Can I add an SSD to my HP Envy 17t-n100 laptop which has 2 hard drives?

[mgreen10]

I have an HP Envy 17t-n100 laptop with two hard drives and an empty slot for an M.2 SATA SSD. Can I add a 512 GB or 1 TB M.2 SATA SSD and keep the two hard drives also? Or would I need to remove one of the hard drives because, for example, the M.2 slot shares a port with one of the hard drives?

What physical size SSD does the HP Envy 17t-n100 take? 2280 or 2260 or ?

I plan to move the OS (C: partition) to the SSD.  Should I also move the recovery partition to the SSD? Or can it be on any drive?

I have EaseUS  Partition Master Pro which should allow me to copy partitions from the hard drive to the SSD. If you have any directions or tips on how to do the cloning, it would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Huffer]

It's a 2280 form factor M.2 SATA SSD. The Manual does not say whether you can do both 2.5 inch drives plus the M.2.

Manual

I would say you can but don't want to be responsible as I have no direct knowledge. I guess to give cloning directions I would need to see the drive map and understand where you have the current Windows partitions. 

Post back if you want to discuss in greater detail. 

[mgreen10]

Thank you for your reply.

I have a follow-up question. Since the Envy 17t-n100 has an M.2 SATA interface, not an M.2 PCIe interface, I believe there is little benefit to adding an SSD since it must use a SATA interface just like the existing hard drives. From what I've read, there will be little performance improvement because of this. A big performance improvement would require an M.2 PCIe SSD.

Is that correct?

I believe the Samsung 860 EVO M.2 SATA family would work and be a good choice for the Envy 17t-n100. Is there a better choice that you would recommend?

Regarding partitions, the primary hard drive has 1) the C: partition with Windows, 2) a recovery partition, 3) another hidden partition put there by HP, and 4-5) two data partitions that I created of about 900 GB each. The secondary hard drive has two data partitions of about 1 TB each.

Thanks!

[Huffer]

You have it figured out. A SATA M.2 operates at about the same speed as a SATA 2.5 inch SSD. Same hardware really just packaged differently. Evo 860 is also my prefrence although there are many solid 2.5 inch SATA SSDs. WD Blue, Adata, etc. 

So you have a 2 TB main HDD. How large of an SSD do you intend to install? Unless you are going to get a 2 TB SSD, you will need to use some custom cloning steps. You can make a recovery thumb drive from the HP Backup and Recovery app and then you do not need the recovery partition. Otherwise when you do the clone just omit the data partitions you made. This does require being somewhat adept with the cloning software. I like Macrium Reflect Free personally. 

[mgreen10]

I intend to add a 500 GB Samsung Evo 860 M.2 SATA 2280 SSD. The partition software I have is able to transfer a larger partition to a smaller partition as long as the smaller is enough to hold all the data. My C: Windows partition is about 120 GB so that can transfer no problem. The recovery partition is also small and can be transferred. The other partition that HP put on the primary hard drive contains I don't know what but it's only about 32 GB and could be transferred also. Do you know what it contains? I would use the remainder of the SSD's 500 GB to create a data partition. Do this sound doable?

My question is: Will I see much data read/write performance increase from a SATA SSD compared to my rotating hard drive since they both use a SATA interface? If not, I don't think it's worth the upgrade, especially since I might have to give up one of my two 2 TB hard drives (4 TB total on the two drives) to use the M.2 SATA port. I don't know if the M.2 SATA port shares a port on the laptop's SATA controller with one of the two hard drives SATA ports.

Thanks!

[Huffer]

You have the right idea on the clone. The partition you ask about is likely the "service" partition where the UEFI diagnostic environment software is kept.You do not want to lose it although you can download a UEFI thumb drive from your support page that will do the same thing and the partition can be recreated after the fact with a download from the driver page. 

Yes a SATA 2.5 SSD is roughly 3 or 4 times faster than a spinning hard drive and makes a very noticeable and pleasant upgrade.M.2 would not share a SATA channel or port with either 2.5 inch bay. All three ports can operate at the same time I believe although as I pointed out earlier the Manual is silent on this point. 

[mgreen10]

Thank you very much for your help Huffer! One more question...  Can I just leave the recovery partition and service partition on the 2.5" hard drive where they are now and use them when needed from there?  Or do I have to move them to the SSD along with the C: Windows partition for them to be accessible by the BIOS/OS when needed?

Thanks again!

[Huffer]

The recovery partition has to be on the main boot drive to work properly. As I said if you just use the HP Backup and recovery app and make the recovery usb drive you do not need th erecovery partition.