ELITE NOTEBOOK 840 G3 Internal SSD passes diagnostics but not detected in BIOS / Windows installer

[BrianAg]

Hello everyone,

I’m having an issue with an HP EliteBook 840 G3 where the internal drive is not detected properly during OS installation, even though hardware diagnostics pass.

System details:

Model: HP EliteBook 840 G3

CPU: Intel Core i7-6600U

RAM: 8 GB

BIOS: N75 Ver. 01.61 (10/03/2023)

Problem description:

When booting into the Windows installer, only the USB installer appears.

The internal drive does not show up (Disk 0 shows as 0 B or not at all).

Windows setup reports that it cannot install because no valid disk is found.

What I’ve checked so far:

HP System Diagnostics:

SMART Check: PASSED

Long DST: PASSED

This confirms the drive is physically present and healthy.

BIOS System Information initially did not list the SSD.

BIOS has been reset using Apply Factory Defaults and Exit.

Storage mode is set to AHCI.

Legacy Support is disabled and Secure Boot is disabled.

Option ROM Launch Policy has been reviewed and set to All UEFI.

Windows Setup CMD (diskpart) only shows the USB installer, not the internal drive.

Current situation:

The drive passes HP diagnostics but is not consistently exposed to BIOS / OS installer.

This appears to be a firmware, BIOS configuration, or SATA controller initialization issue rather than a failed SSD.

 

 

 

 

Question: Has anyone experienced this on the EliteBook 840 G3?

Is this a known BIOS/UEFI issue?

Could it be related to the SATA flex cable even though diagnostics pass?

Are there any additional BIOS settings or firmware steps recommended to make the SSD visible to the OS?

Any guidance would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

It seems to me that there's some kind of hardware issue.

I recommend that you install a M.2 NVMe SSD in the available NVMe slot and use that.

A NVMe SSD has much faster performance that a 2.5" mechanical hard drive or 2.5" SSD, and uses a different storage controller.

So if the hard drive cable is bad or the SATA controller on the port the hard drive cable installs to is bad, it won't matter.

These videos indicate it can be done.

How to Upgrade the SSD Storage on an HP EliteBook 840 G3 Laptop

HP EliteBook 840 G3 M 2 + SSD Upgrade: Boost Your Laptop's Performance

The service manual indicates that the notebook supports NVMe SSD (chapter 1).

HP ZBook 15u G3 Mobile WorkstationHP EliteBook 850 G3 Notebook PCHP EliteBook 848 G3 Notebook PCHP E...

Disable legacy mode and enable secure boot and install W11 the way it was intended--in UEFI mode with the GPT partition table.

[BrianAg]

The hard drive status keeps fluctuating,  sometimes it passes the test and other times it says no drive

[BrianAg]

I've passed the previous stage where the hard drive was not been detected, now I'm stucked here with this error  "Windows cannot install required files. Make sure all files required for installation are available, and restart the installation. Error code: 0x800701B1"

 

 

 

 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

The only suggestion I can offer would be to see if the info on this video is of help to you:

FIXED (SOLVED) Windows Cannot install Required ERROR 0x800701B1 SOLVED [100% FIX]

Shift +F10 opens the command prompt.