SSD for my HP Omen 17-AN012DX

[Jeremyek]

I would like to know what SSD will be compatible with my HP Omen 17-AN012DX. I was told the Samsung 970 EVO would work but I just want to confirm with an HP representative that it will for a fact. I am not looking to replace a the HDD, I just want to add another.

Samsung 970 EVO in question: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-970-EVO-250GB-MZ-V7E250BW/dp/B07BN4NJ2J?th=1&tag=tomshardware_forum_v...

Thanks

[banhien]

@Jeremyek

The following vendor supplies RAM, SSD's and M.2 SSD's which are guaranteed to work on your computer

     http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/HP---Compaq/hp-omen-17-an012dx

Regards.

[Damnation]

I can confirm the 970 evo works in the an012dx. I am using the samsung 250gb nvme 970 evo (heard anything bigger than 500gb caused problems) in my an012dx. There are a few issues i would like to point out before you make such a jump.

Problem#1 Make sure you have the thermal pad and screw where it goes. I had to order an m.2 screw and standoff. I did not use the standoff because it raised the nvme off of the thermal pad that was already in there. So I just used the screw. It goes in upside down on an012dx for some reason. Make sure it is m.2 nvme 2280.

Problem #2. The 970 evo nvme does not show up in bios. It can however be intialized in windows as a D drive (or any letter secondary data drive). But this defeats the purpose. The nvme works best as the boot drive and since bios does not recoginize the drive there is only one way I have found to make it work as the boot drive. 

STEP 1. Use a 16gb usb thumb drive and use windows 10 to make a recovery drive. The HP usb recovery does not work according to other users. So go into cortana search box and type "create a recovery drive". Windows 10 will take the current drivers and config for your an012dx and make a recovery drive for it. All of your original HP software will be there so dont worry. But for some reason the only recovery drive that will work with 970 evo is the one windows 10 makes for you which seems to be the exact same as the one hp lets you make. Wierd! Make sure to go to bios and disable secrue boot.

STEP 2. Take an exteranl HDD and back up all your data! Your about to do a recovery/clean install. Make sure you have saved everything you want to keep. Shut your computer completely down and unplug everything. Unscrew the bottom plate and use a credit card or guitar pick and start prying the bottom plate from the back where the screen meets the base. That back part of the plate comes off first. Refer to the an012dx manual if you are unsure. 

STEP 3! After you get the bottom plate off you must unplug the battery first and then the hard drive. If you do not unplug the hdd you will reinstall windows on to the hdd and all this will be a waste of time. SO PLEASE UNPLUG THE HDD. Install the 970 evo ssd  and make sure it slides into place and use an m.2 screw to secure into place. once the ssd is in and screwed in place you can plug your battery back in (leave hdd unplugged) and boot up from the recovery usb you made to install windows 10 to the ssd. You are actually performing a recovery not a clean install but its almost the same thing. For some reason windows 10 recovery usb will see the ssd even tho bios can not. Once the recovery process is complete and you are in windows 10 restart to make sure you can boot from the nvme ssd.

STEP 4! once the ssd is working as the boot drive and you have windows 10 setup and everything, restart the laptop. If it boots up as it should it is safe to plug that hdd back in. Make sure to unplug the battery again. Be careful and be patient when plugging the Hard Drive back in. The hdd cable is very flat and short and is a real pain to plug back in properly. took me about 30 minutes to do it wrong. You may need a second pair of hands like i did. My girl friend held the cable down in place as i used a pair of plastic tweasers and slid the cable back into the door/clamp on the mother board. Took us about 20 minutes to do it right. So be patient. You will know when you have it right. It slides into the port and the door closes on itself a little as it slides in. Alot of people mess this up because they rush. They lay the cable in and just push the door down on it and that is incorrect. It must slide in to make contact on the connecters properly and then the door can be pushed down the rest of the way to secure the cable in the port. Once you got it for sure plug the batter back in and boot up.

STEP 5# You dont have to reformat the HDD but it is best practice to do so. Steam can be made to scan the hdd for games but some will not work properly so if you want everything how it should be just reformat that drive and initialize it as D or whatever letter besides C.  Not reformatting caused me alot of issues so it is my recomendation for everything to work properly as it should is to make that slow hdd a data drive by reformatting. Once it is reformatted and clean you can intialize it as D and name it data or whatever. Go in to storage settings in windows 10 and set apps and docs pics and vids (or however you want it) to which ever drive letter you want. I change these storage settings back and forth as i need. Most of my really big games and apps are on the HDD. I use the 970 evo as my boot drive and keep the quake champions on it as well. Steam will have to be set to use a new library on the HDD if you plan to save your big games on it.