Installing Windows 7 and new HD on Acer S3-391-6046

oljoe3

I'm a Win 8.X hater

so

I put in a new 320g HD and installed Win 7.

Had some issues trying to find a Wifi driver but finally found it.

After installing several software items I was looking around and

noticed ( Smiley Surprised ) that everything was sitting on the

20g ssd and the 320g wasn't showing up in Computer. Using

other software I can see the drive is there and the BIOS

shows the drive but Computer ONLY shows Drive C and size

indicates the SSD but not the 320g.

ANY info about this situation would be appreciated. I've spent

the better part of a day trying to find out what is going on

without any luck. The original drive is still available and

shows windows installed on the D ssd drive and a C drive that

reflects the original HD. I'm really bummed out about all this

and would really like to know the what and why of what I

am facing with this laptop.

Thank you

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oljoe3

UPDATE...

I decided to try a new Win 7 install again. The key to doing a correct install is to

wait for the screen asking where to install. DON'T install to the ssd. Install to

the other drive. Don't worry about how things will shake out. The install will

do what is needed on both the ssd and the hd. The result will be the Win 7

install will be on the ssd and "other" things will install on the new hd. Specifying

the ssd as the target of the Win install will put the entire install on the ssd and

your new hard drive won't be there.

Too bad this info isn't available somewhere to prevent a wasted Win 7 install.

Nate82

Is the 20GB SSD big enough for Windows 7 though? I thought it was used only as a cache drive in the S3-391.

oljoe3

I can definitely confirm that the ssd IS large enough to do a Win 7 install. The first time

I tried it thats where I made the mistake of telling it to install. When it was all said and

done there was about 4.5g still available on the ssd. The second try I told it to do the

install on the new hard drive and it did and still did a proper install of Win on the ssd.

Don't know how all that is accomplished but it does happen as described. There was

a small amount of "things" also installed on the new hard drive. Really nice it sets up

that way because the ssd is dirt fast on startup, just like it was with the original 8.X hard

drive. I also had the bios set to "legacy". It wouldn't work using the other option

available - Win 8.X doesn't use the NTFS structure, Win 7 does, hence the "legacy"

choice. In any case the ssd is not just a Cache drive. A look at the original drive

and the ssd showed some really interesting things.

It's been an "education" all the way through. It was well worth the effort from my

point of view as I now have a working Win 7 laptop. I also kept the original 8.X hard

drive "just in case" Smiley Happy

I also want to add that moving the various hard drives in an out causes the ssd

to also change to fit the situation needed. Very strange - I suspect that the

hard drive may harbor the ssd image needed but that doesn't account for what

I had on the first Win 7 install since the hd "apparently" had nothing on it - didn't

even show in the "Computer" tab on the start button however it was there in the bios.

More questions....... and no answers, just speculation.

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