ACER Predator Orion PO5-600s - Data (E:) empty - is this a useable drive?

Hi,

I've got an ACER Predator Orion PO5-600s and would like to upgrade the amount of SSD storage I've got. It's currently got a a 512 GB M.2 SSD module (C:drive) and a 1 TB HDD (D:drive). It's running an Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9700 CPU @ 3.00GHz with 16.0 GB of RAM and on Windows 11 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor. The games are on the Steam Platform.

I started a question earlier today - https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/661345/acer-predator-orion-po5-600s-additional-ssd-to-easy-swap-hdd-cage#latest (ACER Predator Orion PO5-600s - Additional SSD to Easy Swap HDD) which was asking about how to add an additional SSD to my PO5-600s and have discovered that I appear to have an another "drive" - an E:drive in addition to my C:drive (which is my original 512 GB SSD) and D:drive (my original 1 TB HDD). The C:drive is supposed to be 512 GB but is showing 81.8 GB free of (only) 237 GB (so about 2/3 used) and the E:drive is showing 237 GB free of 237 GB i.e empty. As the original question I asked earlier was about moving 190 GB from my HDD (D:drive) to a new SSD it now occurs to me that if I can use E:drive I could move it to that - or at least in the short term to speed things up.

Can anybody advise if this an option (I suspect it isn't), or whether it is some sort of a recovery, or back up, or virtual drive that I can't use?

Many thanks.

Kind regards.

PS I've cross referenced the earlier question to this one and this one to it, in case it helps.

Accepted answers

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messer89

So you mean your "E" is a partition of the "C"?

It seems so, cause 237GB of "C" partition + 237GB of "E" partition = 474GB what is close to 512GB (discs usually have less real space than the producer claims).
You can see it all and manage your discs via This PC --> Manage --> Manage discs/drives
So for example when just clicking "This PC" button you see not only physical discs, but also the possible partitions named and looking like the discs, even tho the ain't anyway separated.
Sorry if I'm telling sth obvious for you, but many people don't know such things.

Till it's empty, you can drop there everything you want (apart from the OS files of course), even if it would be named "Backup", "Recovery" or whatever.

And if you wanna speed things up I'd recommend just throw away that HDD and buy a SATA SSD or even Nvme SSD. Really, HDD's are garbage.

If you wanna add a new disc in Windows just do this like I mentioned above using the disc manager, the activation window should show itself automatically when you open that tool.

and referring to your second post - It will work but I think you will have to manually make new desktop shortcuts but Idk honestly I've never used Steam.

Manxie

Wow... thanks for that - and no, I didn't know. Admittedly, I guessed some of it (as in, it was exactly the same size of the C:drive at 237 GB and only about half of C:drive was available, so I wondered if it was some sort of a partition) but I didn't really know. And I certainly didn't know that it might be useable.

The OS is on the C:drive and I'll leave that just where it is along with the SIM part of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (MSFS). It's just that the 190 GB that I want to move from the HDD to an SSD comprises the big part of MSFS and it should speed loading (and possibly the SIM) up.

So could I just drag all the MSFS files - 190 GB - into it? will the SIM know to look in the E:drive instead of the D:drive where it was before? I can see "This PC" in file explorer which shows me C, D and E drives and the ODD and USBs but no --> Manage --> Manage discs/drives - maybe it's not in Windows 11? I'll see what I can find out.

This is a link to the other question in case it helps: Acer Predator Orion PO5-600s - Additional SSD to Easy Swap HDD cage? — Acer Community

Sorry to be neurotic, but the worry is, that if I lost the 190 GB MSFS files in some way, it'll take about 1 1/2 to 2 days (and the night in between) to download and reinstall it all again (because of all the updates) and because my broadband isn't very fast. And I think, I'll also lose all the MSFS SIM history (completed challenges and "qualifications") which is nearly 100 hours.

Thanks again and for coming back so quickly. I realise that I'm only putting off the evil day when I have to fork out for and install a new SSD, but it certainly seems like a good idea anyway, as at the moment it appears that the E:drive part of the C:drive is effectively redundant, for no good reason.

messer89

Manxie said:
So could I just drag all the MSFS files - 190 GB - into it? will the SIM know to look in the E:drive instead of the D:drive where it was before? I can see "This PC" in file explorer which shows me C, D and E drives and the ODD and USBs but no --> Manage --> Manage discs/drives - maybe it's not in Windows 11? I'll see what I can find out.

I can't give you any kind of a warranty or an insurance for that cause I've never neither used Steam nor played that MS Flight Simulator.

Ah and forgot you use win11, I've also never used it so I don't know how it works in this version but just google "how to activate a disc win 11", maybe that will be more helpful.

For all games/programs I know the answer is YES, that works (I've done such things many times), only thing you must remmember about it is to create new desktop shortcut icons cause the old ones won't work plus in some games there are .dll files missing for some reasons, so you just download it, and there are few better secured apps that require a file compatibility check after that.

If you are as you said neurotic don't worry, better than being careless. If you are interested, the additional partition on the C drive is I believe for a system backup if you decide to make it, but for example I don't give a s*** about that cause I have a good antivirus plus I keep all really important files on other external SSD.

Manxie

Thanks, I understand I'm not really neurotic - just careful.

Thanks for all your help.

billsey

I believe your best bet, since you aren't currently using the E: drive is through Disk Management delete the E: drive then expand the C: drive to fill up that unallocated space. That will get you the biggest C: drive without mucking anything else up. If they have a partition (like the Recovery image) between the C: and E: partitions then you will have to jump through more hoops, because that partition will have to be moved to the end of the drive before you can expand C:. Either way putting your Flight Simulator data on a SSD will make things much smoother when the game is in use.

Manxie

Many thanks billsey. I've now calculated that "amalgamating" the C: and E: drives and putting the game on the C:drive will use up 73% of the SSD and that will be very close to the maximum 75% that it is recommended that SSDs should be filled to. My understanding is that any more than this will start to make the SSD run more slowly. As such (and as the SIM currently has regular and quite large updates every few weeks) I think I'm back to having to put a new 2.5 inch SATA SSD in the Easy Swap HDD cage and going from there. Having said that, there is no reason why I can't do as you suggest and expand the C:drive for future and additional use. Thanks again.

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