V3-772G bios shows 2nd drive but not Windows 8.1

Okay... it took a day and a half of messing around but I have a solution.

First, here is the short version without all the false starts and dead ends.

I put the new SSD into a USB 2.0-SATA1 enclosure.  After this, Windows Disk Management could recognize the SSD so I quick formatted it and checked it for errors, of which there were none.  Not wanting to wait for the slow external connection, I put the SSD into the 2nd drive bay of the V3.  I downloaded Mini Tool Partition Wizard and used it to shrink the C: partition on the HDD to a size that would fit onto the SSD (including all the recovery and other partitions).  I then downloaded Macrium Reflect Free and used it to create a bootable USB with itself and Windows PE installed on it.  Rebooting with F12 to select the boot USB, up came a window with Macrium showing both the 1TB drive and the SSD.  Macrium then cloned the HDD to SSD.  I then removed both drives, moved the mounting bracket from the HDD to the SSD and then screwed the SSD into the first drive bay.  Reboot and celebrate with a beer.

In the long version...

I first started by unplugging the adapter, removing the battery and undoing the 9 screws of the V3's bottom cover.  Instead of removing the screws completely, I just lifted the cover with the screws in their hole and set it aside.  Since the screws do not seem to be the same length, this avoids having to track which screw goes in which hole.  I then placed the 256GB Toshiba Q Series SSD into the second drive bay and slid it into the SATA connector.  Without a spare mounting bracket, I used a rubber band around the SSD to keep it from sliding around the bay.  In hindsight this was unnecessary since the V3 would not be moving around during the cloning nor would the SSD be left permanently in that bay.

After replacing the cover, screws, battery, plugging in the adapter, rebooting and starting up Windows Disk Management, to my dismay Windows could not recognize it.  Even more puzzling, a reboot with F2 showed that the bios could see the SSD along with original 1TB drive.  I was almost sure that Disk Management would see the SSD if I could format it.  Since the laptop doesn't come with a Windows disk, I looked up ways to download or create one as I knew that it's always an option to format a drive in the process of putting an OS on it.  I checked again and there was no option in the bios to format the drive.  Googling showed me that Microsoft makes it nearly impossible to create a Windows disk for any OEM Windows installation and that the new UEFI bios interfaces don't allow bit-level formatting.  So I was forced to shut down, disconnect, de-battery and open up the bottom cover to get the SSD out.  The rubber band came off too.

After reassembling the V3, I then put the new SSD into a Nexstar USB 2.0-SATA1 enclosure I once used to migrate an older Toshiba Portege M400 tablet PC to SSD.  Once the enclosure was plugged in to one of the USB 3.0 sockets and the V3 rebooted, Windows Disk Management could finally recognize the SSD as a removeable USB drive.  I quick formatted the SSD and checked it for errors, of which there were none.  The error check took quite some time, so I was reminded of the many hours it took to migrate that old tablet.  Not wanting to wait for the slow connection during the cloning process, I shut down and opened up the V3 again, the put the SSD back into the 2nd drive bay, without the rubber band.  The SSD was visible to Disk Management on reboot so I could begin the actual cloning.  Yay!

I downloaded Mini Tool Partition Wizard and used it to shrink the C: partition on the HDD to a size that would fit onto the SSD (including all the recovery and other partitions).  I then downloaded Macrium Reflect Free and used it to create a Windows PE bootable drive on a spare USB stick.  That USB drive had both Windows PE and Macrium installed on it, even though you wouldn't see this with Windows Explorer.  Rebooting with F12 to select the USB stick as the boot drive, up came Macrium showing both the 1TB drive and the SSD.  It was a simple matter for Macrium to clone the HDD to the SSD.  I then shut down, removed both drives, moved the mounting bracket from the HDD to the SSD and then screwed the SSD into the first drive bay.  Reboot and celebrate with a beer.