Installing An Ssd In An Alienware M18x Laptop ?

I am going to install an SSD for the first time. The M18X laptop came with a 750 HHD, which I would like to keep. The laptop allows for both drives inside. I have researched this procedure, contacted Alienware Tech Support and searched the Alienware Forums. I located intructions on the Alienware User Support. Unfortunately, Tech Support couldn't answer a couple main questions. I will do a clean install on the SSD, with the operating disc I purchased with the laptop. In order to keep the the HHD, does it all get allocated for storage ? I saw conflicting advice on "caching" and various other terms. Also, I have Alienrespawn, which I paid for, and people have had a lot of trouble downloading afterwards. It's basically used for backup of the system. Does it stays on the HDD ? I have made no other modifications to the laptop.
Any advice is appreciated, as I have never done this before. I have only replaced a HDD.

 

How full is the other drive? Are you gaming with it? How big is the SSD?

 

Back up the old HDD data.
Then I would remove the old HDD, put the SSD in the same place. Install clean, get all updates, drivers and utilities running correctly.
Back up your new SSD.
Install the original HDD in the second slot being sure the BIOS does not try to boot the HDD (it should not). When you boot your SSD you will have your new drive and can pick and choose what you want from the old HDD.

 

Thanks for both of your replies. To answer the first, the SSD is 512 GB. I am only using 58GB (at the moment), of the 688 GB (?) available. I don't use it for games, but videos.
To answer the second...thank you, that sounds like an easy enough solution.

I was wondering what some tech people (online forums), mean about the optical drive and using it for "caching" ?

Sorry if that is a really dumb question. I'm 54, lol.

 

IDK, about the other people, but I was going to say you'd not get much of a gain as a gaming system, sure the OS will boot quickly, but with a small a drive, you'll be doing your work on the old spinning drive. If I install all my Steam games it is nearly 400GB. If you keep your documents and other stuff on the old drive and use the SSD for what your currently working on, should work out for you.
I have an ASUS ROG, I installed an SSD and a 2nd spinning drive, and only loaded one game I play most. Caching would bottleneck transferring between the 2 drives. Caching is where the systems uses drive space as "RAM" - in the old days with Win98, that is why your drive would be banging away under heavy loads, the OS was putting data on the drive "caching" it to free up RAM. With a good amount of RAM and an SSD caching shouldn't be a factor.

 

Thank you very much for explaining it ! Really appreciate the information. I was hoping to use the SSD as the operating system and the HHD would be there for storage. I don't know what you mean by a "spinning drive" unless that refers to the original type of hard drive.

Thanks again