Installing SSD alongside HDD in HP 15-bs021na (possible? tools/parts needed?compatible units?)

[Huffer]

Yes and cars were much easier to work on in the '60's than they are now. If this were easy there would be no need for the Forum. Honestly you should have posted for help when you got the drive and we could have saved some of this problem. I have done this myself probably 15-20 times i.e added an M.2 disk into a system that previously did not have one. I always remove the hard drive as trying to install to a new disk when another one with Windows on it is still in the system is very hard to make work. If you took the hard drive out and had a truly blank M.2 in there you would not have the "OS boot Manager" taking control of the UEFI secure boot boot order. 

So now, if you do not want to open it again, you should back up whatever you can't afford to lose from the hard drive, and then boot the computer from a Windows 10 clean installer. Microsoft media creation tool. Wait until it gets to the part showing the disk partitions available for install. See if the M.2 is there. We may have to have you completely delete all existing partitions and install on the M.2 leaving the hard drive blank. When I have tried to do that with the hard drive in the computer the installer still wants to put some of the partitions onto the hard drive but maybe we can work around that. 

I get that you do not want to open it again but that is honestly the best way to proceed. 

[lawrence38]

Thanks , I'll keep you posted, I will try that, create a clean install Win 10 USB and then hopefully I'll have the option during installation to install on the SSD rather than on the HDD.

[Huffer]

Yes but before you delete any partitions post back with a screenshot of the disk partitions generated by the Windows installer. 

[lawrence38]

Sure, I plan to find some time to do it in the week-end, will post a screenshot before moving forward. 

Regarding data on disks, I have zero stuff that I want to keep, the SSD I just bough used as mentioned in one of the first posts and the HDD is empty, just the HP stuff it came with, nothing of mine in there, hence why I would not mind at all to just wipe all clean, even if I know it might take longer to install after, and of course I do plan to make a recovery drive of sorts, to ensure the correct HP drivers are kept and used during reinstallation.

[Huffer]

I can help you with a system image backup which you can periodically update. Keeps an exact copy of your system state at any given time. In my office everyone has an external hard drive connected to his or her computer. The system image is backing up on a schedule every night. If someone has a hard drive crash I can recover his or her computer to the way it was with all apps, settings, etc as of no more than one day ago, in less than an hour and get them back up and working immediately. 

[lawrence38]

Just wanted to thank you once more.

This afternoon I found some time to take care of it, and I managed on my own, after a couple of hiccups, to install Win 10 on the SSD (fresh install) and also to make it the main/boot disc. That was the hard part, as the laptop kept trying to revert back to the HDD...I decided to dig around for an alternative solution as was just worried I might damage the laptop in the process of opening it all over again, and in the end it did work, by doing a fresh install, everything else wiped, I also deleted the HDD drive at the stage where it asks you where to put the Win 10, left it unallocated, and then fixed it back from inside Win 10 after it was properly up and running from the SSD.

All good now , and its amazing how much faster everything is on the SSD vs. HDD  Seems to be even faster a bit than my Asus UX305F that I have as a travel laptop, probably on account on a better/faster processor.

One thing I did notice, about the SSD, during the installation process I also installed HD Tune, was mostly curios to test it, eveything came up A-OK, it has some 2500 hours of use, which I guess is commensurate with what the seller described it to be from a 1 and 1/2 yr old machine and of course with the cheap-cheap price I paid for it 🙂  HD Tune did report the temperature going as high as 56-57 degrees C which is 132-135 F...this is within the specs of an SSD it seems, this particular one according to the manufacturer has an operating range of 0-70 C, I'm just thinking, probably it runs a bit hotter due to the location its installed in as well within the laptop? Do you think I should be concerned? It does go down to 43-44 C when idle, and about 47-48 C during light use, and the ambient temp. inside my apartment is a bit high, since its peak summer in Prague (right now my digital thermo. reads 26.5 C inside the living room).

Not sure if you have any experience with this, SSD temps, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask, since you have done such and excellent job of helping me thus far, for which I am very grateful 

[Huffer]

The SSD is an electronic device and current flows through and it is doing "work" as that term was defined in your high school physics class so they can get warm. The temp you describe is nothing to be concerned about. 

[lawrence38]

Thanks a lot again for your input. I was mainly looking at it in comparison with the temps of the SSD inside my Asus UX305, which never-ever exceeds 40 degrees (u, even under a prolongued test, but I guess that's because the whole laptop/chassis is made of aluminium and thus probably acting like one giant heatsink 🙂

Have yourself a wonderful weekend  kind Sir and thanks for your very helpful and speedy replies!