w700 hdd upgrade

jason2234
jason2234 Member Posts: 85 Troubleshooter

i'm going to upgrade the hard drive in my w700. I have enough for a 256gb and i currently have 64gb.

 

Any recommendations from people who have already done this?

 

Any links a helpful about the process of the upgrade etc would also be very welcome.

 

is it best to do a clean install afterwards or just use the Acer recovery discs. i dont use the Acer bloatware but if its easier to just user the recovery disc and uninstall i'm not that bothered.

 

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Answers

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,101 Trailblazer

    I would do a backup first, make sure you have a recovery disk created using a USB connected drive and after the new HD is installed boot from the recovery disk and have it restore the backup. You might have to tweak partitions once you're done, but you'll end up with exactly the configuration you started with. Note that this will be easiest with a couple of addons, an external USB drive large enough for the backup and an external USB drive for booting. I have a 1TB drive I use for backups and an external DVD writer for booting. Both should have their own power supply, since the power provided by the tablet via USB is pretty minimal...

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Ethos
    Ethos Member Posts: 160 Troubleshooter

    why u using crappy slow ancient optical drive for booting when u have usb and usb flash drives? isnt it easier usb flash drive so small and compact rather than compact disc drive? 

  • Ethos
    Ethos Member Posts: 160 Troubleshooter
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,101 Trailblazer

    It's much easier (and cheaper) to keep a set of DVDs and CDs with boot images than to have a bunch of thumb drives, or have to reconfigure a thumb drive for each image.

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Ethos
    Ethos Member Posts: 160 Troubleshooter

    i ave purchased nice usb 3.0 flash drive 8gb for 9 pouds and it is very small quite cheap 

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360701677810?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

  • Philman
    Philman Member Posts: 255 Enthusiast WiFi Icon

    Hummmmm... I prefer to spend more and be sure.

  • jason2234
    jason2234 Member Posts: 85 Troubleshooter

    thanks for the replies. very helpful

     

    any recommendations on the msata itself? should i consider read write speeds or just get any one considering theyre all about the same price

  • Ethos
    Ethos Member Posts: 160 Troubleshooter

    yeah that i would like to discuss about .. 

    I would rather try tune msata ssd.. in the bios i can set raid mode .. so lets figure out how we could 
    install additional msata ssd (same as in s7) and have two msatas in RAID 0 ...
    That would be great ..

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,101 Trailblazer

    I haven't been inside my W700, but my understanding is that the newer units, at least, has their drives soldered in. It's not a replaceable part as such.

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • 1stTimeAcer
    1stTimeAcer Member Posts: 96 Enthusiast WiFi Icon

    My unit from March (i5 3337u) has a mSata drive, which is replaceable. I haven't heard anything about soldered on SSD. I believe the ones that have soldered drive are the W3 and the W5xx series.

     

     

    Here is a video on how to do it, just don't be as rough as the guy in the video.

    (Important! remember to check the wifi and bluetooth antenna's connection before putting it back, it falls off very easily)

  • Ethos
    Ethos Member Posts: 160 Troubleshooter

    what? even msata ssd ???

  • Ethos
    Ethos Member Posts: 160 Troubleshooter

    1st time acer

    yeah agree with u .. i ve seen video couple months ago ... i have 256 crucial m4 and i would replace with 128 .. but this one 128 is faster than crucial m4 ..

  • 1stTimeAcer
    1stTimeAcer Member Posts: 96 Enthusiast WiFi Icon

    I think it's because W3 and W5 uses embedded MMC and not actual mSata SSD, so it's soldered on instead.

     

    I personally use the M4 256gb in mine. For me, the storage space is much more important than speed, and in reality, the real world difference in the speed of SSD won't be significant either how. But if that is something that you care about and haven't picked up a drive, then I would say to also look at the Plextor M5M as it one of the handful drives in mSata format released after the M4 that is actually really good.

  • jason2234
    jason2234 Member Posts: 85 Troubleshooter

    the plexor looks pretty good for the speed and is about the same price. So i might go for that one ????

     

  • Ethos
    Ethos Member Posts: 160 Troubleshooter

    but pretty epensive..

  • jason2234
    jason2234 Member Posts: 85 Troubleshooter

    in the uk the price for the plexor and crucial are the same, so makes sense to get the plexor

  • jason2234
    jason2234 Member Posts: 85 Troubleshooter

    i did the upgrade with a plexor 256gb msata. It was really really easy and worked straight away.

    I got the whole board out in really quickly and then couldnt get the msata screw out had to try about 10 different screw drivers before i got it out which took me 20 minutes! otherwise its an upgrade you could do in 30 minutes tops.

     Then i recovered with the Acer recovery discs which seemed to take forever!

     

    highly recommend it Man Happy

     

    Thanks for all the help

  • Ethos
    Ethos Member Posts: 160 Troubleshooter

    How much did u pay for it?  and if u saying it was easy .. how hard was to remove screen ? 

    Can you post as ssd score of this msta ssd? and windows experience score ?

    thnx

  • jason2234
    jason2234 Member Posts: 85 Troubleshooter

    The hard drive was £153 from amazon

    I honestly found it really easy the screen was easy to get off once the first clip was out on the top. You have to push the screen forwards with a screw driver from the back then get a screw driver in behind to loosen the first clip.

     

    Once the screen is off its straight forward screws and cable removal to get the board out. no hidden surpises its just a bit of a fiddle to get the wireless cables back in when you come to set the board back in. And check the screen orientation switch before you set the screen back because if the screw in this corner isn't tight the switch doesn't work.

     

    In windows the HDD gets 8.2 on the primary HDD test. Let me know what test you want me to run and I'll post back a score.

  • Ethos
    Ethos Member Posts: 160 Troubleshooter

    I have lite on original  and score is 8.1 .. so there is not uch differece .. try this soft .. 

    this isn't lite on sd .. on picture is crucial m4 128 .. very good ssd .. 

    m4sataiii.jpg

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