Swift 3 SF313-53-78UG 1Tb WD SN750 SSD NVMe drive recognized but NOT available for boot?

I am trying to improve/expand the storage for my brand new Acer Swift 3 SF313-53-78UG Laptop.

(1) After disabling secure boot, open the laptop, took out the original SK Hynix 512Gb HFM512GDJTNI-82A0A drive and installed the WD Black SN750 1Tb WDS100T3XOC-00SJG0.

(2) Power up, enter BIOS (v.1.08); on the "Information" tab, under "HDD model name", the new drive is listed there:

{Thread was edited to add model name to the title}

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/t0/l9ou6baw3klz.jpg

(3) on the "Boot" tab, under "Boot priority order", the new drive does not show up there (just the USB flash drive with Windows 10 installer):

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/wc/enhs6nkgvzbj.jpg

(4) Proceed with boot from USB flash drive and it will not go much further because neither Windows will list there the new WD drive to be installed into...

I researched before buying a new drive and all I could figure out is that there are other users with 1Tb NVMe drives on this same machine, e.g.:

https://www.userbenchmark.com/System/Acer-Swift-SF313-53/214232

I couldn't figure out why the new drive does not show up on the list of bootable units and I would very much like to ask for any help that could point me in the right direction.

Accepted answers

billsey

You situation is correct as you have things configured. Since the new drive hasn't been setup by a Windows install it will not be shown as bootable, so won't be seen in that list, or more importantly in the boot menu you get by pressing F12 during POST (which has to be enabled in the BIOS). Normally before you get to this point you would have cloned the old drive to the new driver so everything would already be there. You can either backup a bit and use the old drive to clone to the new or do a clean install of Windows to the new drive. I'm not sure if your system uses Intel Rapid Storage Technology, but if it does you will need to extract the installer for those drivers to your Windows install flash drive so you can load them during the Windows install process.

All comments

JackE

The new drive won't boot until you install or clone Windows on it. Did you do this?

billsey

You situation is correct as you have things configured. Since the new drive hasn't been setup by a Windows install it will not be shown as bootable, so won't be seen in that list, or more importantly in the boot menu you get by pressing F12 during POST (which has to be enabled in the BIOS). Normally before you get to this point you would have cloned the old drive to the new driver so everything would already be there. You can either backup a bit and use the old drive to clone to the new or do a clean install of Windows to the new drive. I'm not sure if your system uses Intel Rapid Storage Technology, but if it does you will need to extract the installer for those drivers to your Windows install flash drive so you can load them during the Windows install process.

H3nri

Thank you, JackE and billsey for your answers. It confirmed some of the fears about the problem I was having.

I have since bought a new 64Gb Sandisk Cruzer pendrive and installed a "Windows to Go" version of the downloaded ISO media I got from Microsoft's media creation tool using Rufus software.

Then I was able to boot this "Windows to Go" version on the pendrive, and, after a very lengthy process (because of the slow speed of the pendrive) and numerous windows updates, I was able to "see" the installed 1Tb WD NVMe drive on Windows native "Disk Management" utility (Win+R, then "diskmgmt.msc").

Right there, I could finally initialize (GPT) and partition the 1Tb NVMe drive. It proved to me that my own WD Black SN750 1Tb NVMe drive was NOT (at all!) incompatible with this computer, like some searches around the internet might have led me to believe.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/mn/a3jexwi2spa1.png

I still had two problems:

(1) I really wanted to have a "fresh" and "clean" install of the latest Windows 10 (21H2, build 1645) on my new drive (I already have the ISO file and the media - pendrive - created by Rufus Software).

(2) Even if I were to clone (temporarily), I didn't have anywhere to SIMULTANEOUSLY put the "old" SK Hynix 512Gb drive for cloning into the new WD Black SN750 1Tb.

billsey said:

...or do a clean install of Windows to the new drive.
I'm not sure if your system uses Intel Rapid Storage Technology...

Then, I've got the drivers for IRST from Acer Support page for my model.

Here is the direct link for anyone else: https://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/Driver/IRST/IRST_Intel_18.1.1.1033_W10x64_A.zip

I did unpack it on the installer pendrive and was able to browse for the drivers.

(A) No 1Tb Drive found:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/jf/1rud9n3meyd6.jpg

(B) Use option to "Load driver"

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/rx/dvj7s2k9sgjo.jpg

(C) Browse for the place where you put the unpacked drivers

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/v9/1z2m4mbq92jl.jpg

(D) Select the correct drivers

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/s0/1my82jrtsiem.jpg

(E) NOW your 1Tb drive is found!

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/pb/qascjsk8tn1f.jpg

You just have to use the option to Delete the existing partitions and "voilá", now I can use the 1Tb to install a fresh clean Windows 10!

(thank you billsey for the invaluable tip!)

JackE

Congrats on your success. Thanks for reporting back.

H3nri

Just one more question, if possible...

Should I now go back in the BIOS options and re-enable "Secure Boot" for this new drive, or even use the option to "Restore Secure Boot to Factory default"?

JackE

Leave well enough alone.

billsey

Yes, go back into the BIOS and re-enable Secure Boot. You could also re-disable the boot menu, but that's a smaller security risk than the secure boot setting. You shouldn't have to change any other secure boot settings because you really aren't trying to force a boot image to be secure without a signature.