How to replace hard drive on Travelmate 7750G with a SSD drive

Travelmate7750G
Travelmate7750G Member Posts: 40 Troubleshooter
in TravelMate and Extensa

Has anyone on this forum replaced his/her hard drive on Travelmate 7750G with an SSD drive?

Best Buy told me I can do that and reinstall windows 7 from the disc set Acer gave me when I bought the computer in 2012 if the Windows key is on the motherboard, which he thinks it should be. He also thinks it will work if the SSD is more than 500GB even though the HDD it came with was only 500GB.

One thing he told me seems inconsistent with what I was told by Toshiba and seemingly by Acer's instructions. Toshiba says their hard drives come formatted NTFS. Acer says you have to remove all the files from the C drive before using the disc set to set it back to how it left the factory. But Best Buy says hard drives come unformatted, and the disc set should format it

Best Answer

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,246 Trailblazer
    Answer ✓

    Yes, the disc set should deal correctly with an unformatted drive. Both SSDs and HDDs come unformatted from the factory, so that's expected.

    Like should increment the number of Likes for a post, Yes should mark the question as answered and highlight the answer. So, Like doesn't turn it green…

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.

Answers

  • Puraw
    Puraw ACE, Member Posts: 13,441 Trailblazer
    https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/695805/how-to-replace-hard-drive-on-travelmate-7750g-with-a-ssd-drive

    The Samsung 2.5" Sata-3 870 EVO 500GB SSD will work with your laptop but to get Windows7 installed on it is another matter. Have you considered migrating to a brand new Windows11 laptop for under $400 for sale this week? I believe spending $60 for a small 500GB SSD on a 11-year-old laptop is completely wasted and Windows7 was faced out in January 2020 by Acer, Microsoft and most websites.

  • StevenGen
    StevenGen ACE Posts: 12,174 Trailblazer
    edited November 2023
    https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/695805/how-to-replace-hard-drive-on-travelmate-7750g-with-a-ssd-drive

    The old TravelMate 7750G will operate on Win-10 Home or Pro very well, best is to upgrade its Ram to 8GB (2x 4GB DDR3-1600MHz) and forget about Win-7, as Win-10 is 100% better and quicker OS😁 Upgrade the 2.5" spinner HDD to a 2.5" SSD, upgrade the ram to 8GB 2x DDR3-1600 • CL=11 • NON-ECC • SODIMM • 204-pin • 1.35V • 2Rx8 • PC3-12800 type ram, see the Crucial 7750G ram and SSD drive upgrade scan as that is all that you have to do to make the 7750G very usable with Win-10 for a very easy upgrade and small investment!

    Just as an example, I've operated and used a 2011 Aspire 5750-2414 laptop that is also a 2nd Gen Intel cpu laptop with Win-10 Pro and with a 2.5" Samsung 850 EVO SSD drive and 8GB ram for years on Win-10 Pro (so get a new Samsung 2.5" SSD like the 870 EVO suggested above) as it works 100% and will improve your laptops speed and boot times by at least 300%, also I suggest that you take the DVD/CD drive out and replace it with a caddy and use your old 2.5" spinner HDD into that space as a slave drive, to give you extra storage space, as that is what I did with my old Aspire also and it worked perfectly. Good luck and hope this helps you out.

  • Travelmate7750G
    Travelmate7750G Member Posts: 40 Troubleshooter

    It's a Travelmate 7750G-6494 which came standard with 8GB DD3 RAM, so it already has 8GB DD3 RAM. The Travelmate is not working and, rather than fix the hard drive, I want to replace it and use the disk set from Acer to set it back to the way it was when it came from the factory. Windows 7 Pro is great for what I do with it and, since I'll get a a Windows 11 computer and use that one on the Web, there's no reason to upgrade this one.

    Best Buy told me I can replace the HDD with an SSD and reinstall windows 7 from the disc set that Acer gave me when I bought the computer in 2012, if the Windows key is on the motherboard, which he thinks it should be. He also thinks it will work if the SSD is more than 500GB even though the HDD it came with was only 500GB. Is that correct?

    One thing Best Buy told me is inconsistent with what Toshiba told me, and seemingly inconsistent with Acer's instructions. Toshiba says their hard drives come formatted NTFS. Acer says you have to remove all the files from the C drive before you use the disc set to set it back to how it left the factory. But Best Buy says hard drives come unformatted, and the disk set from should format it do that and reinstall windows 7 from the disc set Acer gave me when I bought the computer in 2012 if the Windows key is on the motherboard, which he thinks it should be. He also thinks it will work if the SSD is more than 500GB even though the HDD it came with was only 500GB.

    One thing he told me seems inconsistent with what I was told by Toshiba and seemingly by Acer's instructions. Toshiba says their hard drives come formatted NTFS. Acer says you have to remove all the files from the C drive before using the disc set to set it back to how it left the factory. But Best Buy says hard drives come unformatted, and the disk set from Acer should format it before reinstalling Windows 7. But if the disk set can format it, I think the disk set instructions wouldn't tell you that you have to first remove all the files from the C drive, since formatting it will remove the files.

    What I need to know is whether Best Buy is correct that I can replace the HDD with an SSD, that the SSD can be more GB than was the 500GB HDD, and that the disk set will restore it to the way it left the factory, but for the change in hard drive, if the Windows key is on the motherboard.

    The Windows key is on a label on the bottom of the Travelmate. Does that mean the Windows key is on the motherboard?

  • Travelmate7750G
    Travelmate7750G Member Posts: 40 Troubleshooter

    The second paragraph beginning with "One thing" was meant as a replacement for the one before it. How can I edit it to remove the first one?

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,246 Trailblazer

    I believe there was a recent thread where we verified the BIOS on the Travelmate 7750G does not have a UEFI option, so the Windows key is not on the motherboard. It should be on a sticker on the laptop, likely on the bottom. If the sticker has been removed during the last 12 years then you need to extract the key from the Windows install on the old drive. If that drive has failed then you will need a new license and likely it's best to just junk the laptop or go with a Linux flavor on it. I doubt if Microsoft still offers Windows 7 keys in any form, so any you find on the net will likely be illegal pirated versions.

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Travelmate7750G
    Travelmate7750G Member Posts: 40 Troubleshooter

    The Windows key is on a sticker on the bottom of the laptop. Are you saying that even though the Windows key is on a sticker on the laptop, the disk set to load the hard drive the way it was loaded in the factory won't work?

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,246 Trailblazer

    If you have the factory set of disks still then you can use them, along with the key on the sticker, to get the original software load. Once that is done then through normal upgrade processes you should be able to get into Windows 10 and it will use that same key.

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Travelmate7750G
    Travelmate7750G Member Posts: 40 Troubleshooter

    ACE Puraw (Nov. 29, above) posted: "The Samsung 2.5" Sata-3 870 EVO 500GB SSD will work with your laptop but to get Windows7 installed on it is another matter." I don't know what to infer from "to get Windows7 installed on it is another matter." I gather from your post today that the disk set from Acer would reinstall Windows 7 Pro after I replace the HDD with a 500GB SSD.

    Re "I believe there was a recent thread where we verified the BIOS on the Travelmate 7750G does not have a UEFI option, so the Windows key is not on the motherboard."

    https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/695170/tm-7750g-649-firmwaretype-does-acer-use-0-and-1-for-legacy-boot-and-uefi-respectively-or-1-and-2

    From that thread:

    ACE StevenGen Nov. 19 post: "Acer uses 0 and 1 to represent Legacy Boot and UEFI, respectively, for the Firmware Type attribute."

    Followed by a Nov. 20 post from another ACE: "The TravelMate 7750 and 7750G originally came with Windows 7 and didn't support UEFI. They may have added UEFI support to a later BIOS, but Those machines are old enough now that support files have been removed from Acer's support site."

    A neighbor on my street also has a Travelmate 7750G (fortunate coincidence). On his Travelmate 7750G, I went to C:\Windows\Panther\Setupact.log to see the boot mode, because the Boot tab in BIOS has only the boot priority order, not the boot mode, and the Microsoft System Information interface (msinfo32) doesn't show boot mode. C:\Windows\Panther\Setupact.log showed "Detected boot environment: 1." So if StevenGen is correct, the boot mode is UEFI. Will the disk set get the Windows 7 Pro key from the motherboard, or will it prompt me to enter it?

  • Travelmate7750G
    Travelmate7750G Member Posts: 40 Troubleshooter

    Acer's instructions for the disk set that restores the Travelmate to the way it left the factory (but for the change from HDD to SSD) say to first remove all the files from the C drive. I wouldn't be able to do tha,t since the laptop won't work with the failed HDD. So I need to know if the "Samsung 2.5" Sata-3 870 EVO 500GB SSD" in Puraw's post (above) comes formatted with no files on it?

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,246 Trailblazer

    It doesn't matter. The recovery process removes anything that might already be there, which is why they suggest removing anything you want to keep to alternate media. They really mean 'backup' instead of 'remove'. Your boot mode isn't going to be UEFI, if it were supported it would be a menu item in the BIOS to select it. The BIOS on the 7750G doesn't have that option shown in any versions I have seen. It's not a problem, except for the security issues inherent in the older boot methods, since Windows will install just fine in that mode. You can put any size drive in your wish, the Samsung suggested is just one of the more reliable brands.

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Travelmate7750G
    Travelmate7750G Member Posts: 40 Troubleshooter

    Will the disc set provided by Acer (to restore it to the way it was when it left the factory but for the change of drives) format the SSD? I ask because I'm told SSDs come unfromatted.

  • Travelmate7750G
    Travelmate7750G Member Posts: 40 Troubleshooter

    This is to fix the Like to billsey's Dec. 3 post, as I see it's no longer green. When you click Like, type a comment and save it as a draft, do you have to reaffirm the Like before posting the draft for it to be green?

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,246 Trailblazer
    Answer ✓

    Yes, the disc set should deal correctly with an unformatted drive. Both SSDs and HDDs come unformatted from the factory, so that's expected.

    Like should increment the number of Likes for a post, Yes should mark the question as answered and highlight the answer. So, Like doesn't turn it green…

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.

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