Pre-Installed (Acer) Windows 8 to SSD

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bjefferies

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Oct 4, 2014
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Hi everyone! I decided to head to my local PC store today and treated myself a new Acer M51BC.

Everything was pretty much what I wanted, with the exception of an SSD. I figured that would be no issue as I'd stick my old SSD in there and reinstall.

Now, today I decided to create the recovery USB in Windows, put an old SATA drive I had in as a test and re-installed Windows 8. It ran perfectly and before I knew it I had Windows 8 up and running.

Now, I decide to use the SSD since I knew what I was doing, this is where my problems start.

I still have the USB in the computer, and everything is exactly the same before with the exception that this SSD still has my Win 7 OS on it. I guess there is a chance the Windows 7 installation may be causing issues, which is why I mention it, Maybe I need to put it back in the old PC and format before I do this?

Anyway, here's why it's not working. When I go to 'Reset your PC' I get the same options as before, However this time I'm told 'Unable to reset your PC. A required drive partition is missing.'

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Updated:
Since I can open a command prompt, I have been trying to look online at how I can see how Windows can view the disk,

From Command Prompt, I typed in diskpart, then list disk.

I get:
Disc 0 - Online - 223GB
Disk 1,2,3,4,5 - No Media - 0B
Disk 6 - Online - 14GB

If I do 'sel dis 0' followed by 'list par'

I get:
Partition 1 - 100MB - Offset 1024kb
Partition 2 - 223GB - Offset 101MB

I'm completely stuck with where to get next, and frustratingly I was really hoping to have this done tonight but right now I'm hitting a brick wall

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
Solution
RealBeast
There is a free version of parted magic that is older but is the one that I use HERE.

I didn't know that they started charging with the new version like some of the other previously freeware.
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bjefferies

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Thanks for the reply, it worked fine with the original SATA drive though?

On your link, when doing the SATA drive which worked, steps 1-9 were not available to me, instead they were Asus's own screens. If I had these screens, I imagine things would be quite a bit easier.
 
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RealBeast

RealBeast

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I would try unpartitioning the SSD since the old SATA empty drive worked with what you did. You should be able to do that with a Windows 8 install disk/usb by selecting custom and deleting all existing partitions, then proceed to the install. If your media doesn't allow that you may need to use another machine to clean the SSD.
 
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bjefferies

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Oct 4, 2014
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Thanks for your advice. I currently have the SSD in my old PC using Windows 7, would you be able to advise how to do it this way? Due to the OS being pre-installed on the Win 8 machine I don't have a disk or anything.

I've also posted the question somewhere else as I'm getting a little desperate for help, they said the following:

"I assume the SSD is a MBR disk. I think that at a minimum you'll need to delete the partitions. And maybe have to convert it to GPT.

You installed OK on the old SATA drive, so I'm wondering about the major difference(s) from the SSD. The SSD is MBR and fully populated with two partitions. I'm guessing that the old SATA drive MBR and sufficient unallocated space for the needed three partitions to be created. If that guess is correct then deleting the partitions on the SSD should be all you need to do."
 
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RealBeast

RealBeast

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You can make a bootable parted magic optical disk that will allow you to secure erase the SSD on any PC and then it should work fine for an install. You can get parted magic from HERE. No formatting or anything else needed once the erase is done -- Windows will do the rest on the install.
 
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Dragonburn

Dragonburn

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Alternatively if you are able to get the installation started, you should be able to delete the partitions on the SSD via the installation process, just make sure that you back up any info that you might need again. Also if you have SATA III sockets on your board, make sure that the SSD is attached to one of those for maximum performance.
 
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bjefferies

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Oct 4, 2014
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Seems to be $10, right? I'd be more than happy to pay this assuming it definitely works! Before I part with my money is there a kind of idiots guide, so that I can follow it so I'll know for sure what I'm doing? Haha.



Due to the OS being pre-installed, it doesn't give me any installation processes sadly, it's a very basic 'reset' or 'repair' interface which allows for very little to be done. The only thing that could possibly help with regards to that is the fact I have access to command prompt, but I would have no idea what codes I would need to use to format the drive correctly using that (if it can even be done.)

Thanks for the advice, the SSD will be linked to the SATA III sockets, as I'm using the same one that they used for the OEM setup.
 
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