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- Re: HP Envy - 17 | M.2 SSD Upgrade

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09-10-2018 07:45 PM
Hey everyone,
Just picked up an Envy 17-bw0008ca. Was searching for a laptop with a decent video card, 17" and saw it in store and couldnt find another 17" laptop that looked as sleek as this one.
I did some research and saw that it had the capability of adding an M.2 SSD. The 1TB HDD is painfully slow and I wont be able to deal with this for long lol.
Anyways, the research I did pulled up an Envy 17 but with a slightly different model number. Just wondering if I can upgrade/add a M.2 SSD, if theres a PCI slot available. I'm just confused since looking at my configuration looks like I have this Intel Optane. and that may take a slot?
Also, looks like I have an Intel & nVidia video card. Any reason why the Intel is there? Thought this was equipped with the nVidia only.
Thanks!
09-10-2018 08:43 PM
Hello @mauro56,
Your Maintenance and Service Guide does mention the possibility of a dual storage configuration. It can take a PCIe NVMe SSD or M.2 2280 SATA III SSD.
Installation steps are on page 29 of the manual above. I wasn't able to find any mention of Intel Optane in the manual, unfortunately.
All laptop processors have integrated graphics ready in case there is no discrete graphics available. On your setup, you have switchable graphics, between Intel UHD 620 and the discrete NVIDIA® GeForce® MX150.
I find the simplest method of installing Windows on an SSD by using Microsoft's Media Creation Tool. If you choose to use HP Recovery Media, it's recommended that the new SSD is >= 1TB.
Hope this helps,
Eddy
I used to be an HP Expert. I no longer participate in this community.
09-11-2018 12:49 AM
Nice! Thanks for the link to the guide.
Already looking into getting an M.2 SSD
https://www.mikescomputershop.com/product/7943594
I was hoping to only get a 500GB as I really dont need 1TB. Apprently theres a Samsung cloning software that does the migration quite well. We'll see!
Interesting about the Optane though, as it says I do have it installed.
Anyways, thanks for the help. Cant wait for the install.
09-11-2018 01:10 AM - edited 09-11-2018 01:14 AM
It has been mentioned that HP has changed requirements of same size drive to use HP Recovery Media. That is a change that has been needed for a long time and supposedly with Windows 10 Recovery Media it is no longer required. Of course,as you mentioned, there is always Samsung's cloning tool also.
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09-11-2018 01:20 AM - edited 09-11-2018 01:25 AM
There was a discussion recently in Inner Circle, where we sometimes get feedback from HP engineers, that the requirement has been changed. I haven't really seen it in action but will follow your progress with interest. 😊
I suggest making your Recovery Media on usb flash drive rather than dvd's if you haven't yet. It is much faster to recover/reinstall with.
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09-15-2018 01:04 AM
@CherylG, I wasn't able to locate the exact IC post so I was wondering if you knew approximately what the requirement has been dropped to.
Anyhow, I have to agree it's a very nice change to how Recovery Media work.
- Eddy
I used to be an HP Expert. I no longer participate in this community.
09-15-2018 01:27 AM - edited 09-15-2018 01:31 AM
The post said requirement is 160gb. Hopefully that holds true. 😊 Also mentioned here by Erico-near the bottom of his post:
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