Envy 17-j184nr mSata + SSD

[Mike_B1]

Hello,

I just purchased an HP Envy 17-j184nr, which comes with a single 1tb HDD plus 24gb mSata cache drive. Now, I have a 500Gb Samsung 850 Evo Sata SSD lying around that I plan on putting in the spare HDD slot (for which I've already bought the cable and caddy), keeping the original 1tb HDD as a storage drive. My question is two-fold:

1) Will there be any benefit to keeping the mSata cache drive considering my 850 Evo is newer and likely faster, or should I just remove it?

2) Was there ever a fix to the BIOS issue preventing from using the mSata drive as the pure boot drive without relying on extra tricks such as putting the boot sector on one of the Sata drives? If there was, then I might consider purchasing a larger mSata SSD as my boot drive.

Thank you in advance!

[MKazi]

@Mike_B1

Welcome to HP Support Forums. 🙂 I came across your post and would like to help.

I understand that you have an HP ENVY 17-j184nr Notebook PC. I read that you would like to replace the 24GB solid-state drive cache with  850 Evo SSD. 

I did some research on this case and found that only the following two SSDs have been tested with this laptop. Therefore I cannot guarantee if the 850 Evo drive would work on this laptop:

• 32-GB mSATA (select models only)
• 24-GB mSATA (select models only)

You may refer to page no. 2 of the service guide.

Therefore it is advisable not to make any changes to the existing hardware. I hope this answers your question. 

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Cheers! 🙂

[Mike_B1]

Thank you for your replty, but it looks like you completely misunderstood my question.  The Samsung 850 Evo I mention is NOT supposed to replace the 24gb mSata, but to take one of the Sata slots.

[MKazi]

@Mike_B1

You're welcome. 🙂

Normally, the mSata SSDs do not have a SATA port on them so that they can be connected to the SATA port on the motherboard.

The mSata SSDs normally connect to the M.2 SATA port on the motherboard. As far as I know, there is only one M.2 SATA port to which the 24GB SSD is connected right now. 

Hope this helps. Thanks!

[Mike_B1]

With all due respect, you only add more confusion with each next post. Could perhaps someone else there look into my original question please?

[MKazi]

@Mike_B1

The idea was not to confuse you at all. 

I checked the product specs of the 500Gb Samsung 850 Evo Sata SSD and see that you are correct. It is a SATA and not an M.2. 

However, we do not support such upgrades and do not guarantee it will work. You can give it a shot at your discretion and please consult a local technician or authorized service center to ensure that it is taken care of.

Good luck! 

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

Put the SATA SSD in the primary slot so it will be bootable and it needs to hold the OS as it is your fastest storage. Put the 1 TB HDD in the secondary slot. The 24 gig mSATA mSSD will be pretty much useless once you install any kind of SATA SSD in the system as the acceleration will no longer work. You can keep it and use it for storage but really what can you do with a 24 gig storage volume?

And no there was never any fix to the BIOS to allow the mSATA mSSD to work as a primary drive without tricks. 

If this is "the Answer" please click "Accept  as Solution" to help others find it. 

[Mike_B1]

Thank you Huffer, just what I needed to know!

One more question - how should I configure the RAID with this setup since there's no AHCI option? In my messing, I dissolved it and now the raid utility pops up every time at startup.  At first I thought of setting up a stripe between my HDD and the 24gb mSata just to get rid of the popup since neither drive is crucial as far as speed goes. Or, perhaps buying a 256gb mSata and setting it between the two SSD's, would that give me any speed advantage?

[Huffer]

You should break all the RAID arrays and leave every drive standing by itself not "RAIDED" with any other drive in the BIOS. If you can turn the storage controller off RAID to AHCI in the BIOS do it if not don't worry. You can run single drives with a RAID storage controller and it still has all the positive parts of AHCI. It just means you may have to use an "F6" driver during Windows installation. If you change the storage controller from RAID to AHCI you will have to reload the OS. 

The mSSD drives are still SATA disks...the read/write speed of that type of drive is about the same as a 2.5 inch SATA-III SSD. 256 gig drives of that format are not easy to find or cheap. You could run an mSSD as the boot disk but it would mean you cannot have a drive in either the primary or secondary 2.5 inch bay. 

[Mike_B1]

Thank you for your infinite wisdom, Huffer.

I received the cable and caddy today and it works perfectly with my Sata SSD in the primary slot and the old HDD in the secondary. I was able to install Windows onto the Sata SSD (cloning my old drive didn't work though, perhaps due to it being AHCI), but see the attached screenshot for what I meant by the RAID utility always showing at startup for a few seconds. If I enter the utility, the only active options are "Create RAID volume" and "Exit". Also, attaching a screenshot of my BIOS just in case, and btw, AHCI is not available as an option.

I wonder what, if anything, I could do to make it stay hidden? I know this is not particularly crucial; I suppose I could just live with it, although it is a bit annoying. Looking on Ebay, I see I could buy a 256gb mSSD for around $70, but would that give me any performance benefit when used in a RAID with my Sata SSD, and if yes, then which would make most sense, stripe or mirror?

I know this is beyond the scope of my original question, but perhaps it can help someone else, as I imagine all Envy's of the same period must have the same issue.

Much appreciated!