HP ba047na Z3F82EA - - can i fit an ssd 500gb drive and reuse the 2tb hdd in a caddy in the dvd bay?

[Duntelchaig]

I'm looking to speed up this laptop's performance and want advice.  My idea is to fit a ssd in place of the 2tb hdd, run all applications from there  and reuse the hdd (possibly in a caddy in the DVD bay) for storage of photos, archival and music

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

Yes as you have figured out your laptop has no M.2 slot for a second drive inside the laptop.An M.2 was offered as an option but it was installed via an adapter plate in lieu of the 2.5 inch hard drive. Here's the manual:

Manual

See p. 50. A 2.5 inch SATA SSD like the Samsung Evo 850 will fit in place of the hard drive using the same mounting bracket. etc. 

Your DVD drive is a 9.5 mm and you can discard the DVD drive and use a DVD to HDD caddy to mount the original hard drive for just storage function. A HDD located there will not be bootable and data transfer speed is reduced a bit but still useable for what you propose. 

You can transfer the original DVD faceplate to the optical (DVD) caddy and keep the appearance of the laptop. 

https://www.amazon.com/Highfine-Universal-SSD-HDD-Enclosures/dp/B01MRI8YFN/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=15...

Post back with any more questions and please accept as solution if this is the answer you needed. 

[Duntelchaig]

Thanks for your help - - it's really appreciated!  

I'm not sure that I have the courage to attempt the ssd installation as a diy solution.  The mechanical bit hold no fears for me, but I don't understand either how to get the newly-installed drive to boot up, or the hdd to stop boot up - - nor do I know what processes to follow with restore points and back-ups to ensure a successful swap.  I know there's a first time for anything  ... ... but the consequences of getting it wrong from inexperience are daunting.

David

[Huffer]

There are many ways to do it. Perhaps the simplest is just to make the HP restore disk. You can also do a system image Windows backup to an external disk and then restore that image to the SSD. Windows 10 is a free download if you want to do a clean install.  I have done it dozens of times and the folks here can surely walk you through it so that it is just going to work for you. Happy to help further. 

[Duntelchaig]

OK, thanks for your encouragement.  I've done a bit more research and am now comfortable to attempt the SSD installation process. 

While I will have the back cover off, I think it would be worthwhile increasing the RAM.  This model is stated as having DDR4  2133mhz SDRAM (1 x 8gb), but  from a scan it appears to have 8gb Samsung DDR4 1866mhz fitted (limited by the output of the AMD Quad processor?).  I can't source a twin - - the minimum available now appears to be DDR4 2133mhz.  Is it ok to fit this - - assuming that it will only be tasked to work at 1866 - - or should I remove the installed 1866 RAM stick and fit paired 2133 8gb sticks (a more expensive option)?

[Huffer]

The installed memory is DDR4-2133 it just downclocks to 1866 on the AMD systems. You can just add a second DDR4-2133 8 gb module. 

https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Single-PC4-17000-SODIMM-260-Pin/dp/B015HQ9TGW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=...

[Duntelchaig]

Thanks!  I'd guessed that might be the case - - but having someone-who-knows confirm that is really helpful.  Next step is to open the back and do a viual check before ordering the kit.

[Duntelchaig]

So ... ... I've backed up everything; bought and installed a Samsung Evo 860 SSD; fitted my OEM 2TB Seagate in an HDD caddy; put that into the optical drive slot; fitted more RAM; installed a BIOS upgrade to F.31; and my laptop boot-up time to get to a Windows 10 operational state has lengthened!  Disk management does not recognise more than one disk present - - it sees the new SSD, but not the HDD in the optical bay.  

I reversed the installation and put the HDD back in its original position and the SSD in the caddy - - still only one drive is recognised, this time the original HDD.  The machine boots up from it.  There is a flashing LED showing on the front of the caddy housing.

I've read that some optical drives may have a switch for recognition of the open/closed state of the optical drive - - but I don't know what else to try.  I'm contemplating putting a clean Windows 10 install on the SSD; but I think getting both disks recognised probably takes precedence.

What can you suggest?

David

[Duntelchaig]

Supplementary question - - does anyone know if HP's BIOS F.31 can support two internal hard disks.  My BIOS installation can't see a disc other than the one in the HDD bay. 

I've checked the caddy connections where the HDD was installed in the optical drive bay, and these appear to work as they should - - so I'm discounting the 'cheap caddy' as a causal factor.

I'd welcome some knowledgeable input.

[Duntelchaig]

Supplemental question:

Does HP BIOS F.31 support more than one internal HDD?   My BIOS installation appears not to - - which rather frustrates the original plan.   Is there a known solution or workaround; can you get a custom BIOS?  Any ideas?

I've also looked into the "cheap caddy; inadequate connection" hypothesis.  By using an appropriate connector hooked up to a desktop environment, I could see each of the HDD and SSD drives when present in the caddy by connecting to its input port  just as it would be when installed in the laptop.

David