HP ENVY Laptop - 15t-ep100 - Adding second M.2 SSD possibility and thermal pad question

[itsfighter]

My notebook came with a 512GB M.2 SSD. Looking at the manual, it has another slot for a second M.2 SSD, and I have a 2TB Samsung 970 EVO plus from my old laptop and am thinking about the possibility of adding that to the second slot. and use it as a secondary storage. Keep the OS on the 512 GB it came with to avoid cloning. 

- Not sure whether the second SSD slot is enabled and works without any additional configuration or change.

- other main question is whether I need to purchase any thermal pads or tape for the second SSD installation. I believe the first one comes with a thermal pad installed and a black adhesive shield on the top. If so, what type of pad should I purchase?

Let me know whether its possible.  Thanks for your time and appreciate your help

https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-envy-laptop-15t-ep100-31f21av-1

[banhien]

@itsfighter 

From the link, It supports SINGLE storage. You say it manual shows 2 slots of M.2 SSD, which manual is that ?

Regards.

[itsfighter]

@banhein 

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c06634821.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGUwMHjtRmk

if you look at the QA in hp site

Thanks

[itsfighter]

@banhein 

could someone please tell me whether i can add a second SSD to hp envy 15t-ep100 without any configuration/additional change. Also any thermal pad needed. Thanks

[itsfighter]

correct manual link

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c06634821.pdf

It states

Each time one of the solid-state drives is removed, thoroughly inspect the thermal pad locations on the system board. Thermal pads are used on the system board (1) and the solid-state drive (2). If the thermal pads need to be replaced, thoroughly clean the thermal pad material from the solid-state drive and the system board and replace the thermal pads in the locations shown in the following illustration.

This means I can add another SSD to the empty slot. Also, it mentions thermal pads. What type of thermal pad should I purchase or use? . if possible I am planning to keep OS in the oem drive that comes with the system and add this 2TB evo plus as a storage for my VM hard drives and files Thanks for your time and I appreciate your response

[donmeekatx]

I have the same 15t-ep100 laptop and the second M.2 slot works fine - the second slot runs on a PCIE 3.0 bus so it's a little slower than the first PCIE 4.0 slot which is connected directly to the processor instead of running through the Intel HM570 PCH which is pretty standard - although it does make the Intel RST 'second step' listed below mandatory. For a Samsung 970 EVO plus it won't matter anyway because that is a PCIE 3.0 NVMe drive and wouldn't benefit from a faster bus.

You'll need to do three things to use the second M.2 drive - first go into the BIOS (F10) and ensure RAID/RST support is active but no RAID 0/1 configuration is enabled - in my BIOS HP intuitively calls the setting "UEFI HII Configuration". While you're at it, you might want to update the BIOS to the latest version from HP which is F.11 as of the time of this writing. Download all the other drivers from the HP support site as well - there were a lot of updates in March 2022 which will bring you to the latest version of most of the key drivers - but this is optional.

Intel has implemented VMD (Volume Management Device) with their Tiger Lake processors and you won't be able to access the second M.2 slot as an NVMe drive unless you download the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver - series 18.6 or 19 will work - HP has an older version (18.6) on their driver support site if you don't want to search but the latest version as of now is 19.2.1. Installing the Intel RST Driver (and rebooting) is the second step in making the second M.2 slot visible to the operating system.

Next (and last) thing you need to do is run the Disk Management Console from the control panel (or just search for it) and create a new GPT partition for the newly installed drive if it has not previously been initialized. You'll need to format the new drive as a NTFS volume of course and you can assign it a volume name and drive letter.

As to the thermal pad, HP installs a pretty cheap thermal tape over their first drive which is what needs replacing from time to time if you keep removing and installing the first drive. For your new drive, any of the thinner 1mm SSD/NVMe thermal pads should work in the laptop and they are wildly available for $10 or less - although the Samsung sticker on the 970 EVO Plus acts as a thermal pad and seems to work well for most users so you might just want to skip this step! You'll also need an appropriately sized m2 screw if you don't have one - there isn't a spare sitting in the empty second M.2 slot.

Good luck - if you have all the parts (and both a T5 Torx and P0 Phillips screwdriver!) - it should take you about 10 minutes to install a second NVMe drive in an 15t-ep100 laptop following the video instructions you can find online (there is an video instruction link higher up in this thread).

[itsfighter]

Hi Thanks for your response. I am plannign to upgrade Ram and also add the second SD. Do i have to remove the battery first? Also should I follow any anti static measures to avoid any damage ?  Thanks

[donmeekatx]

Whether you should remove the laptop battery prior to upgrading/adding a SSD or more RAM is a little like the advice to not go swimming an hour after eating - lots of people do but there is a chance something will go wrong.

Personally, I've just grounded myself and don't wear clothing that is likely to lead to a static charge (another reason besides the scratches not to rub your cat with an ebony rod right before you repair your computer) - rubber/latex gloves optional.  Murphy's law states that if you can possibly drop an M2 screw on your motherboard you will - and the corollary states that when that screw drops it will hit exactly the proper point to cause a short circuit resulting in maximum damage to your device.

If you exercise a little caution and are careful there should be no problem with either a RAM upgrade or a SSD replacement with the battery still attached - the manual of course will say otherwise and similarly you were always warned about swimming too soon after a meal...

[itsfighter]

Received my Notebook today . This is what I see in the BIOS options. Maybe should update bios first? Not seeing any settings as you suggested. Thinking of first adding second SSD and upgrade RAM and go from there. May be see what happens whether it shows up without any additional steps. let me know Thanks for your time

[donmeekatx]

You can't have a single SSD in RAID configuration (the 'R' stands for 'Redundant') so that is a proper display for only one installed SSD - your second SSD isn't installed yet.

Checking to see that there is no RAID configuration is a step which you take after you have already installed a second drive - if there was already a drive installed then it could have been previously set up as a RAID 0 (the drives are basically combined or stripped so that two 1TB drives appear as one 2 TB drive - but if one fails you lose all your data) or RAID 1 (two 1TB drives appear as a single 1TB drive but all the data is mirrored to the other so that if one drive fails you still have a valid fallback drive).

Once you install the new (second SSD) you will have two SSDs showing up in the BIOS configuration and as long as there is not a RAID configuration you can proceed to install the Intel RST driver and then partition and format your second hard drive.