Spin 5 SSD questions

fcoulter
fcoulter Member Posts: 3 New User
edited November 2023 in 2020 Archives
I understand that there's a second mass storage port in the Spin 5 that can be used to install a SSD in addition to the HDD that it comes with.  I have several questions:

1) Is this true?  and if so...

2) Can normal cloning software be used to clone the HDD to the SSD, including boot partition, etc.?  (For a while Dell used a non-standard HDD format which made it difficult to use utility software. I'm just checking that Acer doesn't do the same.)

3) Can I change whether the Spin 5 boots from the HDD or the SSD in the bios without moving the HDD?

4) Is there a maximum size of SSD that the Spin 5 can recognize?  It appears that there are 2T SSDs that might fit into the Spin 5.

Best Answer

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 35,091 Trailblazer
    Answer ✓
    @fcoulter the answer is yes to most all of your questions, though getting the SSD to be the default boot drive is easiest with the HDD removed. Your system supports an M.2 NVMe drive in the 2280 form factor and both 2TB and 4TB versions are available (though the 4TB are pretty expensive still). You use normal cloning software to transfer everything, including the UEFI and recovery partitions, to the SSD. Once that is complete the easiest course is to remove the HDD, boot from the SSD then shutdown and reinstall the HDD. That tells the BIOS to default to the UEFI partition on the SSD by default. Once that is done you can remove all partitions on the HDD and re-initialize it as one big data partition.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.

Answers

  • MaClane
    MaClane ACE Posts: 35,598 Trailblazer
    Good afternoon fcoulter !

    The first step would be to inform the EXACT model of your laptop.


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  • fcoulter
    fcoulter Member Posts: 3 New User
    There's only one listed in the store so I didn't think it was essential.  Here's the number from the Acer web site: 

    SP515-51GN-83YY

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 35,091 Trailblazer
    Answer ✓
    @fcoulter the answer is yes to most all of your questions, though getting the SSD to be the default boot drive is easiest with the HDD removed. Your system supports an M.2 NVMe drive in the 2280 form factor and both 2TB and 4TB versions are available (though the 4TB are pretty expensive still). You use normal cloning software to transfer everything, including the UEFI and recovery partitions, to the SSD. Once that is complete the easiest course is to remove the HDD, boot from the SSD then shutdown and reinstall the HDD. That tells the BIOS to default to the UEFI partition on the SSD by default. Once that is done you can remove all partitions on the HDD and re-initialize it as one big data partition.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.

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