Aspire ES1-132 need help to boot from SSD (and disable internal eMMC)

Hello everybody, I am getting mad with this little notebook and I hope in some help.
I have had this little Aspire ES1-132 notebook for a while but in its factory configuration it was useless, because with its 32Gb of internal storage it could not even install the windows 10 updates.

So I added 4 Gb of RAM, bought the connection cable and installed a 480 Gb internal SSD. No problem with formatting, cloning and resizing the partitions from the internal 32 Gb eMMC. Now at startup I can press F12, enter the Boot menu and select the SSD as the boot drive and everything works fine. In my opinion this means that there is no problem with the SSD and cloned partitions.

At this point I would like to set the SSD as the default boot disk, disabling the internal eMMC but I can’t !

I followed this procedure: at startup I press F2 and enter the “InsydeH20 Setup Utility” (the equivalent to the BIOS, I understand). Then I go to the “Boot” menu and I change the boot priority order, placing the SSD at position 1. Then save and exit.
However … NO EFFECT! The eMMC is still the startup disk. I tried different variations in the boot priority order, with the Windows Boot Manager before or after the SSD, with the eMMC from the 2nd to the last position but always no success .

What am I doing wrong ? How can I set the PC to boot from the SSD as the default?
Thank you !

Accepted answers

superspazio

Sorry for the late reply: it took quite a bit of my spare time to sort it out. In short: I tried the suggested methods and a few variations with no success. In the end I decided to go the long way and I followed the procedure for a fresh install of Windows on the internal SSD. It took a whole day but it worked. Now the new SSD is recognized as the startup disk and the eMMC is there for some data temporary storage, but really it not very useful given its small (32Gb) size.

Thank you !

All comments

JackE

The problem is you have now two bootable disks with equally valid EFI trusted file partitions, HDD0(emmc) & HDD1(SSD). HDD0 usually takes precedent if its EFI is still valid. There are several ways to deal with this. The easiest and least risky without invalidating the emmc efi partitions is to press WIN+R and enter 'msconfig'. Click the boot tab to see if two Win10 versions are listed, with the emmc being currently set to default then change it to the SSD. Jack E/NJ

superspazio

Thank you for your reply JackE. I followed your instructions but I am not lucky: in the boot tab I can only see one Win 10 versions. I tried to boot with the eMMC and with the SSD but I have the same result. I am attaching the screenshot. Maybe you have a different suggestion?

JackE

OK. The next slightly riskier method is to set & save BIOS supervisor password. Then re-enter the BIOS with the supervisor password and disable secure boot and put the SSD first, WinBootMgr, second in the boot order again and if possible the emmc chip at the bottom of the order, dead last. Then F10 to save settings and exit. Then cross your fingers.

Jack E/NJ

superspazio

Sorry for the late reply: it took quite a bit of my spare time to sort it out. In short: I tried the suggested methods and a few variations with no success. In the end I decided to go the long way and I followed the procedure for a fresh install of Windows on the internal SSD. It took a whole day but it worked. Now the new SSD is recognized as the startup disk and the eMMC is there for some data temporary storage, but really it not very useful given its small (32Gb) size.

Thank you !

JackE

Congratulations on the successful Windows re-install! Thanks for reporting back. Sometimes it is the only way to succeed.

Jack E/NJ

Gizmo2k23

hi i currently have this same issue. i have tried a fresh install but it still goes to the emmc, i then tried the install again this time deleting all partitions to only show the emmc and ssd, but it will not install onto the ssd, only way it works is if i install to emmc and then clone it to the ssd but like i have said i cant default it the ssd.

any help on this, have i missed somthing when installing.

JackE

only way it works is if i install to emmc and then clone it to the ssd but like i have said i cant default it the ssd.

Does the SSD show up in FileExplore as the D : \ drive? If it does, you have to re-assign the drive letters so the SSD is the C : \ boot drive and emmc is the D : \ data drive.

This must be done booting from the Windows intallation stick troubleshooting option. Then to the installation stick's command prompt X : \ > .

Then enter 'diskpart' at the command prompt X : \ > to re-assign the drive letters using the diskpart command prompt DISKPART >. Post a screenshot of the result of entering 'list volume' at the diskpart prompt. Then I'll tell you the diskpart commands needed to change the drive letters.

Gizmo2k23

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1225471#Comment_1225471

hi jack is there any vids on how to do this, i have kinda gave up on it as it was really starting to get to me but after a few days am now looking into this,

i have totally reset the laptop and also removed the ssd (formatted this with a external caddy drive i have on another laptop) so its all a flesh now,

so would i need to put the ssd back in and then do another fresh install via usb drive(windows) to start the process again?

thanks

Gizmo2k23

changing the letters did no good, i managed to clone and then on diskpart, change the letters under volume, so D: was C: and vice versa, once exit and rebooted, it went back to troubleshoot, gone into check volume and it had all changed back.

the emmc is the issue and the bios has no option to disable it.

nothing seems to be working

JackE

Did you run diskpart from an external USB installation stick and use its X : \ > drive troubleshooting mode to change drive letters of the emmc to D : and the SSD to C : ?

If you did, please post a phone photo of diskpart's "list volume" command if possible.

Gizmo2k23

i did do all this and it had changed but as soon as i rebooted it changed itself back to the orignal way, i then tryed again but this time i clean the drive once it changed to d but again somehow it remained on the emmc and booted as normal, its as if the emmc is locked to the windows side of the laptop and will not change.

JackE

its as if the emmc is locked to the windows side of the laptop and will not change.

On many bootable emmc mainboards, the BIOS firmware is locked onto the filename of one of the boot manager .efi files in the emmc's ESP partition. Often found in the EFI\boot\ folder. This .efi file can be re-named or deleted so the BIOS firmware can't find it and the emmc won't boot.

The firmware "MIGHT" then look for the same filename on another internal bootable drive and boot the system.

I emphasize the word "MIGHT" because I've run into emmc boards with BIOS firmware is not only locked onto a particular .efi filename, but also locked onto the emmc chip as the boot drive and won't look for the same filename in the ESP partitions of other internal drives. So it's best to have a recovery USB drive handy just in case.

Gizmo2k23

i will try looking up the efi if its possible and see if it can be changed,

seems like its just not wanting to change over at all.

seems a waste of a great wee laptop if its totally locked.

considered going down the linux track with it now to see if this works on it,

just wanted to give it to my son to do school work and some general web use.

JackE

considered going down the linux track with it now to see if this works on it,

Right now I'm struggling with something like this for a person who has an older Win8x-era UEFI emmc model. Needs a supported OS.

With emmc EFI file untouched, won't always boot from bootable installation USBs, regular or superspeed, made from Win or Lin ISOs. F12 BIOS menu usually ignors them. Boots straight to emmc's Win8x. Win8x Explorer sees USB hardware just fine though.

The only stick that'll reliably boot seems to be GPartEd Live which of course can only wipe, clean out, and/or maybe clone the emmc's partitions.

At the moment, was able to get a full erase everything Win10 up & running very well. Settled for a large Windows.old backup folder that can eventually be cleaned out to release space. Had to use USB creation tool "AND" only starting from the stick's Win10 setup.exe inside Win8x. This stick would not boot Win10 installation directly with emmc EFI file untouched. Unlike an ISO boot stick, the creation tool stick seems to be writeable similar to the GPartEd Live stick.

The only way to "MORE" reliably boot from any of these so-called bootable sticks, is to delete/re-name the emmc's bootmgr EFI file so it can't boot. That's why I suggested this workaround earlier. But again a big risk if none of the bootable sticks still won't boot. Then the machine would be effectively bricked due to no way of re-naming the bootmgr EFI file back to original on the emmc.

Gizmo2k23

I have made a bootable usb for Linux mint and manged to install Linux to the ssd but wouldn't load into it. So then i installed to the 32gb internal and the same it happening. But on the bios no windows start up appears on the list for boot. Shows the normal usb hdd and emmc and ssd. So I searched and a work around to change the efi but I think due to me installing onto ssd and emmc it's conflicting it and given errors

So going to take out ssd and try seeing if this fixes it and it runs Linux without usb.

I seem to be getting a better idea with Linux than Windows. So if all goes well. I will be just sticking to Linux on this laptop.

JackE

I have made a bootable usb for Linux mint and manged to install Linux to the ssd but wouldn't load into it.

Yes, that's likely because the BIOS locked on to looking for a specific EFI filename in either the Microsoft, Boot or Acer EFI folders. On some machine's I've had this problem, it's in the Boot EFI folder for 32-bit installations. And Microsoft EFI folder for 64-bit.

The WinBootMgr filename the BIOS is looking for is probably something like bootmgfw.efi for 64 bit. What I do is copy the grubx64.efi file from the /EFI/ubuntu folder to the /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ folder. Then rename bootfmgw.efi to something like bootmgfw.0. Then rename or copy grubx64.efi to bootmgfw.efi.

Then shutdown. Fire it up. And the BIOS processes the renamed grubbootloader as if it were WinBootMgr. Mint then boots.

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