eRecovery Partition/ Manager (HDD) to install Windows & factory drivers, software, etc onto new SSD?

Has anyone tried this method to install Windows and all drivers, Acer preloaded software, etc. onto a newly added M.2 SSD? Just as if you were performing a factory reset on the HDD, but apply it to the SSD? Will the system allow you to select the SSD as your destination for the recovery? Or can you only do a recovery to the drive that contains the recovery program (in my case the HDD). I have a brand new desktop and this seems the simplest way to format my M.2 SSD as if it came directly from Acer with all the manufacturer specs, operating system, etc. loaded and ready to go on it. Another consideration, Acer can provide a USB thumb drive of all the recovery files (for $45). Would using that make a difference? If neither possible, I suppose I could just do a clean install of windows and then download the drivers from Acer's website one by one. Although that seems like it would be more work. Thoughts? (Model TC-885-UR12)

Accepted answers

Commodore_1995#

The recovery partition will not allow you to select ssd! She will only restore the HD! However you can do cloning from hd to ssd, in which the recovery partition of Acer will also be copied!

If your hd has a size in gigabytes larger than ssd, I recommend that you use the macrium reflect program! If your hd is smaller than or equal to ssd, use the migrate from minitool partition!

Cloning will make ssd exactly the same as hd, without having to reinstall windows!

All comments

Commodore_1995#

The recovery partition will not allow you to select ssd! She will only restore the HD! However you can do cloning from hd to ssd, in which the recovery partition of Acer will also be copied!

If your hd has a size in gigabytes larger than ssd, I recommend that you use the macrium reflect program! If your hd is smaller than or equal to ssd, use the migrate from minitool partition!

Cloning will make ssd exactly the same as hd, without having to reinstall windows!

bebslm

Thanks for the information. So after the cloning is complete (I have Samsung SSD, so will be using Samsung Magician) the SSD will then have the full Acer recovery partition on it? So I could completely wipe out and format the entire HDD for storage, and recover directly from the SSD if necessary ever in the future? Would you suggest keeping the Acer recovery also on the HDD as an extra layer of backup? Also, after cloning is complete, could I then do a factory reset of the SSD? I know that sounds like accomplishing the same task twice, but would that recovery create a "cleaner" installation of everything as opposed to a clone? I just want to make my SSD as much like a Acer factory SSD for my machine as possible.

Commodore_1995#

1) As I told you before, cloning will make an exact copy of HD!

2) Yes, you can format the hd later to just leave it as a backup and you can use the Acer recovery partition from ssd, because cloning will also copy this partition!

3) If cloning succeeds, there is no need to stay with the Acer recovery partition on hd, although I find it important to keep that partition on hd!

4) Yes, the restore will leave the notebook as it came from the factory! The clone will leave ssd identical to hd!

5) The only possibility of leaving ssd with the recovery partition of Acer, is using cloning!

bebslm

Great! I understand all that. One last question- What about only installing Windows on the blank SSD from a Windows Recovery Media? Come to think of it I probably will not use much of Acer's pre-loaded software and programs, so I could save space on my SSD by only putting the operating system on it and not cloning software which I probably will not use (I could still keep the software on the HDD in case some day I wanted to use it). And since the desktop is brand new, I obviously have nothing on there yet that I need to preserve/ clone to the SSD. Is the Operating system and the drivers essentially the bare minimum that is needed to get the SSD up and running, or is more needed on the SSD that a clone would provide me? Would Windows install the drivers I need, or would I need to download and install those from Acer? Or would you still suggest cloning even in this scenario where I want to put as little as possible on the SSD? Thanks again!

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