Add USB as boot mode Swift 314-42.

wbentel
wbentel Member Posts: 12

Tinkerer

edited December 2021 in Swift and Spin Series
I have a larger ssd drive for my acer. I cloned the current drive info, data, operating system etc with an adapter cable. Shows it was successful. I want to boot from that usb to ssd to ensure  it works before I go inside and swap ssd drive. Can't find a way for the boot manager to locate the usb drive to boot from. Any help? Thanx in advance.

Best Answer

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,177 Trailblazer
    edited December 2021 Answer ✓
    Like I said, there is a good possibility that it won't work via the USB-to-SSD adapter since USB port booting relies on a FAT32 formatted system drive. Your cloned drive has an NTFS system drive with only the hidden FAT32 EFI trusted file partition.

    PS: If you're just replacing the old drive with the new drive, the new drive should boot just fine internally if you used a mainstream cloning or migration tool like AOEMI backerupper, MacriumReflect, MiniTool.

    Jack E/NJ

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Answers

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,177 Trailblazer
    You usually can't boot an internal bootable drive indirectly via an USB-to-HDD/SSD adapter. However,  you still can try by shutting the machine off. Plug USB adapter into the port. Then turn the machine on and immediately start tapping the F12 key. If successful, a menu should appear that allow you to boot from the SSD connected via the adapter. Let us know if it works. You may have to turn on this F12 boot option in the BIOS Main tab but it's usually on by default.

    Jack E/NJ

  • wbentel
    wbentel Member Posts: 12

    Tinkerer

    Thanx Jack, but the boot options in bios do not recognize the usb port as an option to boot.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,177 Trailblazer
    What is your full ACER model number? For example, A515-54G? The F12 boot option should be in the BIOS MAIN tab. Otherwise, the F12 boot option is enabled by default.

    Jack E/NJ

  • wbentel
    wbentel Member Posts: 12

    Tinkerer

    ACER Swift 314-42. I can get into the  BIOs but it doesn't recognize the USB, nor offer it as a boot option. Thanx.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,177 Trailblazer
    (1) Go back into BIOS menu. Do you see an F12 boot option in the BIOS MAIN tab like shown below? If you see this option, make sure it's enabled. Then press F10 to save BIOS F12 boot setting enabled and exit the BIOS.

    (2) Then shut the machine off. Then turn it back on again and tap the F12 (F-twelve) key. If the SSD is recognized as bootable via the USB-to-SSD adapter (there is a good possibility that it won't!!!!), then another menu will appear with the option to boot from the SSD.




    Jack E/NJ

  • wbentel
    wbentel Member Posts: 12

    Tinkerer

    sorry Jack. Still gives me no options for usb boo. appreciate you help.
  • Erick-Acer_Retired
    Erick-Acer_Retired Member Posts: 503 Seasoned Practitioner WiFi Icon
    Hi @ wbentel
    In Bios, go to hard disk and select the 1st hard disk as your USB drive and second hard disk as your computers hard disk. Then go to boot device priority and the USB option will be visible; you may set as the 1st boot device
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,177 Trailblazer
    edited December 2021 Answer ✓
    Like I said, there is a good possibility that it won't work via the USB-to-SSD adapter since USB port booting relies on a FAT32 formatted system drive. Your cloned drive has an NTFS system drive with only the hidden FAT32 EFI trusted file partition.

    PS: If you're just replacing the old drive with the new drive, the new drive should boot just fine internally if you used a mainstream cloning or migration tool like AOEMI backerupper, MacriumReflect, MiniTool.

    Jack E/NJ

  • wbentel
    wbentel Member Posts: 12

    Tinkerer

     :) I used I drive. They told me it should work as cloned to new ssd. Computer tells me no bootable drive.  Waiting to hear back from Idrive. Thanx for trying.
  • wbentel
    wbentel Member Posts: 12

    Tinkerer

    OK Problem solved. Used a flash drive as a boot drive as suggested. Tried to install Windows but failed. I finally changed the drive to an MBR drive and it installed Windows easily. Thanks for all your support Acer and Jack!
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,177 Trailblazer
    If you also had to change the BIOS to legacy BIOS mode to accomodate the MBR partitioned SSD, it may noticeably limit the full potential of your laptop and its new SSD. Please let us know how it goes as it's currently configured.  But if it doesn't seem broke, don't try to fix it. Good luck. :)

    Jack E/NJ

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,912 Trailblazer
    Your SF314-42 is new enough that I'm surprised it even offered an option to switch to Legacy boot with MBR drives. You really, really want to get it back to the correct environment. MBR hasn't been used since Windows 7... I'm guessing the cloning software only copied one partition over, not the full drive image. That would leave you with no EFI partition, so the system wouldn't see the drive as bootable. If the clone had been complete you would have had something like four partitions on the new drive with only the system partition (C:) resized to deal with the drives being different. That would have shown up in the boot menu and it would have just worked.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • wbentel
    wbentel Member Posts: 12

    Tinkerer

    It is till in UEFI mode. I booted with a usb stick, installed windows 11 after changing to mbr in DOS. I restored  my info from the idrive cloud and then partitioned the disk into three drives. Had no issues whatsoever.
  • wbentel
    wbentel Member Posts: 12

    Tinkerer

    Jack, I had 1.8 plus, remaining on a  tb ssd.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,177 Trailblazer
    >>>I booted with a usb stick, installed windows 11 after changing to mbr in DOS. >>>

    Did you change the USB stick to MBR partitioning? Or the SSD from GPT to MBR?



    >>>Jack, I had 1.8 plus, remaining on a  tb ssd. >>>

    1.8 plus? 1.8+ GB?

    Jack E/NJ

  • wbentel
    wbentel Member Posts: 12

    Tinkerer

    Sorry 1.8 tb available on a 2tb drive. Did not change the usb  stick. when install failed I went to .cmd and used a process I found online, step by step, after trying several different methods, one worked.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,177 Trailblazer
    Do you have an online link to the one that worked?

    Jack E/NJ

  • wbentel
    wbentel Member Posts: 12

    Tinkerer

    Will see if I can find it again. Should have kept it.
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,912 Trailblazer
    Yes, that should have completely broken booting, since UEFI requires the boot disk be GPT, not MBR...
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.