Acer Aspire E5 - 576G-56FW M.2 SSD recognized, but not showing up in the boot order?

Hi,
I have Acer Aspire E5 - 576G-56FW. Just installed WD green M.2 SSD 2280 240GB.
It shows up in the bios information under HDD1. and also under disk management and file explorer in windows. But it doesn't show up in the boot order. I'm looking to do a clean installation of Windows 10 on this M.2 SSD. How can I make the M.2 SSD show up in the boot order? I'm not a super computer expert. I would be very thankful if someone could kindly help me with this. I have attached pictures of the BIOS settings I have. MY HDD is Toshiba which is not in a good condition that's why I installed M.2 SSD

[Edited the thread to add model name to the title]

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Ashane

Ashane said:

Hi,
I have Acer Aspire E5 - 576G-56FW. Just installed WD green M.2 SSD 2280 240GB.
It shows up in the bios information under HDD1. and also under disk management and file explorer in windows. But it doesn't show up in the boot order. I'm looking to do a clean installation of Windows 10 on this M.2 SSD. How can I make the M.2 SSD show up in the boot order? I'm not a super computer expert. I would be very thankful if someone could kindly help me with this. I have attached pictures of the BIOS settings I have. MY HDD is Toshiba which is not in a good condition that's why I installed M.2 SSD

sorry, here are the screenshots again:)

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/dy/w5i086136z9i.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/kz/lq9widra1eb5.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/k6/dh49b06tdmle.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/w0/nqz85s95tyc3.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/c2/j1wn487ef54p.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/8v/mvxgq9c696ag.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/u7/61ggu8m5qcle.jpg

JackE

It won't show up in the boot order unless it has a bootable system like another Windows or Linux bootable system on it and it is GPT partitioned. In short, in must be a bootable drive. Jack E/NJ

Ashane

Okay thank you. I removed my HDD and turned on the laptop with a bootable USB drive with windows. now the M.2 SSD shows up in the windows installation. is it safe to install windows like that?

Commodore_1995#

If you still have the stock operating system provided by Acer, you might want to follow this video tip:

https://youtu.be/cCmAOwRYNwY

Ashane

egydiocoelho said:

If you still have the stock operating system provided by Acer, you might want to follow this video tip:
https://youtu.be/cCmAOwRYNwY

Thanks. but in this, the M.2 SSD showed up in the boot manager right after the installation.

Ashane

JackE said:

It won't show up in the boot order unless it has a bootable system like another Windows or Linux bootable system on it and it is GPT partitioned. In short, in must be a bootable drive. Jack E/NJ

Okay thank you. I removed my HDD and turned on the laptop with a bootable USB drive with windows. now the M.2 SSD shows up in the windows installation. is it safe to install windows like that?

JackE

You can either do that or simply re-connect the HDD, and clone or migrate it to the m.2 using something like MacriumReflect freeware. Your choice. Jack E/NJ

Ashane

Thanks a lot guys! It worked

JackE

What worked? Jack E/NJ

aphanic

Ashane said:

Thanks a lot guys! It worked

@JackE was right in the beginning, you needn't remove the other hard drive, but what you were seeing was the expected behavior. The new one wouldn't show up in the boot from list until it had some OS installed into it.

The only important bit for the next time or people having the same doubts is that the drive is recognized by the machine (i.e. it appears in BIOS) and that it is selectable during the installation of the OS, Windows in this case. The installation program is smart enough to create the necessary partitions for it to appear in the list once the OS is installed if the disk is empty (and even convert it to GPT if it ain't already), which right now is the EFI one, a little one Microsoft reserved I think, and the main OS partition (depending on the case there may be a recovery one as well).

Aaaaaand then it's business as usual

ACOP

Hi! I have the same concern with Ashane, but mine's a lil complicated. I tried the suggested MacriumReflect to clone my files to the new SSD, but unfortunately was unsuccessful due to the lesser storage size of the SSD as I am transferring from a 2TB HDD. I also tried to transfer the Windows OS to the SSD only, yet was unsuccessful too as it is located in the 2TB HDD. Is there any other option that I can try so that I can still use the HDD as storage (without deleting previous files) and SSD as boot drive? Hoping for your replies. Thank you!