How to switch from HDD to SSD on my Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop? (Model:AN515-53-52FA)

So I have the Acer - Nitro 5 15.6" Gaming Laptop (Model:AN515-53-52FA) and I recently bought the Samsung 970 EVO SSD 500GB - M.2 NVMe.
I took off the back of the laptop and inserted the SSD into the laptop. From there, I transfered my files and windows over to the new SSD using Macrium Reflect (I am not 100% sure that the transfer worked, but I think it did).
After that, I tried to change the boot order in Bios, but I whenever I went into the "boot" tab of BIOS, the option to boot to the new SSD wasn't there, only to the old Hard Drive. I have researched this issue on the internet but have not found a solution and would really appreciate any help I can get.

Accepted answers

brummyfan2

BertLife said:

@brummyfan2
So.. very interesting development. When I finished cloning everything onto my new SSD drive... I decided to restart my laptop just to confirm the action.
Interestingly, when the computer restarted and I logged back in, everything seemed a lot faster.
I checked, and somehow my laptop automatically started using the SSD as the primary boot option.
I restarted the laptop again and checked which drive it was using to boot up, and indeed it booted up through the new SSD.
One thing to note about all of this is that even before I posted my original question to this support website, when I checked in Bios, the laptop said that the primary drive was the new SSD that I installed, it just wasn't booting through it, and now I can assume it was only not booting through the SSD because I didn't copy the files.

Glad you got it resolved, yes, that's correct it might have been not cloned properly first time around, anyway, well done and enjoy the new SSD performance

All comments

brummyfan2

Hi,
Do you still have the original OS on HDD? If so, download Minitool Partition wizard free program and run it, use migrate feature to migrate the contents of HDD to new SSD, then remove the HDD and try starting with only your SSD in the laptop. Once you are happy with the migration and make sure that the new SSD working as expected, you can insert the HDD and delete the OS from it, before deleting the original OS from HDD you need to make sure that you have transfered all the files to your new SSD.
https://www.partitionwizard.com/
https://www.partitionwizard.com/clone-disk/migrate-windows-10.html

BertLife

@brummyfan2
Thank you so much. I will try doing that this afternoon. I just have a couple of small questions to clarify if you wouldn't mind.
1.) I have already transferred some of my files to the new SSD, do you think I should delete that partition (and if yes, then how would I do that)?
2.) By "remove the HDD" do you mean literally open the back of the laptop and disconnect the cable that is connected to it?

brummyfan2

Hi,
No problem, when you say that you have transferred some files, how did you do it? Did you just copy and paste or cut and paste?
If you have cut and pasted, reverse the process, copy the files and paste to the old HDD, you need to tell us whether they are data files, if they are data files, you can save them in an external spare HDD.
2, Yes, you can open the HDD door at the back and remove the HDD, I don't think you have to remove the back cover to access HDD, to install M.2 SSD you have to take off the back cover.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/in/wyqc8b5erl2x.jpg

BertLife

@brummyfan2
So I used the program "Macrium Reflect to copy the files onto the new drive. Essentially, I followed the second part of this guide (https://www.windowscentral.com/how-clone-your-pcs-hard-drive-macrium-reflect) labeled: "How to clone your Hard Drive."

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/fe/ebi8vr9n70g8.png

Basically I did this. Something to note though is that I only dragged my C: drive and the Windows recovery into the new drive (I can send you a picture of my new drive when I get home in a couple hours if you want to know exactly what I copied).
Ok cool so I just unplug the hard drive and leave the cable unattached to anything? (Again I can send you a picture of this in a couple of hours if it is helpful).
Thanks again.

brummyfan2

Hi,
No problem, that's fine, you are cloning the HDD on to SSD with Macrium reflect, so you don't have to try Minitool partition wizard, you have done your research well, so you have to clone everything from your HDD to SSD as shown in the picture, then remove the HDD as I have said earlier.

BertLife

@brummyfan2
Oh, I think I get it now. I have a couple last questions for you though... (I swear these are the last ones)
Was my issue that I didn't clone everything from my HHD to the SSD, and that I only cloned the C: drive files and Windows Recovery files?
If so, should I reformat the existing copy I made from my HDD onto the SSD, or just create a new one and clone ALL my files?
And once I do actually manage to correctly clone all my files, I should then remove the HDD and try to boot the laptop?
Thanks again.

brummyfan2

No problem, you don't have to reformat, start the Macrium reflect, initiate the cloning process, it will ask for destination drive, when you selct SSD as your destination drive, just click those partitions and delete them so that to make all of the SSD as empty space, then drag all the partitions to it from HDD.
As for the SSD not booting, yes you need all those partitions for successful cloning.

BertLife

@brummyfan2
Great! That makes a lot of sense.
The only question I have left for you is when you say to "drag all the partitions to the SSD from HDD.
When I try to do that... my 900GB C: drive takes up a ton of space... which makes me unable to drag the other partitions in.
The way I worked around this the last time I cloned my hard drive was to drastically reduce the size of the partition for my C: drive (down to ~450 GB). I assume I should just reduce the C: drive as little as possible but enough to fit the rest of the partitions..?
Unfortunately Macrium Reflect doesn't have an optimization feature that resizes my partitions for the smaller SSD automatically like the Minitool partition wizard seems to have.

brummyfan2

BertLife said:

@brummyfan2
Great! That makes a lot of sense.
The only question I have left for you is when you say to "drag all the partitions to the SSD from HDD.
When I try to do that... my 900GB C: drive takes up a ton of space... which makes me unable to drag the other partitions in.
The way I worked around this the last time I cloned my hard drive was to drastically reduce the size of the partition for my C: drive (down to ~450 GB). I assume I should just reduce the C: drive as little as possible but enough to fit the rest of the partitions..?
Unfortunately Macrium Reflect doesn't have an optimization feature that resizes my partitions for the smaller SSD automatically like the Minitool partition wizard seems to have.

Hi,
Yes, you are right, Macrium reflect is a fine tool but it has it's short comings, you have to shrink the C drive as little as possible to fit in to the smaller SSD.

BertLife

@brummyfan2
Thank you so much for all your help with this. I'm going to be home in about an hour so hopefully this will be done soon!
I will message you again if any problems come up.
Thanks!

brummyfan2

Hi,
Yes, no problem, post if you are stuck.

BertLife

@brummyfan2
Hey, so I am in the process of correctly cloning all of the os to my new SSD drive... and I just thought of this question:
Earlier you said that once I finished the cloning process, that I should check that the new SSD was working correctly and that all my files got transferred.
I am wondering exactly how am I able to make sure that the SSD is working properly and that all my files are on it before I take out the HDD.

brummyfan2

BertLife said:

@brummyfan2
Hey, so I am in the process of correctly cloning all of the os to my new SSD drive... and I just thought of this question:
Earlier you said that once I finished the cloning process, that I should check that the new SSD was working correctly and that all my files got transferred.
I am wondering exactly how am I able to make sure that the SSD is working properly and that all my files are on it before I take out the HDD.

Hi,
You can make a note of each partition size on the HDD before cloning, then after cloning remove the HDD and boot with the new SSD, check the partition size, if they match and your SSD boots without any issues, you have successfully cloned, you can check the partition size in Disk management.

BertLife

@brummyfan2
So.. very interesting development. When I finished cloning everything onto my new SSD drive... I decided to restart my laptop just to confirm the action.
Interestingly, when the computer restarted and I logged back in, everything seemed a lot faster.
I checked, and somehow my laptop automatically started using the SSD as the primary boot option.
I restarted the laptop again and checked which drive it was using to boot up, and indeed it booted up through the new SSD.
One thing to note about all of this is that even before I posted my original question to this support website, when I checked in Bios, the laptop said that the primary drive was the new SSD that I installed, it just wasn't booting through it, and now I can assume it was only not booting through the SSD because I didn't copy the files.

brummyfan2

BertLife said:

@brummyfan2
So.. very interesting development. When I finished cloning everything onto my new SSD drive... I decided to restart my laptop just to confirm the action.
Interestingly, when the computer restarted and I logged back in, everything seemed a lot faster.
I checked, and somehow my laptop automatically started using the SSD as the primary boot option.
I restarted the laptop again and checked which drive it was using to boot up, and indeed it booted up through the new SSD.
One thing to note about all of this is that even before I posted my original question to this support website, when I checked in Bios, the laptop said that the primary drive was the new SSD that I installed, it just wasn't booting through it, and now I can assume it was only not booting through the SSD because I didn't copy the files.

Glad you got it resolved, yes, that's correct it might have been not cloned properly first time around, anyway, well done and enjoy the new SSD performance

BertLife

@brummyfan2
So a fun update for you.
While I was playing League of Legends, my computer crashed when I alt-tabbed out of the game (something that has been happening regularly to me over the past couple of weeks).
After the "blue screen of death" happened and my laptop restarted... it went to "Preparing Automatic Repair" and then to the blue settings menu that is usually accessed via Advanced Startup in windows 10.
I tried the "Exit to Windows 10" option, but after several attempts it kept sending me back to the blue settings screen. Whenever I pressed the "Exit to Windows 10" option, something (like a box of some kind, it kinda looks like an window" flashes on my screen for a half second and then I am forced back to the blue settings screen.
I have no idea what to do. I decided to just reset my PC and hope for the best.

brummyfan2

BertLife said:

@brummyfan2
So a fun update for you.
While I was playing League of Legends, my computer crashed when I alt-tabbed out of the game (something that has been happening regularly to me over the past couple of weeks).
After the "blue screen of death" happened and my laptop restarted... it went to "Preparing Automatic Repair" and then to the blue settings menu that is usually accessed via Advanced Startup in windows 10.
I tried the "Exit to Windows 10" option, but after several attempts it kept sending me back to the blue settings screen. Whenever I pressed the "Exit to Windows 10" option, something (like a box of some kind, it kinda looks like an window" flashes on my screen for a half second and then I am forced back to the blue settings screen.
I have no idea what to do. I decided to just reset my PC and hope for the best.

Hi,
Do you still have the HDD with OS on it? If so try removing the HDD and see whether the SSD only works without any issues.

BertLife

@brummyfan2
So when I removed the Hard Drive I got this blue screen:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/xg/x1umlvzpjys4.jpg

Just a note: Once I restarted it, the laptop was working, but it was booting through the HDD. I checked and it looked like my SSD partition still existed, but it was now an "E: drive" instead of a C: drive and my laptop wasn't using it to boot.
Oddly when I checked in Bios it looked the same as before I reset the laptop, with the SSD first in boot priority and showing up on the information screen