Does my system has M2 slot ? if yes then which one to buy

[SChands]

Hi All,

I am having HP Laptop

Model:  15-bs0xx   

Product Number: 2EA62PA#ABG .

Operating system: Windows 10 Home 64-bit

Microprocessor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7500U CPU @ 2.70GHz

Memory slot 1:  8GB 859B 2133MHz

Memory slot 2: 8GB A-DATA Technology 2133MHz

System board: 832B 23.78

System BIOS: F.65

My system was running slow so I have upgraded Ram from 8 to 16 GB. Want to speed up my booting more than what it is by adding M2  (either 256 or 128 GB ). 

Couldn't find the manual with these details for my model. (From the pic of lappy, looks like It has an M2 slot available near the HDDTop Left Corner)

Can anyone please advise if adding M2 would work on this model? 

If yes, whats max I can use, 128 or 256 GB  (any more details/link for purchase/model details would be helpful )? 

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

Your notebook has a M.2 slot that supports SATA M.2 SSD's only, not NVMe.

See chapter 1 of the service manual for the supported drive types.

h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c05493257.pdf

I drew an outline in red on your screenshot below where the drive goes.

A Western Digital Blue M.2 SATA SSD would be a good choice.

 

[SChands]

Thanks for the Help 😊. I will order and see how it goes. 

Any pointers on how do M2 SSD speed up the system boot.

1. Just plug M2 and it will help reducing boot time? 

2. OS needs to be copied/installed/changed from HDD to M2 SDD & change 1st booting device from BIOS.? 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

If you plan to keep the 2.5" drive, you will need to remove Windows from the drive or the PC will always want to boot from the 2.5" drive and not the SSD.

You should be able to use the HP cloud recovery tool to create a bootable USB recovery drive that will reinstall W10, the drivers and the software that originally came with your notebook.

Here is an info link for how to use that utility...

HP Consumer PCs - Using the HP Cloud Recovery Tool (Windows 10, 7) | HP® Customer Support

The SSD will be much faster than the 2.5" mechanical hard drive.

Your notebook should boot up in no more than 20 - 30 seconds.

[SChands]

Searched a few M2 SATA SSD & finalized this one as per your suggestion: https://www.mwave.com.au/product/wd-blue-250gb-3d-nand-m2-ssd-wds250g2b0b-ac07914

Just having a doubt that pins shouldn't be a problem? apart from the M2 SATA SSD Anything else I should look for while purchasing? 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Yes, that is the one you want. Pins/location of the notches in the SSD are not a problem.  Will fit just fine in the slot.

I think that one has the fastest read/write speeds for the price so other than buying a larger capacity one, such as 500 GB, I don't have any other recommendations.

[SChands]

So, I finally bought the same WD blue M2 Sata SSD.

1. opened the laptop and plugged in new M2.
2. via Macrium reflect did clone drive & created rescue usb
3. did restart and change boot option, Blue screen
4. via rescue disk, did fix windows problem 

Still having blue screen while booting from ssd (does boots correctly in safe mode). HDD booting works though & no damage there. 

Both previous and new partition are GTP not MBR

Error is : Stop code : 0xc000007b

Any Help ?? 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

The only suggestion I can offer would be to remove Windows from the 2.5" drive.

The notebook will always want to boot from the 2.5" drive first if there is an OS installed on it.

[SChands]

I am back with an update on what has happened after your suggestion. 

1. I was hesitant in doing a full disk clean of HDD without having a fail-safe option. 

2. So I tried installing other apps to do clone but none of the apps avail free cloning. 

3. Then checked with HP Team over WhatsApp support.  They tried few things like disabling other apps/services in safe mode & restart. No benefit

4. Bought 2 USB (64 GB & 8 GB). made bootable fresh windows 10 installation in 8 GB.  Via HP recovery tool created bootable HP recovery media on 64 GB USB. 

5. Got confidence to follow your suggestion of removing OS from HDD & cleaned it. 

6. Rebooted with Macrium reflect recovery disk USB & did fix windows problem.

7. Removed Macrium reflect recovery disk USB & rebooted. Bang Bang -- All good and posting this reply from SSD OS 😊 . 

Thanks a lot Paul_Tikkanen. You are very knowledgeable and precise. 

So Lesson Learnt. 

- Macrium Reflect is the best Free cloning App.  ( Video used for Cloning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHCENfs87F4&ab_channel=accessrandom)

- same OS cloned in 2 disks causes an issue while booting. (Like finding an elder one among twin kids). 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Glad your notebook is back up and running again.

I use Macrium on all of my PC's to create system images for backups in case I need to reinstall Windows.

I never clone drives because like you, I have had issues in the past, so I prefer to clean install Windows on new hard drives and then reinstall my programs and files.

I don't have many additional programs and files I need, so it doesn't take too long.

I have used the Macrium images I have saved to restore hard drives on a few of my PC's.

It has worked every time, but once.

It is much more reliable than the built in Windows image backup.