I have installed a 1 TB SATA SSD into my laptop, How i set this drive to be the main drive.

[JamesB777]

I have installed a 1 TB SATA SSD in the extra M.2 slot, into my laptop, How i set this drive to be the main drive. Laptop came with 68 GB hard drive, its soldered in. Also I made System image backup before install of the new driver. Backup is on a HP 2.5 " external hard drive. Or what is the best set up for the laptop. Thanks for your help. Im 64 years old, ok with a computer. Still have a lot to learn.                                                                                                                  

Operating system

Windows 11 Home 64-bit Version: 22631.5909

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Microprocessor

AMD 3020e with Radeon Graphics

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System memory

16 GB

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Memory slot 1

16GB Hynix 2400MHz

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System board

87B7 28.23

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System BIOS

F.77

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi, James:

If you installed a M.2 SATA SSD, you can only use it for storage as the notebook will only boot from the 64 GB eMMC drive.

You can try a using a bootloader software such as clover bootloader to see if that will work but otherwise there is nothing you can do.

How to install clover bootloader in Windows 11

[NonSequitur777]

@JamesB777,

[EDIT:] Never mind, I was too hasty: @Paul_Tikkanen got it right!

Making your new 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD your new primary (boot) drive is going to be very straightforward in your case (pun intended).

Firstly, download the (freeware) Macrium Reflect Free cloning software from here (choose the 64-bit version): Download Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - MajorGeeks, and install it onto your laptop. Please follow along this helpful YouTube instructional video: (3429) How To Clone Your Windows Boot Drive With Macrium Reflect - Easy and Free Software! - YouTube, and startup the Macrium software. And as the video shows (timestamp 3:30), make sure you choose the "Shrink or extend to fill the target disk" option from the "Copy Partitions" tab.

Once the cloning has completed, go tap-tap-tap F10, and access BIOS.  Choose the "Boot Options" or "Boot" and make your new M.2 drive your primary boot drive.  Done.  Easy-peasy.

Once you have ascertained that your new 1TB drive is indeed installed as the "new" > (C:) Windows drive (the icon you can find in File Explorer should show the four tiny blue squares for the new drive), you can format the old drive and use it for secondary storage or whatever.

If you run into any issues, let me know and I'll help you along.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, @NonSequitur777 

While the service manual makes no mention of it,  NVMe SSDs are not supported in the 14-fq notebooks with the 64 GB eMMC drives  

This was explained to @JamesB777 in an earlier discussion  

What was not explained was the information I provided  

No one has been able to get a SATA SSD to boot 

I even suggested to one forum member to format the 64 GB drive in hope that the Windows boot manager would automatically switch to the SATA SSD, and that only resulted in a boot device not found error. 

[JamesB777]

I have one of the questions, when I'm looking at the drive and disk Management. It shows it but it's not partitioned in any way. Does it need to be partitioned or broken up in the trunks and assigned names I know I'm not saying it's probably correctly. But let's say I want to start storing my pictures there. Do I just drag and drop or is there a way I want to say partition it you know so x amount is for pictures x amount for documents x amount for videos etc. I hope all this makes sense I appreciate your help hope you're having a good day.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, James:

You have two options:

1. If you just use the disk for storage, you have to initialize the disk in the disk management utility.

Initialize New Disks | Microsoft Learn

Once the drive has been formatted, you can drag and drop or copy and paste any files from the 64 GB drive to the M.2 SSD.

2. If you want to try that clover software procedure to be able to boot from the drive, you can make a bootable USB installation flash drive with the media creation tool from the link below:

Download Windows 11

After you boot from the installation media and you get to the part that asks, 'Where do you want to install Windows,' select the 1 TB drive and click Next.

W11 will automatically create the partitions it needs and install.

So, if the clover software works, you should be able to boot from the M.2 SSD and be in Windows.

If not, you can format the SATA SSD in the disk management tool and bring it back to a blank formatted drive with maximum storage.

You have a good day too!

Cheers,

Paul

[JamesB777]

I have mentioned before, I have a 2.5 in HP 256 GB SSD external hard drive. I was to leave this connected to the laptop continuously. Can it become the main drive. The reason I ask, I'm still experiencing the laptop running very slow. Even with upgrading the ram from 4 GB to 16 GB. The two and a half inch HP hard drive is actually where I made a system image copy I believe it's called of Windows 11 it's on that drive. I really do appreciate you taking the time to respond to my emails. Thank you very much look forward to hearing back from you when you have the time. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, James:

I do not believe you can boot into Windows from the 256 GB 2.5" SSD and if there is a way, I would have no idea how to do it and suggest you start a new discussion on that.

Have you tried booting from the external hard drive when you first turn on the PC?

To do that after you power on the PC immediately tap...tap...tap the ESC key to get the menu of options.

Select the F9 boot options menu and from that, select the 256 GB USB 2.5" SSD and press the Enter key and see if it will boot into Windows.

Paul

[JamesB777]

Good evening, I want to thank you again for all your help. I watch the video on the boatloader. It's way above my computer skills even flowing it down to 50% normal speed I couldn't keep up with him. I tried to make a backup onto a USB like in a system image it wouldn't even allow me to pick the USB to put it on to the the new hard drive it recognizes it as being a external hard drive not internal. The computer sees a USB but I wasn't able to pick it or sign it I guess you should say. Thank you again for all your help though appreciate the time you took.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime, James.

Glad to have been of assistance.

Maybe there are better links or videos out there if you want to pursue the clover bootloader approach further.

Cheers, 

Paul