Install SSD in ODD slot and Move Win10 OS to SSD

burritolife
burritolife Member Posts: 2 New User

Hello,

 

I just got an Acer Aspire E5-573G-56RG laptop and I'd like to put an SSD in the empty ODD slot. Then I'd like to have Windows 10 boot from the SSD and reformat the current HDD to use as bulk storage. I understand that this will probably void the warranty.

 

I'm pretty sure I'll need a bracket to hold the SSD in the empty ODD slot. So apart from the SSD and bracket, do I need any other hardware? Can I use the existing bezel?

 

Once the new drive is in place, I'm not really sure of the best way to move the OS onto the SSD. Any advice about this would be great. This is a brand new machine, so I don't have any files to back up from the HDD.

 

Thanks in advance!

Answers

  • philetus
    philetus ACE Posts: 4,759 Pathfinder

    It should not void the warranty.

    If there is already something in there (existing bezel?) that will hold the 2nd hdd in, use it.

    Here is Acer part # for  HDD HOLDER ASSY, I don't know if the 2nd drive uses the same bracket.

     

    What brand SSD are you  buying?

    Samsung comes with Acronis, which I have used to clone SSDs half a dozen times.

    If you buy a 250GB, you will have about 232GB usable space. I add up the total space used for all partitions and shrink my C: to about 10GB under that. That's why people have problems cloning, they try to clone a 500GB to a 250 GB drive.

     

    Plug in your USB drive and tell the laptop to boot from USB. When the software starts, plug in the SSD to another USB port.

  • burritolife
    burritolife Member Posts: 2 New User

    Thanks for the reply. I will give that a try. I am planning to get the Samsung EVO drive, just because they seem to have almost unanimously positive reviews.

     

    I'll have to check and see what's in the drive slot at the moment. It would be great if there's already a caddy I can use.

     

    My issue with cloning (rather than a fresh install) is that I read that HDDs and SSDs are optimized differently (or something like that), and that cloning an HDD to an SSD can cause performance or stability issues. But I will trust your experience that it's OK to clone.

     

    Thanks for the tip about shrinking the drive. I'm sure I would have messed that up.

     

    I'll try to follow up here after I give this a try, and report any issues that I run into.

  • philetus
    philetus ACE Posts: 4,759 Pathfinder

    I have cloned HDDs to SSDs about 10 or 11 times and I have never had any performance or stability issues.

    Once you have the SSD installed, right click on C:, select properties, tools tab, Optimize and turn it off. Defrag will ruin SSDs.

     

  • JordanB
    JordanB ACE Posts: 3,729 Pathfinder

    More options....

     

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/create-a-recovery-drive

     

    or

     

    http://acer--uk.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/29925/~/use-acer-erecovery-management-to-restore-your-system-or-create-recovery-media

     

    or

     

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

     

    Personally I just downloaded the iso and burned to dvd and did clean install....but everyone has their own preference.  If you want all the acer software too, then you can just create a factory default recovery drive.  Don't forget to backup your personal files first....and you should make a factory default recovery drive no matter which route you go.  

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • JordanB
    JordanB ACE Posts: 3,729 Pathfinder

    There's a lot of articles on the internet about tweaking your SSD.  Here's one for example that says don't disable optimize:

     

    http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheRealAndCompleteStoryDoesWindowsDefragmentYourSSD.aspx

     

    Ultimately, I think the best advice is whatever the engineers at Samsung and Microsoft give you.

     

    I can't find any documentation on Samsung's or Microsoft's website that advise you to disable optimize.  But feel free to contact Samsung directly if you are in doubt when using their SSD on a Windows 10 computer.

     

    The only thing that I am 100 percent sure of is that Samsung and Microsoft know a lot more than I do.  Smiley Happy

     

    Edit:  I don't do any tweaks to Windows for my SSD.  When I click on optimize, all it does is issue a re-trim command.  But again, in my opinion, the engineers at Samsung and Microsoft are the best source for advice on anything related to changing the default settings.  I just stick with default settings because I can't find any official documentation telling me to do otherwise.

     

     

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • clocks
    clocks Member Posts: 4 New User

    Where is the bios can you configure the laptop to boot from the ssd drive.  While the ssd is visable in windows, it is not in the list of boot priority.

  • JordanB
    JordanB ACE Posts: 3,729 Pathfinder

    It sounds like your SSD is configured as a data drive instead of a bootable OS drive. Hopefully someone else can give you some tips as I'm not real savvy about cloning. 

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • clocks
    clocks Member Posts: 4 New User

    Thanks, but that doesn't help.  I have upgraded probably 7-8 computers and laptops to SSDs.  It's only with this acer that I cannot find the settings and/or the ssd.  For instance there is no ACHI setting in bios.  I've read Acer hides a lot of settings behind a hidden advanced tab, but I can't figure out how to reach it, and as usual Acer support is absolutely worthless.

  • philetus
    philetus ACE Posts: 4,759 Pathfinder

    If it's straight out of the box, you have to go to Disk management and format and give it a drive number before it will be recognized.

  • clocks
    clocks Member Posts: 4 New User

    WIndows sees the drive just find.  It's this goofy Acer bios, with half the regular settings hidden, that I cannot figure out.  Windows isn't the issue, it's the bios.