Acer V3 471G upgrade to SSD

Spin_3
Spin_3 Member Posts: 9

Tinkerer

Hi All,

In order to upgrade my ageing V3 471G (bought in 2012) I replaced the HDD with a new SSD. And it is working perfectly.
Now in order to use old HDD, I bought a HDD caddy and removed the DVD drive to insert this caddy with old HDD.
Now when I start my laptop, it doesn't recognise this old HDD in caddy which is in dvd drive. Neither BIOS, not disk management or device manager.
In order to check if caddy is working or not. I started the laptop and in BIOS changed to boot from dvd drive. And it booted from old HDD in caddy at dvd drive ( I haven't reformatted it). And guess what SSD is also showing as E drive. I have both old HDD as C drive and SSD as E drive. So caddy is working perfectly.

Now again when I boot from new SSD the old HDD is not recognised at all.

Can some one please help?

Thanks in advance

Best Answer

  • StevenGen
    StevenGen ACE Posts: 9,687 Trailblazer
    edited September 2020 Answer ✓
    Spin_3 said:
    Hi All,

    In order to upgrade my ageing V3 471G (bought in 2012) I replaced the HDD with a new SSD. And it is working perfectly.
    Now in order to use old HDD, I bought a HDD caddy and removed the DVD drive to insert this caddy with old HDD.
    Now when I start my laptop, it doesn't recognise this old HDD in caddy which is in dvd drive. Neither BIOS, not disk management or device manager.
    In order to check if caddy is working or not. I started the laptop and in BIOS changed to boot from dvd drive. And it booted from old HDD in caddy at dvd drive ( I haven't reformatted it). And guess what SSD is also showing as E drive. I have both old HDD as C drive and SSD as E drive. So caddy is working perfectly.

    Now again when I boot from new SSD the old HDD is not recognised at all.

    Can some one please help?

    Thanks in advance

    You have to format the old spinner HDD (make sure you back it up if you want any data on it) to MBR/Legacy with a SATA/USB adaptor, I don’t know if you cloned your old HDD to the SSD and used the Win-10 on it? As that is what I did when I changed a spinner HDD to an SSD. Use a SATA to USB adaptor and format the old HDD, after the format the system will recognise your caddy spinner HDD. I did the same to an Aspire V3-571G and it works perfectly, simple.


Answers

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    >>>Neither BIOS, not disk management or device manager. In order to check if caddy is working or not. I started the laptop and in BIOS changed to boot from dvd drive.>>>

    Please post a phoneshot of both the BIOS Information and Boot tabs if possible. Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • Spin_3
    Spin_3 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer

    Hi,
    My BIOS is very old and basic, never upgraded the driver. Here no visible change in both cases.
    Thanks
  • StevenGen
    StevenGen ACE Posts: 9,687 Trailblazer
    edited September 2020 Answer ✓
    Spin_3 said:
    Hi All,

    In order to upgrade my ageing V3 471G (bought in 2012) I replaced the HDD with a new SSD. And it is working perfectly.
    Now in order to use old HDD, I bought a HDD caddy and removed the DVD drive to insert this caddy with old HDD.
    Now when I start my laptop, it doesn't recognise this old HDD in caddy which is in dvd drive. Neither BIOS, not disk management or device manager.
    In order to check if caddy is working or not. I started the laptop and in BIOS changed to boot from dvd drive. And it booted from old HDD in caddy at dvd drive ( I haven't reformatted it). And guess what SSD is also showing as E drive. I have both old HDD as C drive and SSD as E drive. So caddy is working perfectly.

    Now again when I boot from new SSD the old HDD is not recognised at all.

    Can some one please help?

    Thanks in advance

    You have to format the old spinner HDD (make sure you back it up if you want any data on it) to MBR/Legacy with a SATA/USB adaptor, I don’t know if you cloned your old HDD to the SSD and used the Win-10 on it? As that is what I did when I changed a spinner HDD to an SSD. Use a SATA to USB adaptor and format the old HDD, after the format the system will recognise your caddy spinner HDD. I did the same to an Aspire V3-571G and it works perfectly, simple.


  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    >>>My BIOS is very old and basic, never upgraded the driver. Here no visible change in both cases.>>>

    Please post a phoneshot of both the BIOS Information and Boot tabs if possible. Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • Spin_3
    Spin_3 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer

    JackE said:
    >>>My BIOS is very old and basic, never upgraded the driver. Here no visible change in both cases.>>>

    Please post a phoneshot of both the BIOS Information and Boot tabs if possible. Jack E/NJ

    Sure, will do that tomorrow.

    Thanks
  • Spin_3
    Spin_3 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer

    StevenGen said:
    Spin_3 said:
    Hi All,

    In order to upgrade my ageing V3 471G (bought in 2012) I replaced the HDD with a new SSD. And it is working perfectly.
    Now in order to use old HDD, I bought a HDD caddy and removed the DVD drive to insert this caddy with old HDD.
    Now when I start my laptop, it doesn't recognise this old HDD in caddy which is in dvd drive. Neither BIOS, not disk management or device manager.
    In order to check if caddy is working or not. I started the laptop and in BIOS changed to boot from dvd drive. And it booted from old HDD in caddy at dvd drive ( I haven't reformatted it). And guess what SSD is also showing as E drive. I have both old HDD as C drive and SSD as E drive. So caddy is working perfectly.

    Now again when I boot from new SSD the old HDD is not recognised at all.

    Can some one please help?

    Thanks in advance

    You have to format the old spinner HDD (make sure you back it up if you want any data on it) to MBR/Legacy with a SATA/USB adaptor, I don’t know if you cloned your old HDD to the SSD and used the Win-10 on it? As that is what I did when I changed a spinner HDD to an SSD. Use a SATA to USB adaptor and format the old HDD, after the format the system will recognise your caddy spinner HDD. I did the same to an Aspire V3-571G and it works perfectly, simple.


    Hi,
    Thanks for taking time to reply.
    Now I formatted old HDD using a USB, and again put it in Caddy. But still it's not showing up 😒.
  • Spin_3
    Spin_3 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer

    edited September 2020
    JackE said:
    >>>My BIOS is very old and basic, never upgraded the driver. Here no visible change in both cases.>>>

    Please post a phoneshot of both the BIOS Information and Boot tabs if possible. Jack E/NJ

    Hi Jack,
    Apologize for late reply.

    As requested please find attached photo of BIOS information and Boot tabs.
    I format the old HDD and again tried through Caddy in CD drive, but still no luck.
    Thanks
  • Spin_3
    Spin_3 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer

    StevenGen said:
    Spin_3 said:
    Hi All,

    In order to upgrade my ageing V3 471G (bought in 2012) I replaced the HDD with a new SSD. And it is working perfectly.
    Now in order to use old HDD, I bought a HDD caddy and removed the DVD drive to insert this caddy with old HDD.
    Now when I start my laptop, it doesn't recognise this old HDD in caddy which is in dvd drive. Neither BIOS, not disk management or device manager.
    In order to check if caddy is working or not. I started the laptop and in BIOS changed to boot from dvd drive. And it booted from old HDD in caddy at dvd drive ( I haven't reformatted it). And guess what SSD is also showing as E drive. I have both old HDD as C drive and SSD as E drive. So caddy is working perfectly.

    Now again when I boot from new SSD the old HDD is not recognised at all.

    Can some one please help?

    Thanks in advance

    You have to format the old spinner HDD (make sure you back it up if you want any data on it) to MBR/Legacy with a SATA/USB adaptor, I don’t know if you cloned your old HDD to the SSD and used the Win-10 on it? As that is what I did when I changed a spinner HDD to an SSD. Use a SATA to USB adaptor and format the old HDD, after the format the system will recognise your caddy spinner HDD. I did the same to an Aspire V3-571G and it works perfectly, simple.


    Thanks Steven,

    I did a re-format and this time it worked.

    Now my both old and new HDD are showing up.

    Thanks 😊

    Thanks everyone for your prompt response.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    >>>I format the old HDD and again tried through Caddy in CD drive, but still no luck>>>
    >>>I did a re-format and this time it worked.>>>

    Congrats. Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • Spin_3
    Spin_3 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer

    StevenGen said:
    Spin_3 said:
    Hi All,

    In order to upgrade my ageing V3 471G (bought in 2012) I replaced the HDD with a new SSD. And it is working perfectly.
    Now in order to use old HDD, I bought a HDD caddy and removed the DVD drive to insert this caddy with old HDD.
    Now when I start my laptop, it doesn't recognise this old HDD in caddy which is in dvd drive. Neither BIOS, not disk management or device manager.
    In order to check if caddy is working or not. I started the laptop and in BIOS changed to boot from dvd drive. And it booted from old HDD in caddy at dvd drive ( I haven't reformatted it). And guess what SSD is also showing as E drive. I have both old HDD as C drive and SSD as E drive. So caddy is working perfectly.

    Now again when I boot from new SSD the old HDD is not recognised at all.

    Can some one please help?

    Thanks in advance

    You have to format the old spinner HDD (make sure you back it up if you want any data on it) to MBR/Legacy with a SATA/USB adaptor, I don’t know if you cloned your old HDD to the SSD and used the Win-10 on it? As that is what I did when I changed a spinner HDD to an SSD. Use a SATA to USB adaptor and format the old HDD, after the format the system will recognise your caddy spinner HDD. I did the same to an Aspire V3-571G and it works perfectly, simple.


    Thanks Steven,

    I did a re-format and this time it worked.

    Now my both old and new HDD are visible.

    Thanks again everyone for taking time to help me.
  • TristanLao
    TristanLao Member Posts: 1 New User
    Spin_3 said:
    Hi All,

    In order to upgrade my ageing V3 471G (bought in 2012) I replaced the HDD with a new SSD. And it is working perfectly.
    Now in order to use old HDD, I bought a HDD caddy and removed the DVD drive to insert this caddy with old HDD.
    Now when I start my laptop, it doesn't recognise this old HDD in caddy which is in dvd drive. Neither BIOS, not disk management or device manager.
    In order to check if caddy is working or not. I started the laptop and in BIOS changed to boot from dvd drive. And it booted from old HDD in caddy at dvd drive ( I haven't reformatted it). And guess what SSD is also showing as E drive. I have both old HDD as C drive and SSD as E drive. So caddy is working perfectly.

    Now again when I boot from new SSD the old HDD is not recognised at all.

    Can some one please help?

    Thanks in advance
    Hi! I'm not knowledgeable with SSD, does it have the same size as the HDD that is inside V3-471G?can you share which brand/type you used?and also maybe you can share which caddy to purchase so i can still put the old HDD in the dvdrom slot?
  • kerepek_man
    kerepek_man Member Posts: 1 New User
    Spin_3 said:
    Hi All,

    In order to upgrade my ageing V3 471G (bought in 2012) I replaced the HDD with a new SSD. And it is working perfectly.
    Now in order to use old HDD, I bought a HDD caddy and removed the DVD drive to insert this caddy with old HDD.
    Now when I start my laptop, it doesn't recognise this old HDD in caddy which is in dvd drive. Neither BIOS, not disk management or device manager.
    In order to check if caddy is working or not. I started the laptop and in BIOS changed to boot from dvd drive. And it booted from old HDD in caddy at dvd drive ( I haven't reformatted it). And guess what SSD is also showing as E drive. I have both old HDD as C drive and SSD as E drive. So caddy is working perfectly.

    Now again when I boot from new SSD the old HDD is not recognised at all.

    Can some one please help?

    Thanks in advance
    Hi! I'm not knowledgeable with SSD, does it have the same size as the HDD that is inside V3-471G?can you share which brand/type you used?and also maybe you can share which caddy to purchase so i can still put the old HDD in the dvdrom slot?
    @TristanLao, you can use any 12.7mm HDD laptop caddy for Acer Aspire V3-471G as I also used the same caddy for my laptop. As for SSD, use any 2.5" SSD to replace your 2.5" HDD. Do not buy M.2 SSD as the laptop doesn't have any slot for that type.

    Make sure you format the SSD to MBR instead of GPT as the BIOS won't detect any GPT-partitioned SSD or HDD.