HP Support Forums
Join in the conversation.
1) Install SSD in empty 2nd slot (with special cable etc.)
You can't, you have to remove your old one and install the SSD in the primary bay as you can not make the BIOS boot from the secondary bay. You could do it this way as in your statement, but it's way easier just to remove your old drive, install the SSD in it's place and boot from your W7 install disc to install Windows 7. Do you need instructions on how to boot from your W7 install disc ?
2) Partition, format, and assign drive letter to SSD (is this necessary?)
No it's not necessary, your W7 install disc will do this automatically.
3) Temporarily remove HDD (is this necessary?)
Yes you need to remove the HHD (see above) you can place it in the secondary hard drive bay and simply pull your personal files of of it on to the SSD or leave them where they are. The old hard drive simply becomes storage ounce it's placed in the secondary hard drive bay.
4) Perform fresh install of Win7HP64 on SSD (I hear this is preferable to copying/cloning the install from the HDD because Windows7 installs differently on a SSD than on an HDD... is that right?)
I would recommend a fresh install as it would leave behind all the HP bloat ware, eg, the recovery partition and HP Tools partition. But you could use a cloning program like Macrium Reflect and that will work, but doing that will render the recovery and HP Tools partition useless, so it's best to start from scratch.
4a) validate Windows with information I copied from previous legit OEM install (do I have to call MS for this?)
You don't have to validate anything. On your old drive there is a folder in drive "C" named SwSetup, in there are all the programs that are installed from the factory. You can use these install files to reinstall any programs you like on your new SSD. All Windows (Microsoft) cares about is a legitimate product key for your new installation of W7. If you have any pre-installed software that you paid for, you should have a product key for that.
5) Put HDD back in, reboot, and... here it gets vague:
6) Back up the My Doc folder (and all other personal data if it's not in that folder)
You don't have to back anything up, it's all on your old hard drive. Ounce it's in the secondary hard drive bay you can access anything you want. You will have to right click initially and enter into the old OS under administrator to gain access into it, but ounce you're in there all your files are still there. You can choose to leave them there or drag them over to the SSD.
7) REFORMAT the HDD, REINSTALL all programs
Or, 7b) do not reformat HDD, but somehow delete the Win7 install that's on it (or should I leave it on, just in case the SSD fails?)
Ounce you have moved all your personal folders over and any thing in the SwSetup folder you can simply go into disc management and format your old HHD. A better procedure is to delete all partitions on the drive, including the recovery partition and HP Tools, creating unallocated space on the entire drive, then formatting it. Just formatting the drive will not get rid of the recovery partition nor the HP Tools partition. As I said ounce you install the SSD, they become redundant.
8) Tell Windows that the MyDoc folder should be on the HDD, then restore all personal data to the HDD's My Documents folder...
Or 8b) Point Windows to the MyDoc folder on the HDD
This has been answered above _ more or less.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Follow this tutorial. First thing to do is to remove your old hard drive, install the SSD in its place and install W7.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/operatingsystems/ss/
It will take about 20 minutes, after it's done install your chipset driver and then video driver, in that order, the rest of the drivers don't matter. The tutorial will have you install W7 on unallocated space and this is what your new SSD will be anyway. Do not format the drive, let the W7 install disc do it for you.
There is no need to create any partitions, if you want to keep any files safe, put them over on your old drive.
Go to AMD and run their automated driver finder to get your correct chipset and video driver.
http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/AMDSupportHub.aspx
If you're running an Intel processor the use Intel's Automated driver finder to find your chipset driver.
http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect
Your model number is incomplete, I am assuming it's dv7-6100cto. If that is the case your product specifications page still will not tell me what kind of processor your running, but I am guessing you're still running ATI video, the other choice would be NVIDIA, but that's highly unlikely.
What processor and video card are you running ?
If you follow the tutorial you and my instructions won't have any problems, your procedure is so complicated. 
Also, before starting any of this, you may burn the entire SwSetup folder to disc. It can be used later when ever you need something out of it.
Here is a great place to get drivers as well. (did some poking around and I am quite sure that you have an Intel core Quad Edition)
Any more questions ???? 
