Acer S7-392 SSD Upgrade

About 6 months ago I purchased a Acer S7-392-6832 Ultrabook (8Gb RAM, 128Gb SSD). I quickly filled up the SSD and realized I probably should have bought the 256Gb SSD model. I called Acer customter support and asked if the SSD could be upgraded. Acer support said no. I went to the store where I purchased the Ultrabook and asked if the SSD could be upgraded. They said no as well.

Well, I did a bit of research and decided to try to upgrade the SSD despite being told it wasn't possible. I ended up buying a 50mm 256Gb mSATA SSD from mydigitalssd.com as well as a USB 3.0 mSATA SSD enclosure adapter. There's the URLs for these items:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B3X73EE/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AYIDDMA/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

At any rate, I cloned my existing 128Gb drive to the 256Gb drive (using the USB 3.0 mSATA SSD enclosure adapter) as well as free disk cloning software from EaseUS Todo Backup - http://www.todo-backup.com/

After cloning my existing drive, I swapped the existing drive with the 256Gb drive. The machine booted up with no problems. It works perfectly. The 256Gb drive had about 120Gb of an unformatted partition after the cloning. I merged the unformatted disk partition into the existing C: partition using a simple to use disk partition merge utility from www.disk-partition.com. It worked great.

Well, I just wanted those interested to know that the Acer S7-392-6832 Ultrabook can indeed be upgraded to a 256Gb SSD. Keep in mind though that the 256Gb disk does not run in a Raid 0 configuration as did the 128Gb drive. From what I've experienced, the computer now takes about 2 extra seconds to boot. I haven't noticed any other differences. I'm very happy with the upgrade.

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ssc

Recently bought an Acer S7-392 (exact model no. is S7-392-74504G12 I7 W8.1) that has 128GB SDD. (4GB RAM, 1920x1080 screen)

I am tempted to do what you have done to upgrade it to 256GB SDD. (same problem, current free space running out fast)

Any further advice? from you or from others?

Or is this better done at a Acer service center, which in my case, they say it can be done, but the cost seem a lot more compared to what I can deduced from the parts cost listed in amazon.com.

Why is it you cannot get back the Raid 0 configuration after the upgrade.

Is it important to have Raid 0 ?

ndamenti

I've found that my S7-392 boots almost as fast without Raid 0 as with Raid 0. I've been very satisfied with the upgrade of my SSD to 256 Gb.

ssc

ndamenti, I have some questions to ask of you regard the upgrade procedure.

Was there an original 50mm 128GB SDD that you had to remove and put aside, in order to replace it with the new 50mm 256GB SSD? In other words, there is no room to put in another 128GB in some empty slot, right?

The original 128GB hardware is wasted huh? But I guess you can use that 128GB as an external drive using the USB 3.0 adapter, right?

I take it that the RAID 0 in implemented in the original 128GB SDD circuitry and not in the new 256GB circuitry, that is why RAID 0 is gone after the upgrade. RAID or not, is not something that can be configured in the notebook / windows, right?

ndamenti

You are correct, the 256GB drive takes the place of the 128GB drive. I purchased a USB 3.0 SSD adapter to clone the 256GB drive. After I swapped the 128GB drive, I inserted it into the USB 3.0 adapter and now use it as a 128GB external drive. Yes, I think the Raid 0 is implemented in the 128GB drive, but not in the 256GB drive. When I swapped in the 256GB drive, the bios auto-sensed the new drive and it's configuration without any issue. I didn't have to manually reconfigure it.

Cory-Acer

Thanks for sharing these steps ndamenti.

Just to provide a bit of clarity, our support team is going to answer to the best of their ability in regards to the warranty itself. The SSD for the S7-392 is not what we consider to be accessible by the end user (again from a warranty standpoint) and requires removing the lower case and the battery before replacing the mSata drive. There may also be some warranty issues with performing these steps, you'll have to check with your regional Acer service team for specifics.

The reason for the Acer community forums is to allow for this type of information to be available, and we're really glad you're sharing it. I just wanted to take a moment to explain why you received that answer from our tech support staff and while that answer is likely to remain the same in the future.

petermaple

Hi ndamenti

I was curious to replace my SDD driver for a long time but dare not to. So could you give me some help about how to dissemble the ssd drive? Acer technician said that I need to dissemble the battery first. is that true? Or do you have service manual or i can download somewhere? Or could you give me some pictures when you are dissembling it ? thanks for your help.

mosbergh

Thanks for your post - it encouraged me to do the same, and I replaced my 256G OEM drive with a Samsung Evo 500. Instead of cloning the new drive, I used a USB recovery stick - created with the Acer utility.

Everything worked out - BUT: it turns out that the BIOS defaults to the IDE interface for the disk; SSDs should use AHCI to best use advanced features and ensure longevity / performance. Subsequently, when I changed the BIOS setting to AHCI, the Samsung no longer works: the install process works (I reinstalled after turning on AHCI), but boot will run into a system failure.

Curious to know if you have succeeded in running your replacement SSD in AHCI?

mosbergh

Solved! Introspection and searching the web helps: Since I had used the Acer-Utility created recovery for installing W8.1 on a brand-new disk, the install reflects the anticipated configuration set by Acer for the Aspire: i.e., a RAID controller. Consequently, drivers for AHCI are disabled.

I booted up in IDE mode, fixed the registry to enable the driver, then switched the BIOS to AHCI and - voila!

Works like a charm - the Samsung is balzingly fast, metrics are a bit below the RAIDed original SSD, but real-life performance experience is the same.

Anyone interested in taking the original 256G RAID SSD from me? Just 1 month old!

mjtaryan

Okay, so now we know that the mSATA is replaceable. But itvwould be very helpful if someone would provide step by step detailed instructions on how to do this for those of us who are new to the Aspire. Thanks.

ndamenti

Honestly, I don't recall the exact steps to extract the original 128Gb SSD. However, I can say it's pretty obvious as to how to get at it once you remove the bottom cover.

petermaple

it's quite a long time since I did it, so picture won't be available

just open the back lid, the SSD is at upper right corner.

pull off carefully of the LCD connector line(a black wire)

losen the screw

the SSD will lift up. replace it.

tighten the screw

close the back lid

FN+f2 POWER UP, change the sata mode to AHCI

reboot

I suggest reintall the OS for better performance.

mjtaryan

Thanks. What I was concerned about was that I seem to recall reading a post as part of this topic that said something about having to disconnect and remove the battery to get at the ssd. I didn't want to screw things up.