Can I upgrade the storage? What options do I have?

[Thunderbolt916]

Couldn't find my laptop from the list, so I just copy pasted the entire full name.

I have 512GB of storage. I have a few games installed, with GTAV, F1 23 and Warframe being the biggest. The others put together are less than 10GB (it's only 3 other games).

Today we had our first lab class in IT, and we needed to install and use QT Creator. This software takes up 40GB of storage, so just as much as F1 23 or Warframe, or any other game of the like. So I was thinking of getting a new SSD and upgrade to 1TB or possibly 2TB (I'm poor, I can't afford to get higher than 80$ lol :(. ).

What's the exact specification of SSD I have to get for my laptop? I know I can just look it up on the internet, but I needed the advice of HP experts, to get the best one for the best price. As for the rest, I also need to know how I can also pre-install or re-install all the drivers and Omen apps that came preinstalled on this laptop when I first turned it on and set up Windows 11 in its entirety on this laptop. I talked to 2 friends and they recommended me Samsung, Western Digital, and Crucial. I was also looking into Kingston. For Crucial, it is apparently 100% compatible with this laptop and the product is the Crucial P3 Plus PCIe M.2 2280, with 1TB of storage, costs 65$ right now on sale which is kinda affordable. For Kingston, I looked into the  KC3000 PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 and the NV2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280.

Sorry for the stupid questions and sorry if this post is also breaking some rules. I hope to hear from someone soon! Any answer is welcome.

Thanks in advance!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Below is the link to the service manual for your notebook.

Maintenance and Service Guide (hp.com)

HP offered PCIe 4 x 4 NVMe SSD's up to 1 TB in the model series, but you can go as high as 4 TB if you want.

Recommended high performing SSD's:

1 TB:

https://www.crucial.com/ssd/t500/ct1000t500ssd8/ct24627241 

2 TB:

Crucial T500 2TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 SSD | CT2000T500SSD8 | Crucial.com

Decent performing, yet budget priced drives:

1 TB:

Crucial P3 Plus 1TB PCIe M.2 2280 SSD | CT1000P3PSSD8 | Crucial.com

2 TB:

Crucial P3 Plus 2TB PCIe M.2 2280 SSD | CT2000P3PSSD8 | Crucial.com

[Thunderbolt916]

Perfect, thank you!

As for the questions about reinstalling all the preinstalled software, drivers and apps (for example, the HP diagnostics, and the Omen Gaming Hub) how can I do it? Will I have to manually reinstall everything?

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You're very welcome.

Your notebook should be supported by the HP cloud recovery tool.

Make the USB recovery drive before you replace the drive (like now for example).

Use the HP cloud recovery tool to create a bootable USB recovery drive that will reinstall Windows, the drivers and the software that originally came with your PC.

Here is an info link for how to use the utility.  You will need a 32 GB USB flash drive to create the recovery media with.

HP Consumer PCs - Using the HP Cloud Recovery Tool in Windows 11 and 10 | HP® Customer Support

You can download the software from the Microsoft Store.

HP Cloud Recovery Tool - Microsoft Store Apps

[Thunderbolt916]

Thank you so much, that is incredibly helpful! I'll do it asap!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.