hp laptop 17-by3968nd - Boot from SSD

[battus]

I have a hp laptop 17-by3968nd with a 256 SSD and 1TB harddisk. 
When i would like to boot from the SSD, this is not possible. In the BIOS, this harddisk is not there, there is no way to select this harddisk. 
I already upgraded to the lasted firmware of the bios, but this didn't solve the issue. Who can help? 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

The product specs for your notebook indicate that it came from HP with a 1 TB 2.5" mechanical hard drive and a 256 GB NVMe SSD.

HP Laptop - 17-by3968nd Product Specifications | HP® Support

The notebook should automatically boot from the M.2 NVMe SSD and the 1 TB 2.5" hard drive is to be used for storage only.

it can't have an operating system on it.

Temporarily disconnect the 2.5" drive and Windows boot manager should automatically switch to the M.2 SSD to boot from.

[battus]

Hi Paul, 

Thank you for your feedback. Thus means that I have to open the laptop. Is there a specific part for the HD? 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Below is the link to the service manual.

HP 17 Laptop PC Maintenance and Service Guide

Chapter 6, page 42 has the hard drive removal and replacement procedure.

See if you can just disconnect the connector at the hard drive without having to remove the cable from the ZIF connector.

My question is how did this happen?

The only drive the notebook should be able to boot from is the M.2 NVMe SSD unless you installed Windows on the 2.5" drive.

With no operating system on the 2.5" drive the notebook has no choice but to boot from the 256 GB M.2 NVMe SSD.

[battus]

Thank you. I will try this tomorrow.  

The laptop is from my uncle and he was complaining that is was very slow. I found out that it was using the slow HD. He had some problems when you just bought the laptop and the store solved the issue.  Probably by installing a new windows on the slow HD. 

I did a disk clone from d to c, and the I cloud not found the disk in de bios. After formatting d, it didn't work either. I restored the partition from the clone backup. 

I tried something like bdcboot d:\windows but also without succes. 

So I hope this works:)

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Yes, it's getting late out your way.

Here it is only 16:15.

Now that I know the rest of the story, you don't need to take the notebook apart here is how you can clean install W11 and erase Windows from the 2.5" drive:

Download the W11 23H2 version using the Microsoft media creation tool from the link below (2nd option) and it will automatically create a bootable USB installation flash drive.

Download Windows 11 (microsoft.com)

Then to erase Windows from the 2.5" drive, boot from the W11 installation media, and clean the disk when you are in Windows setup by using the dispart utility.

Make sure you choose the right disk which should be easy to find since it is 1 TB vs 256 GB.

1. Press Shift+F10 from inside Windows Setup screen to open a command prompt window.
2. Type diskpart and press the Enter key.
3. Type list disk to find your disk number.
4. Type select disk (e.g., select disk0) to choose the disk you want to format.
5. Finally, type clean to wipe the disk completely.
6. Exit diskpart and install Windows.

Then to clean install Windows on the 256 GB NVMe SSD, you have to load the Intel storage controller drivers at the screen where Windows can't find any drives.

That's what most folks don't know about.

I have zipped up and attached the Intel storage controller drivers that Windows needs to find the drive.

The attached file is good for both W10 & W11.

Copy all of the files in both folders in the attached file to a USB flash drive.

Have the flash drive and your Windows installation media plugged into USB ports.

Boot from the W10/W11 installation flash drive.

When you get to the screen where no drives can be found, click on the Load driver option, browse to the flash drive with the storage controller drivers on it.

If you check the box, it will only include the compatible driver.

Click Next and Windows should find the drive and install.