with large files/video editing etc then sure. But if you have a 2TB drive that's mostly full of games.... well move the older games off the internal drive... or just uninstall them.

i put a bunch of other games on it and they seem to run fine. i just have way too many games i want available at any moment especially since my internet provider is so fucking greedy about my data limit now

V1m · July 2022

Magic Pink wrote: »

especially since my internet provider is so fucking greedy about my data limit now

I'm genuinely appalled that this is still a thing.

Penny Arcade

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