A515-51-59dp ssd won't take windows install or hdd clone/mirror

Darksaber77 · January 2020

2017 Acer aspire a515-51-59dp laptop
i5 7200u, 12gig ram 1tb wd hdd (15% used)
bios v1.06
gop version intel(r) GOP Driver [9.0.1061]
sata port0 enabled
sata poet1 enabled
sata mode AHCI
HDD0=1tb wd hdd
HDD1= 500gb Samsung Evo plus
Boot mode uefi

verifyed the Samsung drivers are installed and ssd has most recent firmware.
in device manager under the drive events it states "device not migrated" due to partial or ambiguous match

I have been attempting to install a Samsung 970 Evo plus 500tb in my wife's laptop and have had no luck.
(very little experience)

once installed the computer recognizes the drive and runs on the windows nvme drivers. I can modify partitions and use as storage.
BUT I cannot find a software to clone the drive, tried Many programs and they all give me the same error, "incorrect sector size" and will not mirror the drive. (512 vs 4xxx)
(Samsung data migration and magician don't even find the drive)

Additionally I have tried to use a USB boot drive to simply install a fresh copy of windows on the ssd (after removing hdd) and it would not work.
Stated: we could not create a new partition or find ab existing one
Tryied to install windows using system image backup from the hdd (via an external hard drive) would not work
Stated: could not find disk which can be used for creating volumes from backup

This is as detailed as I k ow to write. If you need any additional info just ask!
Im all ears for some suggestion on how to move forward.
She loves the laptop, but the hdd is a serious productivity bottleneck/slow as heck!

Thanks!!!!

egydiocoelho

Commodore_1995# · January 2020

Check this video:

https://youtu.be/cCmAOwRYNwY

sri369 · January 2020

@Darksaber77 Did you try Macrium Free Home version? I used it to both clone OS when i swapped disks as well as restore as needed.

Darksaber77 · January 2020

@sri369
I have tried Macrium's free clone option. It states "the target disk had an incomparable sector size for this operation" minitool said the same thing, and Samsung software won't even say it's there.

@egydiocoelho
I have tried what is in the video. It loads windows on the ssd from the USB, but the ssd will not boot windows. It says there is no boot media.
I have looked through the bios screen. It recognized the ssd is there, And I can find it in legacy mode. But it won't boot in legacy mode. Says to check the cable connection or drive is missing.
it does not show up in uefi mode. Attempting to boot in uefi mode and it shows a little hdd pic Andy says no boot media found.

sri369 · January 2020

I have looked through the bios screen. It recognized the ssd is there, And I can find it in legacy mode. But it won't boot in legacy mode. Says to check the cable connection or drive is missing.
it does not show up in uefi mode. Attempting to boot in uefi mode and it shows a little hdd pic Andy says no boot media found.

So it looks to me that your Windows was installed on it in Legacy mode (like I did mine when moving from Windows 7 to 10 and didn't want to format entire disk). Why not use it in Legacy mode? Can you share partitions screenshot from Macrium?

Darksaber77 · January 2020

@sri369
when attempting to boot in legacy mode from the ssd it goes to a DOS looking screen where it tells me
"media test failure,check cable"
"no bootable device--insert boot disk and press any key"

though it is detected in the bios screen in legacy mode and set to the first boot position

would this computer need a bios update to boot of an ssd?

Commodore_1995# · January 2020

Is secure boot disabled and is boot mode in uefi?

Darksaber77 · January 2020

@egydiocoelho
secure boot is set to "enabled"
I don't be know how to change it though as I cannot scroll and select it's to change it.
Is there a setting that "unlocks" the bios and allows me to change it?
lots of things I can change. (They are in blue text) but then there are things I can only view in grey text

Also I've tried Uefi mode and it does not see the ssd. But maybe it's because the boot mode is set to secure boot?

Commodore_1995# · January 2020

Create a new password in setsupervisorpassword tab and after disable the secure boot.

Darksaber77 · January 2020

@egydiocoelho
ive disabled "secure boot" and tried restarting it with and without the hdd installed.
Urfi still won't show the ssd and attempting to start it it says no bootable drive
Legacy mode still won't boot either

Darksaber77 · January 2020

Oh, and thank you all very much for taking then time to try and help me through this problem.
Its very appreciated

sri369 · January 2020

Darksaber77 said:

@egydiocoelho
ive disabled "secure boot" and tried restarting it with and without the hdd installed.
Urfi still won't show the ssd and attempting to start it it says no bootable drive
Legacy mode still won't boot either

OS installed under UEFI will not boot up under Legacy mode. OS installed under Legacy mode will not boot up under UEFI mode.

Commodore_1995# · January 2020

Colleague sri369 is correct. You have to know that ssd has to be converted to mbr to work in legacy mode, which supports x86 or x64 operating systems. In uefi mode, you have to convert ssd to gpt. Uefi mode only supports windows x64, except for some tablets that have uefi mode with x86 operating systems.

Darksaber77 · January 2020

I have tried multiple times wiping the drive and converting It to mbr using minitool partitioner.
change bios to legacy, then boot from the USB in legacy mode to install windows.
Selecting the second option to wipe the drive and have a clean install it will take its time loading to 100% then new error out after 7min of loading windows. every time.
logging back into the computer in uefi with the hdd, I look at the ssd in minitool and it has been converted back gpt again with a 100meg file installed on it.

not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if this drive or computer is somehow faulty.

Looking through the other ssd post it would appear others had been successfully installing them 500gig Samsung Evo plus ssd.

sri369 · January 2020

Darksaber77 said:

I have tried multiple times wiping the drive and converting It to mbr using minitool partitioner.
change bios to legacy, then boot from the USB in legacy mode to install windows.
Selecting the second option to wipe the drive and have a clean install it will take its time loading to 100% then new error out after 7min of loading windows. every time.
logging back into the computer in uefi with the hdd, I look at the ssd in minitool and it has been converted back gpt again with a 100meg file installed on it.

not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if this drive or computer is somehow faulty.

Looking through the other ssd post it would appear others had been successfully installing them 500gig Samsung Evo plus ssd.

This is the expected behavior. When there are no partitions on any disk and you tell windows to use it, it will be automatically created as GPT. To force create as MBR, create a small partition of about 100 MB as MBR, and then use the disk for Windows installation.

Given how SSDs work, i normally tend to keep about 10% space as unpartitioned. This 10% i created a dummy partition that i could delete post windows installation.

Commodore_1995# · January 2020

Ideally, you should follow my colleague's tips or do exactly as explained in the video above. However, if you are having difficulty installing windows, I suggest you download this file, in which I explain exactly how to install windows 10, with all the steps: