mathewjg Tracker

Re: Impossible to migrate to SSD - M3920 64bit win 7 LDM

mathewjg — Tue, 13 May 2014 15:26:27 GMT

Just spent about 20 minutes waiting for the online chat service to connect me to a technical support advisor and then about 6 minutes talking online. Basically the answer was "we do not recommend you carry out any modifications to this computer as it was not designed for that purpose" and "take the computer to a technician"

They could save a lot of time and money by using a pre-recorded message eg if you have a problem with your computer please take it to a computer service centre"

I was advised that the computer can only fit 1 hard drive (actually it has 6 SATA sockets and plenty of internal space not to mention the fitted drive caddie) and consider that I just want to upgrade to SSD why would I need extra drive space?. I definitely got the feeling that the advisor had no idea of what I was on about and definitely was not in a position to explain anything about LDM - but thats not a suprise it seems hardly anyone does unless they work on network servers. So why is the computer configured to use LDM?

I guess I am going to have to do a clean instal

At least I have had an education over the last couple of days trying to understand the set up.

To save you doing the same

The installed SATA drive shows up as a SCSI within device manager - this is quite common so just ignore it as it does not cause any problems and is usually associated with specific drive manufacturers and the way that the drivers interact.

The drive in BIOS is set to RAID by default- and if you search the internet most people recommend AHCI for SSD drives but you can leave this at RAID because AHCI uses a subset of the RAID configuration.

If anyone finds a data migration program that can recognise drives that are configured with LDM then please let me know

Impossible to migrate to SSD - M3920 64bit win 7 LDM

mathewjg — Mon, 12 May 2014 13:06:08 GMT

I have upgraded several laptops using Windows 8 and not come across the problems that I am having trying to migrate from my M3920 I5 desktop. Non of the available clone software can see the original drive in the desktop. I get stupid message from Samsung migration tool that "Unable to find Windows OS". The drive in the M3920 is the original factory installed NTFS 64bit version of WIndows 7 by Acer.

The only software that recognises the drive so far is Active File recovery and that reports that the M3920 drive is a dynamic drive running LDM (Logical disk manager) The drive has a recovery partition, C drive and D drive. I want to clone the recovery partition and the C drive or just the C drive if the recovery drive is not possible (although as mentioned it has been ok on my other laptops)

I have tried connecting the old drive and the new SSD via USB to my laptop in the hopes that the clone software could than see the old drive but still no luck

Maybe I can convert LDM to MBR or any other system that is recognisable.

Its very frustrating and while searching for a cause I discover that the drive has been installed with RAID turned on and if I try to switch it to AHCI in bios windows fails. After spending more time on the internet it seems that this is OK because AHCI is a subset of RAID - but it would have been handy if a proper motherboard manual was available describing the options and why. On first look it does not make sense to use RAID for one drive and even now I am not really clear about why its set up that way

Tap to click on windows 8 enable disable Aspire 5920 synaptic.

mathewjg — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 20:28:13 GMT

I have been struggling to disable the tap to click function for the touchpad under Windows 8 on my Aspire 5920 laptop. The native windows driver does not have this option and Acer do not want to support windows 8 for the Aspire (Even though it passed the windows compatibility test before I installed Windows 8).

Thankfully the touchpad software developer Synaptics still supports its customers after more than a couple of years and you can go to their website and download the latest Windows 8 driver. Its has plenty of different options including the option to turn off tap to click.

So if you want the latest driver for your touchpad - its at version 16.3.15.1 and the driver covers Vista, XP, 7, 8 32bit and 64 bit versions. I can confirm that it works fine with the Aspire 5920 but as its not built specifically for any one make/model you might want to set a restore point before installing. You must uninstall any previous Synaptics touch pad drivers before the new install.

http://www.synaptics.com/resources/drivers

Re: Fitting a ssd to laptop

mathewjg — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 19:20:10 GMT

I have fitted the Samsung SSD to my Aspire 5920 and it works fine. I did a clean instal of windows 8 and it now goes like a rocket! But I think windows 7 is better for non touch screen even though it will not be as fast as Win 8 for start up its very frustrating trying to move aound the Win 8 screen.

No difficulties fitting the drive - its a one for one replacement and even though it works best with SATA 3, it still fly's with SATA 2.

My laptop still generates a fair amount of heat but not as much as with the previous drive and the battery lasts a little longer - although the difference is very small.

I am now investigating chamging the screen for a touch screen but initial findings look like its not going to cost in and not a 5 minute job (unlike fitting and SSD)

Fitting the SSD was the best upgrade that I have carried out on any computer over the many years that I have been doing this sort of thing - much more noticeable than any processor or RAM upgrade.