Tweaking4All
Computer News, Tips and Tricks ... ... for everyone
I cannot be held responsible for any (!) damages as a consequence of following this guide!
Shutdown your Acer, Remove the power cord, NEVER use excessive force, work in an ESD safe envirmonment (straps, etc), and ALWAYS make a backup of your disk!
Before even trying to open your Acer Iconia Tab W500 I strongly recommend doing your homework on finding a compatible replacement SSD.
In my case, I didn’t want to go overboard on spending money so I did stick with the well performing and very fair priced 128GB MyDigitalSSD, at the time in the $180 range for 128 Gb. Some resellers: Amazon, My Digital Discount, and My Digital SSD - there are more stores online selling this SSD.
MyDigitalSSD 128Gb (mSATA SSD)
Other brands and models might work just as well – feel free to report succes with other drives in the comment section.
Just keep in mind that it has to be a so called mSATA SSD, where mSATA is the interface.
mSATA, also known as mini-SATA (a good FAQ to start with can be found here), is an interface format typically found in (ultra) portable devices that became popular with the rise of the Intel Atom based netbooks.
mSATA looks VERY similar to a mini PCI Express card – but it’s not compatible!
mini PCI Express cards are typically used for your WiFi and Bluetooth modules, and yes, some manufacturers (Asus and early Apple Macbook Air models for example) even use a modified mini PCI Express slot for SSD purposes. But again: it’s not compatible!
I always find it a good practice to start with preparing my work area and having the necessary tools handy. In this case, to prevent scratches on the screen, I typically use an old towel to work on.
To pry the casing open properly, I grabbed a few pry tools (typically used for opening iPods, cellphones, etc) from Amazon as well – this set is what I got and for the price (app. $7 for 10 of them) it’s well worth it. Note that most of these tools can be used once maybe twice before they wear down, so a set of 10 is always handy.
Pry tools for opening cellphones etc.
The mSATA to USB adapter is needed to clone to original 32Gb SSD to the new 128GB MyDigitalSSD. This appears the only way to make your Acer Iconia W500 recognize the MyDigitalSSD – sad, I know. I’m not sure if it has to do with the very small partition found on the original SSD.
I used Paragon Disk Manager Suite to clone the drives by plugging the 128GB MyDigitalSSD in the mSATA to USB adapter and connecting the USB connector to the Acer Iconia W500. The Paragon Disk Manager Suite boot cd allows me to “migrate” the old disk to the new one.
Like I said before; I used Paragon Disk Manager Suite to clone the drives. The process is straight forward:
Once cloning is completed (took app 25 minutes), close the windows and shutdown the tablet PC.
If you skip this step, your Acer might not recognize the drive and might not even boot normally (some unreadable comments will be displayed – barely visible). If this happens, it has been suggested that a BIOS update might be needed. Unfortunately I cannot confirm this.
Formatting the 128GB MyDigitalSSD instead of making an image (MBR) did not make a difference.
Cloning the original disks DID make a difference – I’m open to ideas; feel free to place them in the comments.
OK, personally I find this the tricky part, and before you begin a reasonable basic understanding on how these cases typically click together will save you headaches later on.
Most of these kind of cases are “clicked” together, meaning; two parts (front and back) are pushed together until little hooks click into little openings, holding both parts firmly together. Now when taking those two parts apart, we want to prevent that we rip those little openings, below you see an enlarged picture of the opening part.
Enlarged plastic opening
Now what we want to avoid it that they look like this once we are done opening the casing – if one or two break, then this typically doesn’t create any dramatic issues, but we’d like to avoid it none the less.
This what this looks like when it's broken ...
For the Acer Iconia Tab W500 the hooks work like they work in most scenario’s: the backside has the opening and the frontside (screen) has the pins that go into the hooks;
Hooks: A is the backside, B is the screenside
In the sketch above, side A (backside of your Acer Iconia Tab W500) is being clicked on side B (the screen side). In the red circle you will see that the “pin” of side B clicks into the opening of side A to hold both parts together.
Imagine what would happen if we would simply, with some force, would lift side A away from side B … the openings would break as shown in the image above.
To take this properly apart we basically have to shove side A (in the sketch) to the right, so that the pin of side B no longer has a hold of the opening. This process has to be done all around as show in the images below (don’t even think of simply lifting the back once you have done 3 sides – you will damage some of the openings of that last side).
OK let’s get started. I started by opening the SD-card latch to have easier access, I used the pry tool to gently push between the front and back side as shown below;
Acer Iconia W500 - Gently push the pry tool between the two sides
Once you have accomplished that, gently slide it to the right (keeping the pry tool between the two sides) – the use of a second pry tool can be practical;
Acer Iconia W500 - Keep the pry tool moving to the right
Moving the tool might not always go as smooth as hoped for, in case you run into a “bump“, gently lift the pry tool – it will “unhook” the two sides and you can continue moving.
Acer Iconia W500 - Keep moving even around corners
You will need to “unlock” all 4 sides, so keep moving around the corners (the corners are a little tougher to do).
Once you have done the 2nd side (top of your Acer Iconia Tab W500) the casing will start to open a bit more and you will be able to see some of those hooks I have been talking about.
Acer Iconia W500 - 2nd side - hooks are becoming visible!
Once you have done all 4 sides (again: do not even think that you can simply lift the back when you have done only 3 of the 4 sides), remove the back and see the inside works of your beloved Acer Iconia Tab W500.
Acer Iconia W500 - Inside view ...
Compared to opening the casing; this will be easy. However, be warned that you should never touch any of the gold contacts, and that working with a so called ESD strap is strongly recommended! Static charges can cause damage beyond repair.
In the previous image, the inside of an Acer Iconia Tab W500, you will see a red box and an arrow on the left side of the picture – this indicates your current (32Gb) SSD drive.
Acer Iconia W500 - Swapping the SSD for a bigger one
Now comes the exciting part; does the Acer Iconia Tab W500 recognize the new SSD …?
Time to close the Acer Iconia Tab W500 back up before trying to boot it … (if you’re like me and first want to make sure it all works before closing the casing up – so we don’t have to open it again – make sure you know what you’re doing!). Gently put the back in place and press the sides back together by putting a slight pressure on the edges, moving around, possibly more than once, until there is no clear opening left between the two sides.
Tip: Connect your keyboard and USB DVD drive first! You’ll need it! 
During the first boot, we would like to go into the BIOS. On you Acer Iconia W500 this is done as follows;
In the BIOS modify the boot priority so it will boot from your external USB DVD drive first and save the settings.
Acer Iconia W500 - BIOS sees your new SSD
Your Acer Iconia came with 2 recovery DVDs.
You can use these recovery DVD’s to restore the Windows 7 setup to factory default. Boot from DVD 1 (of 2) and follow the instructions.
During recovery from the DVD I did experience some strange lockups which required a reboot, and I had some instances where the bootmanager appeared “corrupt” – a simple reboot fixed that. At one point I had to go into the Windows boot options (press F8 during boot) and select “Start Windows normally” to get things going. But in the end things went just fine … the full disk is automatically utilized by Windows 7.
I had Windows 8 Preview installed on my old 32Gb SSD which didn’t like booting from the cloned SSD – but at least the BIOS recognized the drive.
I used the Windows 8 Preview install CD (free while availability lasts) to reinstall Windows 8 - by removing all partitiones during setup.
Other Windows version will have to be installed the same way.
Thank you for this well written guide! The photos you included eliminated much of the mystery and intimidation from the process.
Anyone attempting this upgrade should read and reread your guide and have it available during the process. It is especially important (as the author repeated) not to attempt to remove the back cover until you have released ALL FOUR SIDES & CORNERS! Also be careful not to push your “pry tool” too far into the case. Take your time and you can do this with no cosmetic and/or functional damage. I used several plastic guitar picks to hold the sides open as I worked my way around the case. The entire process, including programming, took under an hour.
Only because it is my personal preference to use the resources built into Windows 7 instead of third party software, so rather than going through all of the work of cloning the 32GB SSD, I used Windows 7 backup to create a system image of both the C: partition and the Reserved partition which were written to an external USB HDD. The only user input required is the where the image is stored. Using this guide, I then physically replaced the 32GB SSD with a MyDigitalSSD 128GB 50mm mSATA MDMS-50128 Solid State Drive (eBay: $179.99 from vender “outlet_4_ssd” + 2.99 shipping). I then booted the tablet to a USB Windows 7 installation stick. Once the files were loaded I clicked on “Repair Your Computer” (as opposed to Install). I then chose restore with system image created earlier. The tablet searched for and found the 32GB image and restored it in about 22 minutes. I then shut down the tablet, disconnected both USB devices and rebooted. Upon reboot I had a 32GB partition and a Reserved partition on the 128GB SSD. I used Windows 7 Computer Management>Storage>Disk Management(local) Right click on Drive C: to expand/extend the partition using all of the unallocated disk space.
The WEI “Disk Data Transfer Rate” jumped from 5.9 to 7.1 which is just a little less than 3x the processor rating of 2.7! In my opinion, this upgrade is absolutely worth the time, effort, and expense! Unfortunately, the RAM is hardwired and cannot be upgraded.
The original SSD is stored in the 128 GB’s anti-static bag as a emergency backup (or for re-installation to protect the warranty).
Thanks GuaymasJim for the feedback and useful additional info! Always good to see that someone found the posted info useful
Your BIOS (v1.14)photo shows the processor to be a C-60. Mine shows a C-50 with BIOS v1.14. My research shows the big difference is something AMD Turbo Core is available on the C-60. What is your WEI score with the C-60? My C-50 scores (Windows 7 Ultimate x32)2.7/2.8 and is by far the lowest score. If the C-60 can improve the processor performance, it might be a worthwhile upgrade. C-60′s seem hard to find, but I may have found one.
This tablet fits my needs so very well (!) that I am very willing to go to some added expense to upgrade it to its maximum potential. I travel a great deal and have a dash mount for it. Running Vonage Companion, MS Streets and Trips w/GPS, MS Messenger, FireFox, Rocket Dock, Windows Media player, and Connectify 3 all at the same time doesn’t seem to bog the system down at all. I use a 3G USB modem connected to a Wilson signal booster connected to a 29″ antenna on the roof. With that setup, I get impressive up/down speeds and very few dropped connections.
Very nice use of a tablet – I’m impressed
I have to say that I wish the hardware was more on an iPad level, but with my iPad I really do miss Windows applications and possibilities (try mapping a network drive on an iPad – argh!). I’m also very pleased and surprised with the touch behavior of both Win7 and Win8.
Under Windows 8 Dev. Preview (32 bit) – I get a score of 3.2 (CPU:3.2, Ram:4.9, Graphics:4.0, 3D:5.4, Disk:7.3).
I did get mine I think in January from Amazon – I’m sure the C50 is being phased out for a few months now.
I got mine from Amazon in February, but it shows C-50 in BIOS. Your WEI scores match mine with the exception of the CPU. Your CPU score with the C-60 is about 20% higher.
I left out an important program that I use when driving–Dragon Naturally Speaking Pro 11.5. I spent some time making custom commands for those things that took up too much of my time and attention. I would note whatever problem I was having and at the next opportunity (at home or in hotel) I would train DNS with a new voice command. Commands are instant on the tablet, but there is a lag in speech to text (just like on my powerful desktop but a bit slower).
I have connected wirelessly to HDMI to flat screen in a hotel used a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and was able to do most anything I could do at home on the desktop albeit a little slower.
Just got off the phone with Acer’s “parts supplier” and was told they neither perform CPU upgrades nor sell the c-60 separately.
All in all, I am really pleased with the tablet. I will continue to tweak it as much as I can, but I can certainly live with it the way it is.
FYI, I shot some video from the front facing camera last night. 8.5 minutes = 10GB–NOT 10MB!!! I will have to explore settings on that!!!
The CPU is a surface mount component, so I doubt you could exchange it for a C60, unless you have the right experience and equipment for working with SMD components. Which means that the only way to “upgrade” would be by replacing either the mainboard as a whole or replacing the entire device.
I really like mine as well – although I do not use it as extensively as you do. Still wish the hardware would be more like the iPad – oh well
The C-60 and C-50 apu’s are exactly the same outside of the name and the fact that the C-60 has a 3rd power state for 1.33ghz. I’m wondering if you flash your C-50 W500 with a bios from a W500 that has a C-60 apu if it will upgrade…. ?
I doubt it, I think the CPU identifier will make it that the BIOS will display the actual CPU model (C50 or C60).
So where can you buy the adaptor cable? I have looked everywhere and can no find one. I have tried Amazon. new egg and several others.
I found one on ebay, “MyDigitalSSD Bullet Proof USB 3.0 mSATA SSD Enclosure Adapter – MDMS-BP-USB3″
@ $30 a bit pricey…but is probably the easiest solution…
I thought of getting one of those mSATA to 2.5 SATA drive enclosures and a SATA to USB converter
but in the end would have probably spent just as much
just in case anyone else stumbles across this (as I did)
I noticed that Amazon has the same enclosure I mentioned above for a little bit less
Couldn’t agree more with GuaymasJim – love the clarity of the article and the images provided.
At first I was a bit hesitant to do this, but this article gave me the courage to actually do it.
The process is easy to follow and I’m running my Acer with a 64Gb SSD.
Thanks!
What mSATA to USB adapter did you use? Where can I buy this?
I actually used one of these guys so I could use it with my SATA to USB to copy and actually use the card later in another computer as a “regualer” SATA drive.
I did notice a cheaper item that should do the same trick, just less geared towards mounting it in a laptop or desktop.
Maybe this item might work as well.
You are my hero!!! I opened my w500 before I had seen your article and i broke a couple of hooks…
I have a problem. I tried to install a dual boot (Win8 and Android) and I brick the w500, like a hundred of million people (see this forum: http://code.google.com/p/android-x86/issues/detail?id=589) So, i trying to find a solution. I have thought that cloning an original image of the disk could solve the problem and you show me how to clone it but i need an original image of the disk!!! I know that it’s a weird request. Could you help me? Than you in advance!!
I was considering trying Android on mine as well – good that I have not tried that one yet.
What I noticed with the 128Gb SSD is that it seems like the Acer wants something “special” in the MBR. It initially didn’t want to boot from the 128Gb SSD.
Maybe I’ll try making a “clean” image of my drive (ie. nothing installed) as it might benefit other.
It might take a little bit since I have to place my old 32Gb SSD back in the W500 to make sure the “clean” version actually works.
(as you can understand; I can’t send you the image I used, since it has personal stuff on it)
I have done the same with my tablet trying to install Andriod on it. is it possible for you to share the drive image on torrent so that people may benefit for it.
This is a very common problem with ACER W500 and i have come across many people complaining about the same issue.
thanks in advance and best regards
Imran
The image I have has personal information in it, so sharing of that image is not an option.
One of these days I can try to restore the factory image and make an image of that – but I’d have to rip my Acer apart again to put the old SSD back first 
I read somewhere that a BIOS update should “fix” this issue though, but they were referring to a BIOS number that I could not find at the Acre website.
Hola !
I took my recently acquired Acer with me to my wintering quarter in Mexico and filled up the original 32 Gb ssd by more than 2/3. Your article gave me the idea of how to enlarge the C: drive.
I found the article very well written and illustrated. Both as how to do it as well as where to buy the necessary tools and ssd.
When I’ll get home, I’ll be thinking about the upgrade.
Thanks for your effort !
Walter Janson
Hi Walter – Thanks for the feedback
I can tell you that I really enjoy having more space on my C-drive, no more worries that I’ll be running out of space anytime soon.
A winter stay in Mexico … Nice!
[...] SSD upgrade for your Acer Iconia Tab W500 – this site gives a link to a 128GB mSATA SSD that the writer successfully upgraded to and he gives a step by step to cloning the installed drive, opening the case, installing the larger SSD and closing things up. I bought the same pry tools he discussed in this post and used up 4 of them in my upgrade process. [...]
Anyone tried Disk compression on the 32gb drive?
Haven’t tried it … did you? What did you use? and what has your experience been?
No I haven’t, kind of scared to with this type of drive. Was going to use the built in tool. right click on c drive then tools and its there. I have done it before with a IDE drive and worked really well.
I’ve used full drive compression back in the DOS days – which came with nice headaches at times.
On my current drives I enable NTFS compression on folders that I rarely use or that are highly compressible (ie. Word, Excel, etc documents).
For documents that are critical I use DropBox. It’s free for 2Gb and if you refer friends then it can go up to 16Gb of free space. What I really like about DropBox is that it’s local stored and mirrored in the cloud – so no speed loss and syncs when it has a connection. It also is smart enough to sync locally if you have multiple computers with the same DropBox account – so syncing to a second computer in the same network is rapid.
I upgraded my Acer W500 ssd to 64gb yesterday. This thread was helpful. Note that step 3 mentioned on this thread is not required (usb adapter and cloning) if you follow the instruction as below,
Before you replace the SSD follow these steps,
Step (a) install EasyBCD 2.1.2 software (it is a freeware)
(b) change the BIOS boot setting to wait for 60 sec
(c) restart the machine through EasyBCD software
(d) replace the new SSD
An alternative sounds always interesting, but I’m a little confused how you’re doing it?
Isn’t EasyBCD an OS bootloader?
Is that a setting you do BEFORE swapping the SSD (which d) suggests)?
I believe the idea here is to make this upgrade as painless as possible, so I may be wrong but introducing EasyBCD is an unnecessary step. I am familiar with the program from my time as the “go to person” for fixing the computers that friends and family screwed up. What we are doing here is just replacing a harddrive, albeit a much more modern one that those SATA and IDE bricks, but still just a harddrive. Once the physical replacement is done, then we only have a computer with a new harddrive onto which we want to install the OS and normal programing. The options for doing this are the same as for any desktop or laptop computer.
Once the new SSD is installed and recognized by BIOS, the options are:
(1) Use the Iconia restore disks via USB CD\DVD–USB HDD–USB memory stick w/restore discs copied onto them.
(2) Use a Windows 7 installation disc and do a clean install.
(3) Create a system image of the OEM 32GB SSD before upgrading and then restore that image to the new SSD.
(4) Install the available Windows 8 version.
I am a strong believer in the “Keep It Simple Stupid” strategy (no one is stupid here!). My two biggest complaints with computer manufacturers (they all do it) are: (1) the massive amount of bloatware they put on new computers; and (2) the mixing of OS and user-created data on a harddrive with only one (sometimes massive) partition. Since we are replacing the harddrive, we have to opportunity to easily correct both of those problems during the SSD upgrade.
There is an error in my original post. I did not “extend/expand” the unused space on the new SSD. I created another partition and assigned all of the unused space to the second (D:\) partition. Then I relocated all of the “user” folders like My Music, My Documents, My Videos, Downloads etc. to the D:\ drive using their original folder names. It has been my experience that much more user data is lost due to OS problems (viruses, malware, over-aggressive registry cleaning–my bad!, than actual mechanical HDD failure. With this partitioning and organization scheme, I can be up and running in about 45 minutes with no loss of data/programming when (NOT IF) I screw up and break Windows.
The worst problem I ran into with my Iconia was getting rid of the MS Office trial! Somehow, I really screwed the pooch trying to eliminate it and had to restore my C:\ TWICE! Still not sure what I did wrong, but it was really frustrating!
Other info:
1. Replaced Dragon Naturally Speaking (DNS) with the built in Windows 7 Speech Recognition (WSR) and reclaimed about 400MB of RAM. This post is being written and posted (hopefully) using WSR (Bluetooth headset) as I drive down the highway. Had to use Bluetooth instead of built in mic because the AC vent is too close to the dash mount and diminished the sound quality too much for either DNS or WSR. However, built in mic works perfectly in a quieter environment.
2. Learned that there is a difference between Micro SATA and mSATA. The circuit board adapter “hans” used works but the other two listed are Micro SATA and will not work with our mSATA SSDs.
3. No matter how you try to get other programs into the Acer Ring, you can’t. Truly a missed opportunity by Acer!
4. I have a clean original image, but I have no idea how I could share it over the internet or mail. It is a huge file! If someone has an idea on how, I will at least listen.
5. Every time I have tried to use disk compression (MS or third party) ended in disaster.
6. “Hans” are you really comfortable storing your files on line versus say an eternal HDD; and if so, how much bandwidth do you have to make uploading and downloading gigabytes of data feasible?
75 miles closer to home, here goes…
You’re absolutely right about the bloatware.
The biggest problem I found was having the Acer recognize the SSD.
Holy Crap!
Someone else still knows the term BloatWare.
Why not use CloneZilla LiveUSB along with the physical network connection or USB HardDrive?
It will fit on the crappiest of USB devices I use a 512 mb thumb drive, works like a charm on most systems.
(CloneZilla seems to not like i7s and Fake RAID)
I will give it a go tonight and test to see if it works.
Am thinking of getting myself an acer iconia tab w501, please advice
Quick glance tells me this is a W500 with 3G module?
I personally like the W500, so I don’t see why the W501 wouldn’t be good
Don’t expect it to be a speed monster though – but it works great for office and Internet apps.
But the W501 runs on the C-60 processor, which i hear is much faster than the C-50 processor.
Please i would also want to know if I can use a 128gb SD card, instead of the 32gb SD card? in order to have a bigger space,…because am not to sure i have all the requirements to carry out the SSD replacement procedure explained here….
As you can see in the BIOS screenshot above; the W500 (current generation) has a C60 as well.
Earlier W500 models come with a C50 – Acer never made a specific new version for the C60 and just started using C60′s unannounced.
Yeah you very right.
Please i would also want to know if I can use a 128gb SD card, instead of the 32gb SD card? in order to have a bigger space,…because am not to sure i have all the requirements to carry out the SSD replacement procedure explained here….
I do not have a 128Gb SD card available to even try – but a bigger SD card will be seen as an additional harddrive and should work just fine to store data on.
Not sure about the performance and I’m not sure if the Acer would recognize such a card.
Sorry
thanks anyway
Thank you I appreciate you doing this guide it was very helpful. I installed the Mushkin Enhanced Atlas Series MKNSSDAT240GB-DX mSATA 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) which I’m willing to admit is probably a little overkill, but I figured if I was going to do it I might as well go big. I did skip the whole part about cloning the drive though as I intended to do a fresh install of Windows 8 anyways, and that a clone would only make sense if I intended to carry over the install I had. I had no issues whatsoever doing that, plugged in the USB and it setup Win8 no problem. It might have been that I flashed the BIOS when I first got it(I think I did, I usually do). Once again thank you.
240Gb? Nice! Hey I have 2x 160Gb in my MacBook Pro … doubt there is such a thing as “too much” storage space 
Glad it all worked smooth for you – thanks for the additional info
I like the idea of just a clean windows install. Is there something I am missing (besides the ring and bloatware)? Could one install the SSD and then do a install from a SSD card with the WIN 7 software so you can have a USB keyboard available to hit the function key? Or install/boot from a USB From a Tumbdrive? BTW thanks for the great article…nicely done. Also agree with Prv8J0k3r IF it can handle the extra space and have to go thru the trouble…why not go bigger..
Thanks for the compliment Cybrboss — much appreciated.
The SSD I used didn’t seem to be recognized for a clean Win7 install.
So I imaged the original 32Gb drive and it all worked.
After that I managed to get a clean install (Win8 Preview) to start and run smoothly.
I’m sure it would be possible to install from a USB stick if the drive gets recognized properly.
As an update….
Although the drive was recognized and everything works great when you initially boot into Win 8(or Win 7), things go drastically bad when the tablet goes to sleep. It wakes back up and comes to the “lock screen” you can even interact and throw the lock screen up, but it freezes after that and you have to reboot the whole system…now I am wondering whether or not I should have imaged the drive. I can’t imagine that that would be the problem though…I have plenty of years and experience with Microsoft and IT and as long as it recognizes the drive everything should be okey-dokey. Normally I could easily track down the problem, but it gives me a generic problem code when it crashes(that when researched, I guess it turns out that it happens to a lot of Vista, Win7, and Win8 computers, but had never run across it before) I have a feeling that the issue has something to do with the BIOS( I do have the latest), I would have thought that Microsoft and Acer wouldn’t try to fix this though as ultrabooks and whatnot are supposed to be the wave of the future and more expensive, but as this is one of the tablets that is designated for the $15 Win 8 upgrade I would think that they would have to fix this problem with the BIOS before the or near the launch date. FINGERS CROSSED(Since this mSATA cost almost as much as the tablet itself).
I would suspect the same thing; seems your system somehow chokes on certain data transfer events (ie. boot, or unlock screen after waking up from sleep).
I have dealt with a lot of computers and their setup as well and have not encountered issues like this before.
Either you BIOS or your SSD is somehow screwed or not working together all that well. Strange …
Did you try resetting your BIOS to default settings? Or updating your BIOS (even thought it is the same version)?
Thank you for such a clear and concise set of photos/description on this upgrade. Makes it more likely that I’ll be getting one of these for myself along with a Kingston mS100 64GB SSD from Newegg (comments indicate it works quite well in the W500).
As Guayamas Jim says, Win7 includes a very nice set of tools that allow the creation of a disk image and I figured that makes more sense to use with a 32GB SD Card before doing a wipe and clean install with a stripped version (close to Win7 Starter as possible) and then add in the apps I want such a VLC for media playback (more formats then WMP), Foxit for those few PDF’s I need (manuals and such) and a couple of games suited for a touch screen. The only commercial app planned is a copy of Office Home/Studen for Word and Onenote. I figure that should all fit easily into the stock drive and I can easily use SD cards for personal data storage.
Dropbox was suggested as option for cloud storage and another is the MS Skydrive for 5GB and my personal favorite is cheap flash drives (16GB >$1.00 per GB now) either USB or SD Cards. Heck even a 32GB card is right around $1.00 per GB now. Guess the main point is Although the larger SSD is nice, it also means more stuff lost if your Tablet is stollen. To me this is more important the breakage and is why I prefer removable storage.
For people like me who can’t get the resources for this procedure,…i would be gunning for removable storage, cos i just order a w501 c-60, a 128gb SD might just do the trick..*winks*
Thanks for a great guide.
I upgraded my W501 with a MyDigitalSSD 128GB BP3 Bullet Proof 3 mSATA III from http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/
This SSD works fine when the tablet is cold but when it is warm it wont boot! The bios flashes up the bios message (quiet boot disabled) then the cursor sits in the top left hand corner.
I normally have to wait 30 minutes before the beast will reboot.
I also have problems with “restart” – often it just shows a big Acer logo on the screen and I can’t find any key combination that will allow the bios to continue and have to power down then back up.
I am using the latest bios from Acer which is 1.14
Any suggestions would be more than welcome
The blinking cursor is what I had before I imaged the original drive.
But since you’re mentioning heat as a possible issue, I’d check and see if the SSD is seated properly and if the wrapping is limiting cooling maybe?
I’d also take a look if the SSD is getting hot or not (tricky) – maybe the SSD is faulty?
Hansaplastique,,
Thanks for this very informative and helpful instructions. Upgrading to 64GB Kingston SSD was a piece of cake. Got the case apart with no problems using the tools above and once I put in the ssd and booted off of my corsair thumb drive loading Win 8 was a snap. I didn’t have to flash the bios or anything. W500 saw the new ssd so I just loaded the OS
Thanks again!!
Jim
FYI I got C-60 in mine and I get base score of 3.2
3.2 cpu
5.0 memory
3.9 graphics
5.6 gaming graphics
7.2 primary hard disk
Thanks for the feedback Jim – Glad it worked out well for you
I am having one problem and it is enough to make me go back to Win 7 if I don’t figure it out. I cannot get the screen to auto rotate. I installed the video driver and the G Sensor driver. Lock switch is not engaged and I have tried toggling it.
Anyone else having this issue?
OK, I got it figured. I only had Auto screen blocker application and G Sensor driver installed. You also need Device Control application as well. Once I installed that rotation worked as expected.
Make sure you download these from Acer:
Auto Screen Rotation Blocker
Device Control
G Sensor Driver
Very good info Jim – thanks for sharing, I’m sure you’re not the only one running into this little issue
Sane problem as Vic and it is not a heat problem. I have taken the case apart so many times we are old friends. Installed a 128 gig MyDigital SSD mSATA. It takes 39 minutes to get to the “Windows is Starting” screen and another 9 minutes to boot. If I get rid of QuietBoot so I can follow the boot process the screen shows what is loading after the 39 minute wait. It takes from 3-14 seconds for each of the various system32 files to load. It is not the processor or heat because if I immediately put back the 32 gig drive it boots normally. Switching again to the 128 gig drive is another 48 minute boot. Once the drive is loaded it works great. The Anvil test score on the hard drive tripled with the 128 gig drive. MyDigital was great, sent me a new drive with the upgraded Phison firmware and same result. How i installed the software made little difference. I used the restore discs from Acer, a fresh downloaded OEM W7 ISO to CD to install and Paragon software migration tool to migrate the software to the new disc, all with same result. The latter has a setting for Vista which results in the proper alignment and avoids the old heads/cylinders/sectors alignment problem. The offset is 1024 on both the original and cloned disc. I have run disc repair, gone into the command prompt from the repair screen and done the “bootrec /fixmbr”, the “bootrec /fixboot” and the “bootsect /nt60 all” and each command was successful but yielded no positive results. I also occacionally get hung up pn an ACER splash screen and have to start the reboot. After all this I go back to the 32 gig drive and it works perfectly. Back to the `18 gig driv and it is 40 minutes. If I install the Paragon BootManager for some reason it bypasses the 39 minute bland screen with the flashing cursor, but not the 9 minutes from the time I see “Windows is Starting to Load.” Open to any suggestions.
Initially mine was not recognized (or I was not patient enough – I’m sure I didn’t wait 39 minutes) either that’s why I imaged the 32Gb SSD to the 128 Gb SSD and everything worked well as of that point.
What BIOS version does yours have?
Current 1.14 BIOS and all software updated. Only one aviation program installed, but as I said, same problem with a fresh OEM installation.
Hmm, I wonder if the 128Gb drive might have issues?
Did you try this drive on another computer? (through USB or something like that)
I would consider it a drive issue except that MyDigital nicely sent me a second drive, this one with the updated Phison Firmware and the result was the same.
Hmm, that sucks. So same BIOS, 2nd drive to try, tried pretty much anything under the sun, yet still acting up …
I’m assuming that you went through all the BIOS settings (reset them to default?)?
(I admit; I’m grasping at straws now as well)
Bios settings are really miniscule. First page is primarily computer information, nothing to change. The new disc is listed only as SATA SSD, no model or manufacturer. Serial number is given..The main pageOnly lets me change date and time, enable/disable quiet boot, network boot, F12 menu boot. None of those has made a difference. The last item, SATA Mode is fixed at AHCI. I am not able to change that. The next page is only boot order and nothing there has made a change in booting including load setup defaults.
As stated, it should not be a heat problem. Most of this work is done with the back off and the components open to the air. The little black plunger is kept depressed with a clip so I can work that way. That lets me change drives quickly, so I know the old works promptly, the new does not.
Correction. I can change AHCI to IDE and back. It is on AHCI.
The settings pretty much match with what I have … forgot to check if I use IDE or AHCI … did you try either option (doubt it will make a difference)?
AHCI required for SSD.
Doh! You’re right …
Does the SSD respond properly when connected to a adapter to USb or something like it?
The SSD works like a charm after the 48 minute boot time. It also works great in the USB adapter but doesn’t boot well from the USB adapter.
I have the same issue with a super long wait for it to boot even though I’ve imaged the drive…twice. Did you find a solution?
I’m pretty much out of ideas …
The slow boot is exactly what I experienced and that was the reason for me to image the drive.
Seems you’ve exhausted pretty much anything (BIOS, new drive, etc etc).
Did the seller of the SSD have any ideas/comments or is he/she willing to provide support?
Seller, actually the manufacturer who sold through Amazon, was great with ideas and even sending me a new SSD with updated Phison controller. They just ran out of ideas as well. After all the suggestions from Paragon support that I have tried they seem to have given up as well.
If you look at the screenshot of the BIOS (underneath step 6); do you see anything that pops out? I’m thinking in the direction of differences in Acer hardware?
I’d be more than happy to test your SSD in my Acer … but sending an SSD back and forth is not something I would do that easily if I were in your shoes.
p.s; I’m running Windows 8 right now.
Anyone find a solution to the slow boot with the MyDigitalSSD 128GB BP3? I’m getting exactly the same thing. I’ve tried imaging the drive with Paragon as well as Clonezilla with the same result. I’ve even done a fresh install of windows 7 and 8, same result, 1 hour to boot up. Drive works fine when connected as a non-booting USB connected drive though.
Problem resolved. The company has been excellent working with me on this. They obtained an Acer to play with on their own. It turns out the Phison controller does not work well with this motherboard. The same company (www.mydigitaldiscount.com) has a 64 gig or 128 gig Smart Series SSD with Sandforce controller that works perfectly. I am now using the 128 gig version without a problem.
Thanks for the info. I just got off the phone with mydigitaldiscount.com and they are going to swap it out. Awesome company! Thanks again for the troubleshooting and posting the fix!
@Bonanzapilot: Thanks for this info – I’m sure other will benefit from this! Much appreciated!
I enjoy your website, i really like seeing your posts, good luck in the future.
Thanks for your very informative article on upgrading the W500 Iconia.
I wonder if you can help me with a technical problem that I may be able to resolve without changing the SSD.
I am a musician and use my tablet on stage all the time to play MP3 files and scroll lyrics with associated chords in the key that suites me, it’s all magic. I use a Canadian program called Showplay that has been absolutely faultless for over four years on various computers but I now find that the playback has gained increasing stutter and buuu-uuz.
I use the W500 because it’s the only one that does what I require. The screen and memory is small but it performs well on-stage. I detach it from the keyboard and and attach it via Velcro to a sloping platform on a mike stand for easy reading. I can use it without mains power but the screen is dimmer and I route the sound through my gear to produce excellent stereo. I have a full MP3 backup system with written song sheets as backup in the case of system failure.
I thought there was a problem with the sound engine that could be re-set if I cleaned the lot off the SSD and started again. It worked, but only for a while and now the same errors are creeping back.
I may point out that I am not really computer savvy but found that almost 50% of the machines capacity is taken up by factory installed Windows leaving not much for anything else – now that has to be mistake No.1 by Acer ? The machine is loaded with the following:-
Music files 3.75 GB
User 4.35 GB
Programs 2.46 GB
Windows 13.1 GB(absolutely rediculous)
Total 23.66GB
Usable Space 29.7 GB
Free Space 6.04GB (nothing)
The Showplay stage program is not a conventional Windows program. It is built for reliability and easy use and avoids Windows wherever possible. The only other thing I occasionally use on the computer is the internet and Skype, and that’s it – I have another computer for other stuff.
Is it possible to remove most or part of this unecessary windows crap that is cluttering up an otherwise perfectly serviceable computer to free up more disk space ?
Thanks – Coolguy.
A few ways you can “clean” your computer;
1) Reinstall windows after trimming the setup with vLite (link).
2) Go through the control panel -> Programs and Features and remove stuff you don’t use.
There are also some trick to trim the current Windows install, you’ll have to do some Googling, but you can clean temp files, update files, logs, unneeded programs and features lik games, wallpapers, example pictures, etc.
The easiest solution is a 15 gig SD card in the SD slot. Put stuff you rarely need there. My problem is that my primary program required monthly downloads of 6-8 gigs of data in thousands of little png and bit files, a downloading process that took over 24 hours every month because of the slow bus to the SD slot. But for regular files it should not be a problem and is the cheapest, easiest upgrade.
Hello Bananzapilot,
Thanks for your help. I will keep you informed of progress.
Coolguy
Doh,… the easiest solution right in front of us; thanks BonanzaPilot!
SD cards are very affordable, so that would be a very good alternative.
Hello Hansapalstique,
Thanks so much fo your help, I will keep you informed of progress.
Coolguy
Thanks Bonanza pilot for helping out
[...] earned cash for it). Couple questions to see if I understand…going to read the others post AGAIN ssd-upgrade-for-your-acer-iconia-tab-w500 (thanks for the link to the one who post that as well) Question: 1. What are the prefered specs if [...]
Hello Hansapalstique
Is anyone try to install 256GB MyDigitalSSD BP3 Bullet Proof 3 mSATA on W500 Iconia?
Many Thanks
melgeil
I haven’t tried it – but maybe someone reading this article might have?
I tried to install the drive and found out that the Acer doesn’t work well with the drive. You need the smart series and not the bullet proof series. Unfortunately it is on backorder
hi Hansapalstique
Thank you,
i installed crucial M4 128GB win7.very good. and going install win8.
Thank you
Thanks Henry! – Glad you’re sharing the SSD you’ve used with us, others will most certainly benefit from that as well – Thanks!
thank you very much for your very informative article . give me confidence and courage do everything: update bios, open up the w500 without any mistake till everything done.
wish you good luck.
Henry – can you post the exact SSD that you were able to install. I tried the MyDigitalSSD 256GB BP3 SSD and the tablet would not boot, it looks like it needs the MyDigitalSSD Smart series SSD instead and everywhere has it on backorder.
I just wanted to second Henry’s comment. Thanks to your site I had the confidence to undertake the SSD swap (also a Crucial m4 128). The biggest thing that threw me off is that it appears the battery is inoperable when the back cover is off. The only way I could power up my W500 was with the AC adapter. I tried disconnecting the battery and reconnecting it, and checking everything I could think of. After a few hours of frustration I gave up and reinstalled the cover, and the battery instantly came back to life. I can’t find any references to this on the internet, so hopefully this info saves someone a bunch of stress and time. Once I got that figured out, both Win7 and then the upgrade to Win8 installed flawlessly. Thanks again!
I guess I had not run into that problem, since the screen is on the other side – in order to see something I simply flipped the W500, but to prevent parts from falling out or otherwise making contact with other objects, I always replaced the cover.
Note that in these kind of scenario’s there is typically some kind of microswitch detecting if the case is open or not – which can be hard to find.
how to unlock hard drive? lad
How do you mean “how to unlock hard drive”?
upgraded hard drive in my acer iconia tab w500, bootup was real long,merged partition to use extra spase on drive, will not boot, says the hard is locked only thing i can do is through command prompt.
Hmm, and you’re using the same SSD as in the article?
As you can see in the comments, some people had issues Windos booting ridiculously slow from the SSD.
See BonanzaPilot’s posts higher up; he actually worked with the SSD manufacturer/supplier to get a proper SSD.
I have read this several times and I am trying to figure out how one boots the W500 with the imaging software CD. Is that done on the external CD drive via one of the 2 USB ports while the new mSata SSD is connected via the other one; or is it done with the imaging sw loaded onto the W500. I must be missing something.
I first imaged my old SSD to my new SSD.
Next I installed the new SSD in my W500 and used a USB DVDRom drive to install Windows.
USB thumbdrive would work as well I assume
- Connect the 128GB MyDigitalSSD to the mSATA to USB adapter and plug the USB connector in your Acer Iconia W500
After doing the above how do you boot with the imaging sw. Since there is no cd drive on the W500 so I’m assuming you hook an external drive to the other USB so you can do the following. Correct?
– Boot from the Paragon Disk Manager Suite CD
– Use the “Migration” option to clone the internal 32Gb SSD to the new 128GB MyDigitalSSD
You’re absolutely right!
The cloning process was done on the W500, using an external USB and the 128Gb in a adaptor connected to the other USB.
Sorry for the confusion.
great article. i didn’t understand all the comments below until i ordered the mydigitalssd 128gb bp3. to help others, you might put a disqualifier in the main article the those drives do not work well with the acer iconia w500 motherboard. they should instead use the smart series ssd instead.
Is there any chance that you might know how to activate the mSATA port on the Acer Iconia 6120? I’ve unlocked the BIOS and have a few additional menus available, but nothing gives any indication that the port is active (other than an IDE1 designation in the boot order menu). Any thoughts? Thanks!
Interesting question – but honestly have no idea
Sorry
Just received info that a firmware update is coming out in the next couple of weeks. So just hang on and hopefully the update will fix this no boot issue.
Paragon Suite question. I just downloaded the software to my laptop. It appears the download is an executable file to create the program. Do I do that and then create a copy to use as the “bootable disk” to use the Migration option for cloning? At first I copied the downloaded file which did not show a Migration program, so my logic says create the program on my laptop and then copy those files to a disc which would be bootable to perform the cloning.
The download is indeed an executable to create a bootable CD/DVD. You’ll need to boot from the created CD/DVD.
@Hansaplastique: I’m so glad you have taken the time to write such a detailed article on how to upgrade the W500, before I came across this I thought I was stuck with the 32GB for the life of the product!
I’m planning on upgraded to the 256GB card found here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B008D6FDXM/ref=ox_ya_os_product, according to the MyDigitalSSD page for this product, it says it supports the Acer W500, has any one tried the bullet proof series on this tab, and is there anything I need to be aware of with this particular model of SSD’s and the Acer Tab, or the above information be all I need?
Any advice and information would be most appreciated on this specific type of hard drive.
Please disregard that, I was having a blind moment, I just noticed someone did say the BulletProof Series won’t work, I have decided to go with the Crucial M4 Series instead since you guys seems to have had no problem with it.
@Hansaplastique I’m doing the upgrade tomorrow of my W500 to one of these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0085J17UA/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00
a few questions may I ask
- Where did you attach the ESD wrist strap when you done your upgrade?
- I have updated the BIOS firmware, however I’ve been unable to get a local mSATA USB Adapter in the UK, has anyone been able to get the BIOS to detect the new hard drive without cloning the drive, or is that a requirement? (I have updated the BIOS to latest version as well) and restore using a recovery DVD.
Any advice would be much appreciated!
Thanks
ESD strap; around your wrist and either ground of the Acer (one of the metal pieces), or better something like a radiator (if your home has radiator) or tap. Anything NOT painted.
But in all honesty; this is a disclaimer – in case you zap your hardware when not using an ESD strap. I typically do not even use an ESD strap, but I do touch something metal before working on electronics.
BIOS/Detection; If you read through the comments, some alternatives have been suggested. I’m also pretty sue that Amazon delivers to the UK (but I could be wrong).
Thanks for your reply, I finally found a mSATA to SATA enclosure off Amazon.co.uk and SATA to USB enclosure off the same site, and fortunatly the mSata enclosure actually fits inside the SATA enclosure, so will start the imaging process today – I managed to obtain the Paragon Suite rather cheaply so I’m all set. Will update with my progress as I do so.
Where can I buy the required cable adaptor?
I found a few here at Amazon, I did see a few on eBay as well, but they seem more expensive than the ones I found at Amazon.
I can not find the correct adaptor. Pleanty of them for other mSATA but not for the Acer 50 mm 22 pin SSD to USB.
I must be really dense. I finally got around to trying this. I am stuck. I was able to make a Paragon bootable flash drive, that works. However, as I am connecting my 128G BP3 (which I saw might not be a good idea for the W500 Motherboard) to my other USB via a MicroSata/USB cable which is in turn connected to a mSata to MicroSata adapter. The Paragon program sees my flash drive and the onboard 32G SSD properly. However, it sees the 128G drive as “Basic Hard Disk 2 – 2.0MB.” Is something amiss with my hardware: the cables or the 128G drive or what?
Here are some recent news: I just got a used W501 with everything original. I bought it instead of a brand new W511 because a read your blog and thought it would be a better and cheaper option because of the removable mSATA SSD. It was a GREAT choice even though the cpu might be a little weaker (and I’m not even sure about that!)
So I went to buy a Plextor PX-256M5M 256GB mSATA SSD that has just started being on the market. I thought it would be an even better option than the Crucial M4 because of it’s newer Marvell 88SS9187 controller, and for almost the same $.
The drive was immediatly recognised within the BIOS (ver 1.14) and I’m right now reinstalling Win 7 freshly from the original acer’s DVDs and an external drive. So no need to use a partition program to copy the old drive, everything seems to be working so far. I plan to install Win 8 on a second partition, maybe leave some free space for a Linux distro, and use the (lot of) space left for data and documents.
I’ll post again when I’m done with the partitionning and the dual Windows installation. I keep my finger crossed for the boot time..!
Oh very nice info! Thanks Vuche!
Having to use special tricks to get things going is a pain, so if yours works out of the box, then that’s awesome!
Also valuable info to know that the newer W511 does not appear to have a removable SSD.
I also noticed that newer tablets, often equally good as the old ones, are more expensive – probably tagging along on the Windows 8 “profit” train
Keep us in the loop – it’s very much appreciated!
Some intermediate news:
So after reinstalling Win 7 from the original acer discs, I get great performance with the Plextor SSD: with AS SSD Benchmark I get 445 MB/s Read and 363 MB/s write seq speeds (16,5 MB/s Read and 24.9 MB/s write 4K) (396 MB/s Read and 56 MB/s Write 4K-64Thrd).
Windows performance gives me 7.9 disk score (5.6 gaming; 4.1 Aero; 5.0 memory; 3.2 CPU)
I have also installed Win 8 Pro on a second partition, but haven’t installed all of the drivers and applications yet. Will update later about Win 8.
Ok, and here comes the update with Win 8:
I used a mix of acer’s Win 7 and Win 8 downloads, but also Realtek’s official ones to install all of the drivers and apps needed. More about this later.
I get a very good 8,1 score on Win 8 performance marks with the new SSD (CPU 3.2; memory 4.9; Desktop graphics 3.9 and gaming 5.5). I haven’t been able to test, but I’m pretty sure it’s from far better than what we get on the new Atom tablets, at least on the SSD vs eMMC storage side. And the scores with AS SSD Benchmark are also slightly better than on Win 7.
Now back to the drivers: I downloaded the latest v2.70 Realtek HD Audio driver from Realtek website for the sound card, and also their latest Realtek RTS5138 Card Reader driver to update from the basic Windows 8 ones (It gives me a “nice” SDXC icon now for the card reader!) Other than that I used all of the acer’s Win 8 downloadable ones.
Everything seems to be working now, beside of the damn acer ring (nothing shows within the ring…) Will try the compatibility trick later. Or has anyone a clue about this issue?
Thanks a lot for your guide Hansaplastique, it realy made me take the right decision about buying the W501 instead of on of the newer Tablets. SSDs are certainly faster and more reliable on the long term than eMMC + at least if it dies you can still swap it for a new one!
I also didn’t dismantle my unit enough to check if the memory module is soldered to the motherboard or if it’s a removable chip, but I guess it’s the first option. Well, if so we’ll have to stay satisfied with 2GB of RAM instead of 4 or 8…
Thanks Vuche for the very good feedback.
Others will benefit from this
If I could only get Hackintosh to run on this tablet
(just because I could, not because I need it)
I finally got my update done after some issues. I simply replaced the existing SSD with a Mushkin Direct Atlas Deluxe 120GB mSATA SATA III Solid State Drive MKNSSDAT120GB-DX (got mine @ Amazon.com) after making sure I didn’t need anything off my 32M SSD. I installed my Windows 7 from recovery discs and upgraded to Windows 8. You will need to be careful as outlined above regarding the tabs when splitting the case. I have a background in doing such things, but got in a hurry a broke a couple. I went to Acer and updated the downloads and rotation and everything works fine. The ring isn’t an issue for me. I don’t know why I couldn’t get the W500 to ‘read’ the Paragon Suite on the ext cd drive. But, I am happy with the process and appreciate the suggestions that were made in this forum. If a procrastinator can do it anyone can. Cheers.
Meant 32G, NOT 32M.
Thanks Dennis – Great to hear it worked out well, and even better to know the specifics of the model SSD you used.
For those who may want to keep some info off your resident 32M SSD I would suggest copying those files to a readily available USB thumb drive. Just a thought.
Meant 32G, NOT 32M.
Hi, thanks for the guide. I plan to do this soon as well but am having difficulty finding a SSD compatible with the W500.
In my country I am only able to purchase a Samsung MicroSATA drive, and was wondering if it were compatible with the W500 seeing how it appears that not all SSDs are compatible. Can anyone advise me on whether I should go ahead and get it?
The next best thing I can do is to buy a “Crucial CT128M4SSD3 128GB M4 SATA III 6Gb/s mSATA MLC Internal SSD” off AmazonUK, but I’d rather not have to purchase anything from overseas.
Any ideas? Thanks! 
You’re most welcome. As for trying to find a suitable SSD; A few brands have been mentioned in the comments (Mushkin, Plextor, Crucial) – not sure if one of those is available in your country. I do have good experience with Amazon, but I can imagine that anything overseas comes with all kinds of issues (import taxes, extra sales tax, warranty, etc).
I hope others will respond with their findings, but it might help if you tell us what country you live in.
Alternatively, if your supplier allows this, you could “try” whatever MSATA SSD they offer – some smaller stores are open to this.
Thanks for the reply. I live in Singapore, and SSD prices are all over the place right now so many shops only have a few select brands available. There’s hardly a market for mSATA here, though, so the only one I could find is the Samsung MicroSATA drive, with Crucial and Adata drives being previously available but no longer being brought in (and overpriced, too).
I have used Amazon quite a lot, but have never used it for computer parts. Since I can’t be sure if the Samsung will work (I can’t try and return if it doesn’t work), I’ll probably just buy the Crucial one off Amazon since the earlier comments show it works. Thanks!
I bought the MyDigitalSSD BP4 and while the w500 recognized the SSD, I had problems installing WIndows 8. It completes the process but as soon as the first boot happens, it gets stuck on the black screen with the blinking cursor. Any ideas?
That’s exactly the problem I ran into – hence the imaging …
First, Thanks for the great guide and the time in responding to posts. I wanted to do this since Windows 8 came out and the OEM 32GB SSD does not really have the space to use the Win 8 Pro upgrade which requires 16GB of free space. When my battery life was significantly falling off and the 32GB SSD was crammed full – even with data on a 64 GB SD card – it was time.
I purchased an OEM replacement battery here from CDSParts.com and found they also had a replacement back cover back cover for $25 in case I really broke the case when opening it. I replaced the SSD with a Mushkin Direct Atlas Deluxe 240GB mSATA SATA III Solid State Drive MKNSSDAT240GB-DX from Amazon.com for $180 (could not resist the GB/price ratio). I cloned the OEM SSD using EaseUS Free Disk Copy.
The W500 booted right up in Win 7. I expanded the new drive partition to use all the open space using Disk Management in Windows. All works fine with great battery life and improved system performance due to faster SSD speed and a larger swap file. I did break some of the openings but the case seems alright. I am giving the system a couple of days before performing the Win 8 upgrade to insure there are no latent issues.
Thanks again for the great guide and to all for the feedback on this page.
Thanks for the feedback and the EasyUS tip!
Glad it worked out well!
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