Installing SSD with HDD in 15-bs158sa (cont)

[Iain_B]

Thanks for the suggestion, and link.  I installed the update.  Unfortunately it had no effect.  The power light on the right-hand side (next to the HDD light) still flashes as the power button is released (not pressed).

I have a friend who has just had a HDD replaced at a reasonable price from a fairly local shop (who seem to know what they are doing), and I'll take it in there to find out if they have any suggestions.  They might even get it sorted!  I shall see, and update here as necessary. 

Thanks.

[Iain_B]

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@Iain_B wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion, and link.  I installed the update.  Unfortunately it had no effect.  The power light on the right-hand side (next to the HDD light) still flashes as the power button is released (not pressed).

....

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I have now also been to the HP site and installed over 50 driver and software updates - probably more than absolutely needed.  Unfortunately the result is the same.  The SSD still will not work. It was worth a try anyway. 

I shall still hang on to the SSD for the time being, in case any more options come up.

[Iain_B · Accepted solution]

An interesting continuation ...

I decided I would get a larger internal SSD (500 Gb) and put the 1Tb into an external USB case.  I thought that I would give the M.2 one final go before buying the SSD drive.  I did - and it worked.  I did not do anything different, it just worked!!

Because I had 1Tb and was not very careful, I was already over the 256Gb for cloning over to the SSD.  I created a new partition on the HDD, and copied some folders onto it, deleting them from the main drive / partition.  That reduced the capacity for cloning.  However, I then had to 'shrink' the existing drive to under 256Gb.  But the swap file had put itself at the end of the drive.  I had to download a tool (Minitool Partition Wizard Free) in order to reduce the size of the working partition.

That done, I used the same program to migrate the OS to the SSD.  I then had to make the SSD boot first, through the BIOS.  That was not so straight forward becaues the SSD was not visible.  Having researched it, I discovered that I had to remove the HDD in order to make the SSD bootable.  That worked, making the SSD as C: drive.  Putting the HDD back still allowed the SSD to remain bootable.  I erased and removed the partition that I had cloned, and with the Minitool expanded the partition that I had copied the extra files to, back to the 1Tb.   

I had to juggle the newly created Recovery partition on the SSD to the end of the SSD, in order to get the maximum capacity for the SSD boot partition.  Having done all of this, I have now achieved in having the SSD workable, obtaining the maximum capacities from both the (nominal) 256Gb SSD and 1Tb HDD. 

An interesting day with a bit of experimentation about the 'shrinking' of the original drive to make it clonable, and finding out how to make the SSD bootable when it was not even visible in the BIOS.  But the boot time is now seconds, with virtually no loading time for programs generally; and battery life should be improved because most of the work will be from the SSD.  Although I run it most of the time without the battery in, in order to preserve its life.