HP EliteBook 8730w: SSD replacement for boot drive not recognized

[Footstep]

I'm attempting to install a Samsung SSD 840 EVO 500 GB  in place of the original 500 GB HDD in my Elitebook 8730w (product no. VF889PA#ABG). The 8730w has the latest BIOS (F.20) installed and runs Windows 7 Professional 32 bit (fully patched).

When connected to the laptop through a USB adapter, to clone the HDD image. the SSD operates correctly. Cloning via Samsung Data Migration is reported as successful and the image of C:\ drive occupies about 153 GB. The drive image does not include the 1 GB partition dedicated to HP_TOOLS due to a known limitation of the Samsung supplied software.

When installed in the HDD bay. the SSD is not recognized as a drive and does not appear in the list of boot options. The only available boot options shown are the DVD drive or a network boot.

l would be very grateful for any advice on the steps needed to install the Samsung SSD successfully as the boot drive.

[Danko358]

Take a look at this thread.

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Hardware-Upgrades-Replacements/Does-Elitebook-8530p-support-a-512-GB-SS...

As a some sort of conclusion of that thread is that it seems that smaller drives 80, 160gb have a greater chance to work/boot than the larger one 480, 512gb with your laptop. It seems that the smaller drives are more compatible.

Anyway I don't have any advice/solutions, just wanted to share my findings. I'm very interested in your problem, because your laptop should have ability to upgrade hdds easliy.

[Footstep]

Hi @danko358,

Thanks for your suggestion. I appreciate your taking the time.

The thread seems to reinforce some results of my initial investigations which indicated that the SSD capacity might exceed a limit set by the BIOS. 

I'll follow the lead about upgrading the chipset driver and post any constructive news. 

[roymeboy]

I doubt this. A hard drive, is a hard drive.

Check in bios what your machine is set to boot as. Is it in legacy mode. There is usually a boot order for hard drives in the bios which can also get in the way here.

In your bios, you should be able to find the hard drive. I'm unsure which options are in your bios though as I haven't worked on an 8730. 8740 I have which is almost the same I think in bios, but I haven't been on one in a while. On Monday I can have a look at one in work and let you know where to look if you can't find it.

Also, the hard drive may well not boot, if it hasn't been cloned correctly. If you've cloned only the C drive, that is one of your main problems. Win 7 boots via a hidden partition, if the partition isn't there and populated, it ain't booting. When cloning the drive, did you do a sector by sector raw copy including partition structures. I'm guessing as you say HP tools wasn't copied then you also won't have the Windows boot partition. Thats more likely your problem, a hard drive is a hard drive. Been working with laptops and desktops for around 20 years. In the last 18 months specifically been working with HP laptops and desktops, I'm a desktop engineer. In those 20 years, I'm yet to come across a hard drive that isn't compatible with any system. Hard drives have to meet a standard, as long as your pc meets this standard, they are compatible. Your laptop has a sata connection, your hard drive is a sata 3, but is fully backwards compatible with sata 2 which is what your machine has.

It will work, perservere. If the problem is as I said, the hidden partition, then download a program called EasyBCD. You can rewrite bootloaders with it if I remember right. Haven't used it in an age but I remember it being great at that sort of thing.

[Footstep]

Hi @roymeboy,

Thanks for your helpful comments. I'm pleased to have your encouragement to persevere, which I will do. I hope you might be able to make some further comments about my follow up actions.

In looking for the hidden boot partition on my original hard drive, I've run DiskPart with the following result:

From online advice about the operation of DiskPart, I was expecting to see a volume of about 100MB listed and labelled as System Reserved. 

In Computer Management, the story looks like this:

The mention of Boot as part of the C: partition suggests to my very inexpert eye that the boot information might be in the C: partition rather than the FAT32 formatted 😧 (HP_TOOLS).

I cloned the original hard drive with the Data Migration application supplied by Samsung with the SSD. Samsung information on this application advises that:

- "The 'System' partition that is created during Windows installation is automatically replicated."

- "OEM Recovery Partitions generated at the factory by computer manufacturers cannot be replicated."

The application reported successful cloning of C: to the SSD. When the SSD is connnected via a SATA/USB adapter, Disk Management reports this:

I'm posting this information in case it highlights any issues for you but also to acknowledge your assistance while I continue to look further into the question of where the hidden boot partition actually resides on the 8370w.

Thanks again for your time and effort.

[roymeboy]

I can't get onto the PC right now to check properly. Kids are watching how to train your dragon on it lol, I stand no chance, and to be fair. I love this film lol.
Anyway, stick the ssd in the laptop and get a few pictures in your bios under system information, boot order, boot method etc...

[Footstep]

Hi @roymeboy,

It seems there has been some dragon training around here as well. The result is my 8730w running with a fully functioning SSD — even if the reasons remain something of a mystery.

When I put the SSD into the original HDD bay to record the BIOS pictures today, I was stunned to find it booted flawlessly into Windows. Feeling emboldened by this, I reinstalled the HDD and ran the Samsung  Data Migration application again to update the drive image on the SSD. This time, I noticed that the 😧 volume (HP_TOOLS) was listed as available to clone and was able to capture both partitions.

After installing the SSD as the primary drive, powering up produced the same two messages that triggered my first post:

The list of boot source options was also the same as on my previous failing attempts (with no mention of the SSD):

During the next startup attempt, I examined the F1, F2, F9 and F10 options in the following pre-boot menu:

The Start-up Test and the Run-in Test under System Diagnostics both reported the absence of a boot disk:

I continued capturing pictures in other menu options (not included but available) and finally exited the menu without making or saving any changes to the system configuration. Despite the unchanged settings, the boot procedure then continued successfully into Windows. Dragon magic?

Although I'm baffled by this sequence of events, I'm mighty pleased by the outcome. I have to acknowledge that the key ingredient was your confident assertion that "it will work". It has.

I'd be interested, of course, in any thoughts you have about causes but don't want to take up your time unnecessarily. I'm already very grateful for your critical intervention in this issue. Many thanks.

[roymeboy]

By all means. Don't worry, it's sad but I spend most of my time thinking about things like this so its no trouble.

I'm also quite baffled, the part about diags reporting no disc is also a bit of a concern.

Honestly, I don't know lol. I'm sure if I was in front of it I could shed a bit more light on the situation.

One thing I am thinking though, could it possibly be the sata connector going a bit iffy, I can think of no real other reason this could happen.

I'm glad you've got it working but like you, I would like a proper resolution, I hate just saying, oh well, it works, finding the right resolution helps you learn for next time.

If ya can be bothered, post the pics you took, lets make sure its sorted for good

[roymeboy]

Oops, you did. Lol. I'm on my phone and its not showing right, will look a little later on the pc and post my thoughts

[Footstep]

Hi @roymeboy,

In case it helps with any further thinking, I've attached a road map of my journey through the Startup Menu before successfully resuming the boot process. As mentioned, no changes to settings were made during this excursion (to the best of my knowledge).

Thanks for your continuing interest.