In this post, I'm going to briefly describe some of the processes I went through to upgrade the SSD in this Windows 10, 64-Bit system. Unfortunately, I had to remove the recovery partition in order to complete the process, so if anyone can provide any advice to avoid having to do this, it will be a great help to me, and others. If anyone has any additional questions about upgrading this unit, do not hesitate to post here or contact me directly.
View full Acer Aspire Switch 11 specs on CNET. Acer Aspire Switch 11 SW5-171-39LB - 11.6' - Core i3 4012Y - 4 GB RAM - 128 GB SSD ntl69aa003. CYD Laptop car Charger 65w Replacement for acer Aspire r5 r7 s5 s7 v13 Switch 11 11v 12 Alpha sw5-171 Aspire one cloudbook 11 14 Spin 5 sp513 Swift 3 sf314 a13 3.3ft.
Hardware
I successfully replaced the stock - 64GB Lite-On L8H-64V2G M.2 (SATA bus) SSD with a Crucial MX200 250GB m.2 SSD. For info on how to unassemble the unit, @padget briefly describes the process here: Aspire Switch 12 disk upgrade.
*You will need suitable plastic spudgers, and proceed carefully with caution so as not to break the plastic clips. Also, don't forget to disconnect the battery connector from the base unit (you'll see a white plastic connector which provides power to the top part of the unit, simply disconnect this), otherwise you'll be in for a nasty shock if you touch the LCD inverter!
Software - Disk Cloning
I used a live version of CloneZilla on a Bootable USB Stick to clone the disk. As I could only use one of the USB ports to save the cloned image to an external hard drive (I didn't have a USB 3 micro B adapter at the time), I used the version that loaded CloneZilla into RAM allowing 'hot swapping' of the boot USB stick with the external drive. Then I swapped the drive over and restored the image, happy days.
Acer Aspire Switch 11 Problems
Problems
Now, this was all well and good, but due to the recovery partition being at the end of the disk, it became problematic to expand the system drive into the empty space. Here's how the disk structure looks:
Acer Aspire Switch 11 Sw5-111-102r
Partition 1: EFI
Partition 2: MSR
Partition 3: Data
Partition 4: Recovery
So when I restored this to the new drive, I ended up with unallocated space after partition 4, meaning I couldn't expand the Data partition into it. I tried using Clonezilla to dynamically resize the disk, but ended up with all partitions being 4 times larger (to account for the new drive being 4 times larger), and the system wouldn't boot. There were various other scenarios I encountered where Windows wouldn't even detect the extra 'unallocated' space, the filesystem thought it was a 64GB drive, but the drive was still registering as a 250GB disk. After booting into linux, I could assign the unallocated space. I also tried moving the recovery partition to the end of the disk, but then the system wouldn't boot.
I tried disk checks, repairing the MBR and the EFI boot manager, but I had no luck. I tried other cloning software - Macrium Reflect, but inevitably ran into the same problem, the recovery partition was hindering the process, and after an entire day trying to find a solution, I gave up and just deleted the recovery partition. I still have it imaged should I ever need it... but I think I'll just use the Windows 10 recovery system should a problem occur.
So, my question is, out of curiosity; is it possible to clone a disk to a larger disk and expand a single partition that doesn't reside at the end of the disk?
FAQ & Answers
- If you are running the Acer OEM operating system, here is a link that shows how to access the user guide that is on the hard drive.
- Actually I need the REAL motherboard tech / service manual for the Acer IPISB-VR Rev: 1.01 motherboard. This post was a desprate shot-in-the-dark.Why does Acer keep responding with the wrong / deflecting answer for the user guide. I know where the on / off switch is. I need the real manual used by techs to build and setup motherboard into computers. Specifications, settings, block diagrams, schematics etc...There is no reason to keep these hidden. The vast vast majority of companies supply them. Acer is de-value their product by not releasing. My point is, by prevent me from being able to re-build boards and or trace issues means I have to avoid buy all Acer products, in order to provide my customer with reasonable and reliable customer service. I'll have to tell my customer to go find another brand of computer that does not use Acer parts cause they can't be fixed.All you have to do is send me the PDF.Why is that so hard?hunter[inappropriate content removed]
- Good point. I too have an Acer and find difficulty in getting a pin count for the memory for replacement. The only manual is the usual boring one, no pictures, regarding battery, all ***** stuff. How are we idiots suppose to learn without a real manual?
- the answer is simple without a manual you are forced to buy a newer product, planned obsolescence?