EDIT: Win8.1 woes - Solved!

[Schadenfreude]

Update 10/01/2014

• Initial problem: New laptop purchased did not recognize SSD put in place of HDD
• Solution: Like VirtualLarry stated below, changed the partition standard to GPT and all is good.

• New Problem: No recovery disk or license key provided to re-activate Win8, laptop does not recognize key/activate by itself as stated online. ***CHALLENGE***: Original drive already formatted, no cloning option available.
• Solution: Either build a restore point using a flash drive or purchase one through Acer's website. Thankfully, had access to wife's laptop (same model) and resolved the issue.

 

[Steltek]

I'm assuming that this is Windows 8/8.1. Did you disable the Secure Boot option in the BIOS?

 

[corkyg]

Sounds like the SSD needs to be initialized.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you are trying to boot the OS installer, and it is not finding the SSD, was the SSD previously formatted using MBR partitions? The new laptop may be using UEFI and GPT, and to change that over, you have to use DISKPART.EXE to do a "CLEAN" on the SSD.

In the Win7 installer, you could hit SHIFT+F10, I believe, to pull up a command prompt window and run DISKPART. I don't know if you can do likewise with the Win8/8.1 installer.

 

[inachu]

The best way to get the laptop to see the SSD is to do the following. YEah it will cost money but in the long run you will find it to be worth for doing so.

A. Make sure any replacement drive is the the same size or larger. So that 500gig ssd might cost you $400 or so.
B. Use a drive duplication device. I bought one at microcenter for around $40-$50 bucks.

Insert source drive in source slot and slave drive into destination slot. hit the button and it will take 45 minutes to copy drive. If no errors on the original drive then your ssd will be flawless and nothing further needs to be done as the partitions and mbr have been copied over to be an exact clone.


Norton ghost can do the same thing but a bit more tedious.

 

[Smoove910]

I usually clone the drive, then install it in place of the old drive it's replacing. Have had nothing but good luck with Acronis True Image (free trial version)

http://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/pc-backup/

- Put SSD in external enclosure
- Download/install Acronis
- Copy drive (it'll reboot on its own)
- Once complete, swap ssd into laptop
- Boot up and enjoy.

 

[inachu]

So we purchased a new Acer Aspire V5 473p and while it's a nice machine for the price, I was hoping to replace the HDD w/ an SSD, and running into a few problems;

• The SSD (a 120GB Samsung EVO 840) is not recognized by the computer if I replace the HDD - thing is, I pulled the SSD from my current laptop and it's a working part. It's also recognized if I stick it into an external enclosure. Didn't see a BIOS update on the manufacturer's website either.
• The Windows license is not on the manual, the body, etc. I did some digging and it's supposedly embedded into the BIOS - I have the physical media and I was able to pull up the license key using Magical Bean Keyfinder AND cross referenced Belarc - but apparently it's a corporate key that they used and I didn't have much luck progressing past that point.

I think the biggest hurdle is making the system recognize the SSD drive. Any suggestions would be very appreciated!

Got it fixed or reimaged a new drive yet?

 

[Schadenfreude]

Got it fixed or reimaged a new drive yet?

Yes! Like VirtualLarry said up above, it was a matter of re-formatting the SSD to the GPT partition for it to work in UEFI or changing the BIOS boot option to legacy if kept in MBR. So I originally reformatted to MBR and installed a copy of Win7 that I had, and then decided to try out Win (8.1).

I had the disk as I built a desktop w/ it a while back and from what I see, it's supposed to "pull the license key from the BIOS and automatically activate" - that didn't take, so I used the old key and am in the process of updating to Win8.1 to see maybe if it will correct course after the update. If not, I'll shoot Acer an email and install Win7 back on it for the time being.

In retrospect, I suppose I could have imaged the file over after changing the partition standard but I formatted the original drive to use as additional storage on my desktop. Oh well.