New/Old Hard Drive Installation Problem

[magicapples]

Hi,

I have purchased a corsair SSD 250 gm hard drive and installed it in my acer lap top.

prior to installing the new hard drive, i created recovery disks so i could easily reload my windows 7 and drivers.

now, when i load windows, it still shows the old 450 gb western digital drive, and shows me how much space is used on it and how much is left. when i install anything, it says it is installing it on the old western digital drive.

when i go to start -> computer -> manage i see the old hard drive and its partitions. i also see the new drive, and it says 240 gb unassigned.

i can see the corsair under my devices. so the computer is seeing it. but windows thinks the old hard drive is still in the computer.

not sure if this is impacting performance or not. is windows utilizing the ssd speed? i have no idea how much space is left on my hard drive.

anybody seen this before?

thanks

 

[karlsnooks]

Hi,

I have purchased a corsair SSD 250 gm hard drive and installed it in my acer lap top.

prior to installing the new hard drive, i created recovery disks so i could easily reload my windows 7 and drivers.

now, when i load windows, it still shows the old 450 gb western digital drive, and shows me how much space is used on it and how much is left. when i install anything, it says it is installing it on the old western digital drive.

when i go to start -> computer -> manage i see the old hard drive and its partitions. i also see the new drive, and it says 240 gb unassigned.

i can see the corsair under my devices. so the computer is seeing it. but windows thinks the old hard drive is still in the computer.

not sure if this is impacting performance or not. is windows utilizing the ssd speed? i have no idea how much space is left on my hard drive.

anybody seen this before?

thanks

Welcome to SevenForums.

To help us understand, please carefully carry out the following:

HOW TO POST A SNAPSHOT OF DISK MANAGEMENT DISPLAY

Run disk management:
WIN | type DISKMGMT.MSC | ENTER
WIN is the key with the wavy flag.

Maximize the output of Disk Management:
ALT-Spacebar key combo (this pops up a menu) followed by X key (selects Maximize) |
Drag the field separators (such as between Status and Capacity) to show entire field. This is very important, otherwise, needed info is not visible.

Make a snapshot:
WIN | type SNIPPING | ENTER | New
Drag the cursor around the area you want to snip.
File | Save as | select save location and name | Save

Post the snapshot:
· Click on the paperclip icon in that row of icons at the top of the message box.
· BROWSE button. There are 5 choices.
· Navigate to the folder containing the snapshot.
· Click on the snapshot.
· OPEN
· UPLOAD button which is adjacent to the 5th BROWSE button.
· Close the MANAGE ATTACHMENTS window.
· Position the cursor at the spot in the message where you want the
snapshot to appear.
· Click on the PaperClip again.
· Click on the file which you want to insert
· Attach code will be inserted into your message.

 

[magicapples]

thanks karl for that detailed instruction.
i didn't know about snipping! good to have.

here is the managed window view. you can see that it doesn't name the corsair drive here.

the 450 gb drive, is sitting on my desk, i am looking at it. i know it is no longer in my computer

 

[mjf]

Your SSD is unallocated and needs to be formatted. Easy enough.

But the problem in utilizing it's speed is a bit more complex. You need to get your Acer (SLP:OEM) OS onto your smaller SSD. It can be done or you can clean install but either way it's a bit of work.
Also, the SSD would ideally need to be in disk 0 position.

Someone here would help you but unless I'm missing something you'd have a bit of work ahead.

 

[karlsnooks]

MagicApples,

You can put everything on to your SSD.

Doing such will take a little work and preparation.

The basic idea is that you would clear up as much as you can from your present c simply thru cleaning measures.

If that's not enough, then temporarily some of the info will need to be moved off to an external drive and that stuff would then be restored later.

So let's say that your present disk with C on it has been cleaned up.

You would, using Win 7 Backup and Restore make a system image backup of the drive containing C. The system image backup would be stored on an external usb.

You make a System Repair Disc to be used duing the restore operation.

You physically disconnect the present C drive.

You connect the new ssd drive in the posititon where the old drive was.

You use that system repair disc to prepare the ssd to become a bootable drive.

You restore the image to the new drive.

After verifiying that all is well, then you can reconnect the old drive and wipe iit clean so that it can be used as a data drive.

This procedure works. I've done it, and more than once.

If you find the idea interesting, let me know and we will get down to the nitty gritty. You will be performing this piiece-meal and getting back to me at every step of the way so that we can proceed smoothly with zero loss.

 

[magicapples]

hi guys. thanks for the responses.

Sorry, I maybe was not clear in my earlier description. Perhaps because this is hard to explain.

I only have one hard drive in my lap top, the only drive physically installed is the SSD drive. I took out the original hard drive and it is sitting on my shelf. yet windows still thinks it is installed.

In the picture, it shows both hard drives. but the 450 GB one no longer is physically in the computer. only the SSD one is.

 

[mjf]

It's hard to understand for sure.
What's on your SSD and how did you put it there.
What does Disk Management show now.

 

[magicapples]

It's hard to understand for sure.
What's on your SSD and how did you put it there.
What does Disk Management show now.

disk management shows what is in that picture i posted.

here is the sequence of events that i performed:

bought lap top and SSD hard drive (not installed yet).
created recovery disks
turned computer off.
took out original hard drive
installed ssd
turned computer on with recovery DVD's in the dvd drive.
initiated recovery
installed recovery on the SSD drive.

now i am experiencing this problem. perhaps it is due to the recovery? but why does windows not detect the original hard drive is no longer installed? and while it shows the SSD drive is connected, why does it not show it as the drive in use?

 

[karlsnooks]

Physically disconnect the old drive.

Does you system boot?

 

[mjf]

Based on what you have said your Diskmanagement screenshot doesn't make sense.

This is a little complicated...
The problem you will have with Windows imaging is the MBR at the front of the HDD you are imaging is always copied and then replaced when reimaging. This MBR contains the partition structure of the original disk. This is why you cannot simply reimage back to a smaller disk.

I think ACER have (or used to have) a special factory recovery procedure when doing a factory recovery/restore to a smaller disk.

 

[razy60]

Is the ssd set to AHCI mode in the bios? Also is the bios showing the original hard drive?

 

[magicapples]

karl: yes, my system reboots fine. i am in windows right now, loaded on the SSD drive... but windows thinks it is the old hard drive. And because of that, i have no information about the SSD drive.

MJF:
no, the disk management screen doesn't make sense at all. it is like windows is loading some old cache file and won't reexamine my hdd.

so you think the root of the problem is reimaging onto a new hard drive that is smaller than the original hard drive?

will windows figure out what is wrong if the disk is full 200 gb too early?

 

[karlsnooks]

The bigger to smaller isn't the problem. I've done that with no difficulties.

If you do the following:
Go to an elevated command prompt.
Diskpart
list volume

do you still see the wrong information?

Do NOT have the hard disk connected when you do this.

 

[mjf]

The bigger to smaller isn't the problem.

Whatever you say.

Magicapples,
A stab at explaining what went on. ACER did a factory recovery including the original MBR which is what Windows Disk Management is picking up. For some reason it's also seeing another disk, your physical SSD. Basically Disk Management is totally confused.

You could try to download Partition Wizard (see free programs area) and see what it says.

What I would do is use Macrium Reflect for this exercise.

I'll leave my input to you at that for the time being so as not to confuse things with too many inputs.

Edit: deleted some comments

 

[karlsnooks]

magicapples,

although this isn't the way I do it,
Here is a tutorial we have on restoring the MBR.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20864-mbr-restore-windows-7-master-boot-record.html

 

[mjf]

I'll come back into the discussion again rather than leave things hanging.
Can we define your end goal.

Is it to have your new 240GB SSD replace your existing spinning 500GB HDD as your one and only HDD?
If so you then have 2 options:
1) Retain the Acer OEM OS or
2) Do a clean install of Windows using the COA sticker key which should be on your notebook. This will require access to Windows installation disks.