Help with upgrading from HDD to SSD on HP Pavilion laptop

[Cameron314]

I want to either replace the HDD in my notebook with an SSD, but I have a few questions.

1. Do I need to purchase an SSD with more memory than my HDD (1 TB)? Or, can I somehow decrease the memory of my HDD in order to replace with a larger SSD?

2. Can this even be done on my model?

3. I don't know how to find the correct size for the replacement SSD. My notebook's manual does not give the physical dimensions.

4. What is the risk involved? I absolutely cannot afford to lose my laptop, as I need it for college.

If anyone has done this to this exact model, please let me know how you went about it.

Thanks!

[banhien · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Welcome to HP support forum. My answers for your questions

1. Depending on what are you trying to do but if using HP Recovery set to set it back to factory settings, you need new SSD with same capacity (1TB) or larger.

2. Yes, why not ?

3. Your machine supports normal 2.5" laptops HDD's/SSD's

     Supports 6.35-cm (2.5-in) SATA hard drives in 9.5 mm (.37 in) and 7.0 mm (.28 in) thicknesses
7 mm/9.5 mm share the same bracket

4. I've been swapping HDD's/SSD's for laptops probably once a month on average for the last 5 years or so using few simple steps

   (a) Buy new SSD/HDD (I also swap HDD's too),

   (b) Clone old HDD/SSD to new HDD/SSD,

   (c) Physical swap them carefully.

Regards.

[Cameron314]

I'm not trying to factory reset my laptop. I have a 1 TB HDD with only 90 GB filled. I just purchased a 240 GB SSD.
My misconception was that the CAPACITY of the SSD had to be larger than the HDD's. Now it's clear. Thank you.

[banhien]

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@Cameron314 wrote:
I'm not trying to factory reset my laptop. I have a 1 TB HDD with only 90 GB filled. I just purchased a 240 GB SSD...

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Hi,

In this case you need to shrink your C: on HDD down to 240GB before cloning otherwise it won't fit. But if you wish to do a clear/fresh install then the this doesn't matter how big/small (capacity) is.

Regards.