HP Notebook 15-s104na : Replacing HDD with Crucial SSD

[Duck_Cottage]

I have an HP/Compaq 15-s104na with 2213 motherboard and F.24 BIOS with a 500GB Toshiba HDD running Win8.1 (OEM).  Also have a Crucial M500 240GB SSD (MU05 firmware) which has been running Win7 in an old Lenovo laptop.  Thought i'd try installing the SSD in the Notebook to speed things up a little.

However, although I was able to clone the HDD to the SSD (SSD connected via a USB/SATA bridge), when i installed it in the Notebook it didn't boot.  The BIOS was recognising the Crucial SSD in Boot Options but then failed to boot from it returning 0xc0000225 (required device isn't connected).  Running the HP Recovery Manager from DVD also failed, not surprisingly as DISKPART> LIST DISK didn't show the SSD drive.

Out of interest, I then tried a fresh OS install from an MS 8.1 download using a generic key which gave the same result - no disc found.

So, I'm guessing there is something incompatible between the Notebook Motherboard and the Crucial SSD.  Running the Crucial SSD compatibility checker tool does return zero compatible solutions, although I didn't think that SSDs required any special SATA drivers.  Looks like I'll be sticking with the existing HDD (which, to be fair, isn't that slow...!)

[Omar-E]

@Duck_Cottage 

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Thank you,
Omar

[Duck_Cottage · Accepted solution]

Update to my previous problem of BIOS not recognising a Crucial M500 SSD.

No-one at HP or Crucial was able to provide a solution, but I have now discovered a good workaround in which I have installed the SSD into the optical drive bay, leaving the original HDD in place.  Now the BIOS recognises the SSD and I have done a clean install of Windows 10 onto it as my C drive.  I'm leaving my data on the HDD as my D drive.  Fortunately I do not want an internal optical drive.

So, now I have the performance benefits of an SSD whilst also having plenty of data storage space!

Hope this may help others avoid hours of frustration...

[norm360]

Hi,

Can you say what caddy you used to install an SSD into the optical drive on this device?

My 15-s104na has a dummy optical drive. http://i.imgur.com/o7eSnAO.jpg

Thanks

[Duck_Cottage]

Something like this should do: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SATA-2nd-HDD-SSD-Caddy-BAY-Adapter-Laptops-9-5mm-Optical-Hard-Drive-BAZEL-...