how can I enter the BIOS of an Acer Aspire V3- 731-4473 laptop?

The Aspire series apparently does not always go into the BIOS reliably at startup time using the F2 key.  You might try this procedure:

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/enter-setup-acer-aspire-53505.html

Essentially, give it the old three-finger salute and then use F2.

did you connect the drive to another - working USB port?  you can switch the external mouse and disk ports

Hello and Good Morning Everyone,

          Unfortunately, I was never able to enter the BIOS configuration menu or setup.  However, I do have some related follow-up questions to this.  If I connect the Samsung 1 TB Solid State Drive internal laptop drive to my USB port using a USB to SATA chord, will I still need to access the BIOS for the drive to be detected or will Windows 10 take care of all of this for me?  And, secondly, will the USB to SATA chord be able to serve the data and power needs of the Solid State Drive?  Basically, I am needing to clone my internal Hitachi 500 GB drive to this Samsung 1 TB Solid State Drive.  Unfortunately, I have been running into several different obstacles along the way which has prevented me from already having this project completed.

            George

Windows should take care of all such things

what do you mean with the USB to Sata cord ? external drives normally don't have that
but test it on another pc as suggested plse !

Nobus,

I am not sure you are totally following what I am saying here.  First of all, the blank 1 TB Samsung drive is an internal and not external drive.  Seeing that I can not get it detected internally so I can clone my 500 GB drive to it, I am entertaining other options such as the USB to SATA chord mentioned earlier.  I believe the reason I am unable to access the BIOS using the F2 is that the hard drive likely set to Secure Boot.  If so, I can go into the Advanced section of Troubleshoot to temporarily turn it off, thus, allowing the F2 key to be used for BIOS setup configuration access.  As you mention, Windows 10 should autodetect the drive anyway without any sort of editing done to the BIOS.  

With regards to testing it on another pc, that is not an option for me.  I only have my laptop.  That said, I believe I should go ahead and order the USB to SATA cable if you think it will serve the purposes of providing power from the USB port in addition to supporting data flow needed for the cloning process.  The cloning software which has been download and installed is Data Migration from Samsung.  

In closing, this is about as clear as I can make it with regards to my current situation and desired goals.  However, if further clarification is needed, let me know okay.  I don't always communicate as clearly as I should sometimes.  I guess that is something I just need to work on more.

George

Hello and Good Evening Everyone,

Using the YouTube video given by nobus, I was able to enter the BIOS within Windows 10.  Thank you very much for this link.  It put everything together for me quickly.  

On a side note, I did get my new 1TB Samsung drive installed with everything cloned from my original Hitachi 500 GB drive.  The procedures are in-depth, but simple,  which will be explained in another or different open post.  I will post the link to this thread if anyone is interested in taking a look at what worked for me.

George