How to recover an S3-391 to a new SSD drive?

I have a new Acer S3-391 with a 500gb HDD (and 20gb SSD) preinstalled with Windows 8. I recently picked up a 500gb SSD drive to replace the HDD with. I used the Acer recovery software to create a recover USB which I've used without issue. After replacing the drive with the new SSD I am unable to reinstall Windows 8 from the recovery stick. I keep getting messages like "unable to reset the PC, the system drive cannot be found" and "the drive where windows is installed is locked, please unlock to continue". The USB stick is good and works fine with the original HDD.Just got finished reinstalling and recovering the original drive. The SSD is fine as I can recover and use it on a lenovo, dell and mbp no problems. I contacted Acer support and was referred to the following link.

So with that information I started the quest to obtain recovery disks. To that end the acer recovery software does not support any CD/DVD/BD writers! So another call to support hoping to order a set of disk. It was confirmed the S3-391 does no support disk recovery and Acer does not have recovery disks for this model. The only available option offered was to buy a recovery USB stick!

Support says use disks. Ordering says they don't exist! Any suggestions?

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JackE

>>>The only available option offered was to buy a recovery USB stick!>>>Support says use disks. Ordering says they don't exist! Any suggestions?>>>

Is the stick option 'orderable'?

Jack E/NJ

Babsubin

Hi,

The USB recovery media, that you have created from the old HDD will not work with new SSD. You have to purchase a new recovery CD/USB recovery media to install the operating system.

You can purchase the recovery media from Acer web site. If you wish, I will help you with the web link to purchase the recovery media.

jnmarshall

Don't know what media is "orderable". But I did find two working solutions and they do not require paying Acer for recovery media OR MS for a retail copy of the OS.

Option 1, before upgrading to Win8.1 AND swapping any drives you can make the backup media on both CD/DVD and USB with the original Win8. After updating to Win8.1 this is not an option. Wish Acer you document this!

Option 2, and how I completed it. This will take 10+ hours of down time. Boot the Acer into setup(F2) and change from UEFI to Legacy bios<- this is the key! Save and reboot into Setup again and set the Acer to boot from USB stick first. Now reboot with the USB recovery stick. Follow the typical steps to reset pc AND repartition the drive. This takes about 8 hours on a 500gb SSD. Afterwards it will reboot. Enter into Setup(f2) again and switch from Legacy back to UEFI. If you try to boot now you get a no boot device found error. Insert your USB recovery stick again and reboot. Again enter recovery mode and select the same reset only do NOT repartition the drive. The process starts out REAL slow like the first time, but picks up quickly and finishes in about 2 hours. Another reboot and you should not be sitting at the Windows 8 first time greetings.

Babsubin

Hi,

Is it worked?? are you able to login to Windows 8 now?

jnmarshall

Yes. I just finished making the DVD recovery disks(it takes 3) before starting the Win8.1 upgrade from the market that it's running now. The new SSD is great. It takes 3 seconds to after power on (bios checks) to boot now!

Babsubin

Great!

Cory-Acer

We did some testing on this issue and it appears that the USB recovery media doesn't know what drive to use unless you use the instructions posted below. The content team has removed the link above to review what we've seen so far.

I was able to take a Win 8.1 unit, replace the HDD with a SDD and reload without issue.

I was able to take the SSD out, put a mSata SSD in and reload without issue.

When I added the mSata and SSD it booted to a screen saying it couldn't find the disk.

I believe removing 1 drive, loading the OS on the correct one that you want and then returned the drive will solve the issue.

jnmarshall

I expect we will see a firmware update shortly to correct this as it works fine with the BIOS but not UEFI? I've successfully installed and recovered other computers with multiple drives without issue.

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