Aspire E1-470P won't recognize SSD

The OEM hard drive (500GB WD Blue WD5000LPVX) of my Acer Aspire E1-470P-6659 recently failed out of warranty. To replace it, I purchased a 120GB, SATA 6Gb/s PNY CS1100 solid state drive ("SSD"). After installing the SSD, I proceeded to re-install Windows 8. Unfortunately, the Windows installer states that no hard drive can be found on which to install Windows. Apparently, the installer does not recognize the SSD.

After ensuring that the SATA cable was securely connected to the SSD, I checked PNY's support page for help. PNY advised ensuring that the BIOS was updated to the latest version and to change the SATA Mode to IDE. After much teeth-gnashing, I was able to create a bootable Windows PE flash drive and run the executable BIOS flasher that I downloaded from the Acer support page for my laptop. My BIOS now indicates that the version has been updated from 2.01 to 2.04. I have also changed the SATA Mode in the BIOS settings to "IDE" as suggested by PNY. After attempting to again install Windows, the same problem occurs; the installer does not recognize the SSD and states that no hard drive exists on which to install Windows.

I'm uncertain as to whether the BIOS is recognizing the SSD. The only clue I have is that in the BIOS Boot menu, one of the devices listed under the boot priority list is "HDD 0: SSD2SC120G1CS1754D117-483." In the Windows PE environment, I could not access the SSD from the command line using any of the normal drive letters (i.e., A through E). Windows PE stated that the drives did not exist. As an aside, I could not get Windows PE to load unless I had changed the Boot Mode setting to "Legacy BIOS" from "UEFI." I don't know if this means anything in particular, but thought I would mention it. When installing Windows, I restored the Boot Mode back to UEFI.

Can anyone offer any advice on how to make this SSD work with my laptop? I'm a relative newb when it comes to computer modification and repair. I know very little, and what I do know I've gleaned from web/forum research from others. If you have advice that is more on the technical side, it would be much appreciated if you could provide copious details/steps, as if you were explaining it to a 5 year-old.

My thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

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IronFly

using IDE instead of SATA is not a good thing and you can't use all the SSD features.

it's ok to use the Legacy mode instead of UEFI to start a WinPE enviroment since it's not an EFI bootable media.

i suggest you to change SSD brand if possible, Samsung or Crucial are good choices.

Hsnwuy

Have you tried a different SATA port/cable? If the BIOS isn't seeing the drive the installation definitely won't. Also, check your manual for any BIOS settings for enabling or disabling SATA ports. I found one report online that indicated that if only one or two drives is used, they need to be plugged into specific ports on the motherboard. The manual should have this info.