Trying to add a second drive to Aspire 5 A515-43-R19L

spacemanbob · August 2019

Tried a WD hard drive that they said would work. The sata connectors did not work. Ordered another drive. same thing. Then got a SSD with PCIe connections but the bay only has SATA. Need a adapter, but can't find one. Acer customer service said they don't support upgrades any ideas

brummyfan2 · August 2019

Hi,
Your model supports either a SATA or PCIe/NVMe SSD, you don't need any adapter to install a NVMe M.2 SSD, I don't know how you tried the installation but there are many people have successfully installed the M.2 SSD in this model.
https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/572345/proper-ram-module-ssd-for-a515-43-r19l-aspire-5-slim-laptop
https://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Acer/aspire-a515-43
https://www.userbenchmark.com/System/Acer-Aspire-A515-43/149211

spacemanbob · August 2019

Thanks, but are you talking about the bay for the second drive.? it is sized for a 2.5 drive. with a SATA connector built in to the MB. The connectors on the MB do not line up with those on the WD20SPZX drive. I bought a 1 TB PCIe (m.2(2280)PCIe NVMe but there is no connector for the PCIe nor is there a screw hole to mount it. I was given the drive numbers by Acer support. They said the WD drive was compatible. The rails are fixed so they can't be moved to line up the connector. I thought Acer might have an adapter for the PCIe drive but they said they don't support upgrades. I have ordered something that might work. My the time I am done I could have bought a higher end laptop. Live and Learn!!

brummyfan2 · August 2019

Hi,
My apologies, I thought you were talking about the M.2 slot, yes that WD HDD should fit in that HDD SATA connector and You will not be able to connect a PCIe drive to that slot with or without any adaptor, anyway, could you please tell me whether you have a 2.5" HDD and which brand it is, if you already have a 2.5" HDD, I would suggest you to get a M.2 NVMe SSD, install it and migrate your OS and the contents of your current HDD to the new M.2 SSD, use the HDD for storage, you have to buy the screw for M.2 SSD from any online store or a hardware store.
Screw size: M2.0x4.0
Part number: 86.VCBN2.002

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/e6/zuecadlhhqyr.jpg

You have to remove 4screws to remove the 2.5" HDD, then lift to take off the HDD.

spacemanbob · August 2019

The 2.5 bay is currently empty. It didn't come with a second drive. The M2 slot has a 128 GB PCIe SSD. The HDD that I used was a Western Digital WD20SPZX It should have slipped right in. It didn't because the connector on the board did not line up. I bought the 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD. I could just use it in the M2 and use it as the boot drive, but not sure if I would get the OS and other apps transferred correctly. I may just leave it alone and use an external drive for my storage.

brummyfan2 · August 2019

spacemanbob said:

The 2.5 bay is currently empty. It didn't come with a second drive. The M2 slot has a 128 GB PCIe SSD. The HDD that I used was a Western Digital WD20SPZX It should have slipped right in. It didn't because the connector on the board did not line up. I bought the 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD. I could just use it in the M2 and use it as the boot drive, but not sure if I would get the OS and other apps transferred correctly. I may just leave it alone and use an external drive for my storage.

No, you misunderstood me, you have the OS in faster 128GB PCIe SSD, so no need to transfer to the slower HDD, I would suggest you to take it to a laptop repair shop and get it done by a technician.