DM4t unable to choose to boot from 50 mm mSATA SSD

[snowblind]

Hello,

I have an HP dm4t-3000 laptop. The laptop came with a 750gb sata mechanical HDD and an empty mSATA port for 50mm SSD (next to the Wifi card). I have removed the 750gb and trying to use a mSATA SDD drive as my primary HDD. Once the mSATA SDD drive is functional, the 750gb will be used for secondary storage.

I am unable to configure the BIOS to boot from the mSATA SDD. The BIOS only has options to boot from Notebook HDD, CD/DVD, or USB.

I am able to get the SDD to work if I use an adaptor. The SDD drive plugs into the adaptor which then plugs into the same port that the original 750gb drive. This allowed me to finish Win7 installation on the SDD and boot from the SDD. However, once the SDD is removed from the adaptor and placed back into the mSATA 50mm slot, the drive no longer boots. I believe the problem is that laptop BIOS does not support booting from the mSATA 50mm slot.

I am using bios version F.08. I just noticed that a newer bios is available, F.09. However the release notes don’t suggest that this problem has been resolved, but I will try updating to this BIOS tonight.

Thanks,

[snowblind]

I should add that the mSATA SDD works connected to the 50mm mSATA port. I can boot the laptop into Win7 from the 750gb drive and then can access the mSATA SDD. I am able to see the windows installation, etc. Just can't configure the BIOS to boot off the mSATA port.

[Gunstarr]

Hi,

I also have a HP DM4-3000 series laptop and have the same issue. Here is what I did:

I now have the mSATA SSD drive as a dedicated OS drive and the 2.5" HDD as mass storage. I did a HP minimized installation from the recovery discs to the original 2.5" hard drive and then cloned the C: drive partition and the system reserved partition to the mSATA SSD. I then deleted the C: drive from the 2.5" HDD but left the system reserved partition so that the Windows 7 disc I used for startup repair could modify it to point to the mSATA SSD with the OS on it. It would have been nice if HP had provided a bios that lets you boot directly to the mSATA drive but nevertheless this method works well and allows me to have the benefits of two individual hard drives and an optical drive all in a 14" notebook. 

Original conversation here:

http://www.amazon.com/review/RXO2ALHEF5RI0/ref=cm_cr_dp_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B006OEL9GU&nodeID=541966&st...

Hope this helps,

Gunstarr

[snowblind]

Hi Gunstarr,

I was able to make it work using a similar boot approach. However I used a different method to setup my system-- I used EasyBCD to directly modify the bootloader on the original 2.5" HDD. I first installed

I first removed the 2.5" HDD and booted from a 8gb usb stick containing Win7 setup files and installed WIn7 to the SSD. After Win7 install the SDD would not boot. I put the 2.5" HDD back into the computer and booted into the original Win7 installation provided w/ the laptop. I then used EasyBCD to add a new entry into the bootloader on the 2.5" HD. When I power on the laptop the bootloader on the 2.5" appears and asks to select which windows7 to install (the original HP or the fresh win7 on the SSD). This is basically a dual-boot configuration.

The problem will be if the 2.5" HDD ever fails.... I will be able to fix the problem but it will be a long process. I will need to get a new 2.5 HDD and install an OS or something with a bootloader and then add an entry to access Win7 on the SSD.

Would be VERY NICE if HP would stop shipping crippled product. There is no reason why the laptop should not be able to boot from the mSATA port -- HP has simply decided to make it unavailable in the BIOS so they can market differentially. I will never buy another HP machine unless it comes fully unlocked.

[y2kim]

hmm...google "msata windows boot", not only HP