Upgrade to an SSD drive

[delcarto62]

I am in the process of upgrading my HP Envy Phoenix PC. (https://support.hp.com/ca-en/document/c04816928)

The mother board is a Thimphu. (https://support.hp.com/ca-en/document/c04790224)

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I want to add a 1TB SSD drive to this system.

My PC has the following expansion slots :

One PCI Express x1 (Gen 3.0)

One M.2 socket 1, key A

One M.2 socket 3, key M   

Which if any can I use to add an SSD?

If possible, I want it to have better transfer rates than a SATA drive.

I went to Crucial and the scanner only shows SATA SSD's as compatible.

Is that what I am limited to getting or can I add something better? 

Sorry if my question seems confusing but I am confused by the different expansion options.

Thanks for any help.

Del.

[The_Fossette]

@delcarto62,

I reviewed your post and I understand that you want to install an SSD on your computer.

Don’t worry, I assure you I will try my best to get this sorted.

You can add the SSD to the M.2 Socket 3, key M on the motherboard board. The M.2 port on your motherboard looks like a PCIe slot. However, I recommend you open the tower and check or take it to the store where you are planning to purchase the SSD.

I hope that answers your question and you have a great day!

P.S: Welcome to the HP Support Community 😊

If you wish to show appreciation for my efforts, mark my post as Accept as Solution. Your feedback counts!

Cheers!

[delcarto62]

Hi The_Fossette. Thank you for responding.

I ended up going with a new SATA SSD rather than using the M.2 socket. Sadly, I have not been able to clone my old HDD yet.

My original HDD is 2TB and the new SSD is 1TB. Both Macrium and Acronis failed repeatedly and tell me there isn't enough space. I don't see why they keep failing because I'm pretty sure the amount of data is Not too large for the SSD. I wonder if the problem comes from all the partitions on my old HDD. There are 5 partitions on my HDD, plus a small amount of unallocated space. Hopefully you can see this in the image below.

Any help would be appreciated.

Del.

[wb2001]

@delcarto62,

This program is supposed to work with your issue.

https://www.easeus.com/backup-utility/migrate-windows-10-to-ssd.html

otherwise you need to shrink that C partition.

https://www.diskgenius.com/how-to/resize-partition-windows-10.php

[delcarto62]

Hello Wb2001. This is my 3rd attempt at replying to your post. My tab keeps crashing on me.

So, I went and got EaseUs and attempted the clone procedure. I had more luck than previously however only 2 of the 5 partitions cloned over. The "HP Tools" partition, the Windows "Recovery partition" and the "OEM recovery Image" did not clone over.

So, I shrunk the newly cloned Windows partition on the SSD by enough space (30gb) to fit the 3 missing partitions. but I cannot figure out how to clone the missing partitions over to the SSD. It keeps defaulting to cloning the original Windows partition on the HDD.

Do I need to start over and shrink the original HDD partition to a smaller size? Then try again.

Or, is there a way to clone just the missing partitions?

By the way, thank you for replying. I now have a little hope that I can get this done ha ha.

Del.

[wb2001 · Accepted solution]

@delcarto62,

I would suggest you shrink the C partition, and not name the unused partition. Follow those instructions in the 2nd part of my reply.  I also hope you get it done, and please let me know what happens.

@The_Fossette,

My apology for entering this discussion.

[delcarto62]

Hello again Wb2001. I am very happy to say that almost everything worked out. I have a working and bootable SSD now. There are a couple things I would still like to ask you.

The clone process copied all the partitions however they are not the same size as before. See the image below this text to see what I mean. Before I delete any partitions on the old HDD, I want to be sure that all is well first. As you can see, all the partitions are there except for the unallocated space in the old HDD (Disk 1). My biggest question is about the 980MB recovery partition. The old HDD labels it as "Healthy (Recovery Partition). The SSD only labels it as "980MB".

Since I cannot view the contents of this partitions, how can I be sure that the cloned partition is indeed an identical copy?

The other concern is about the partition sizes from the old HDD compared to the new SSD drive.

 Name (partition)                                  SSD (Disk 0)                                HDD (Disk 1)

EFI System Partition:                              509MB                                            360MB

HP_TOOLS :                                                6.11 GB                                          8GB

Recovery Image:                                      20.59GB                                        12GB

Again, how can I tell if these cloned partitions are the same as the originals and viable?

Anyway, I know its a lot to ask but any guidance would be very much appreciated and helpful. I want to be sure that if and when I decide to restore my system to factory conditions, that it will work as it always did. So, I'll wait to see if you can help with my concerns. If you don't know or don't have an answer its ok, just let me know. I promise I will be certain to come back and give you the "Accept As Solution" feedback. I don't want to close the thread quite yet though. 

Thank you very, very much.

Del.

[wb2001]

@delcarto62,

Unhappily I am unable to answer that question.

[delcarto62]

Wb2001, you have been an immense help. I would not have gotten here without your expertise.

Thank you and please stay healthy.

Solution accepted and Kudos given.

Del.