Laptop Upgrade/Removal Optane for SSD

[MikeMac3]

I have a HP 15-da0056od. I was going to swap the HDD for an SSD but it does have a Optane 16gb m.2 in a 2280 slot.  I have been unable to figure out how to change the boot drive. The bios says it is controlled in the Windows OS boot manager. I haven't figured out how to get into the UEFI to change it either.

Would it be worth it to swap the optane for a SSD? 

Or should I just swap the HDD for a SATA SSD and clone it from the older HDD?

Thanks in advance.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I would remove the Intel Optane memory and install a NVMe SSD such as the Samsung 980 (not 980 Pro) or the Western Digital Blue SN570.

See the last two sections at the link below for how to disable the Intel Optane memory before removing it.

First you disable it using the Intel RST software.

Then you disable it in the BIOS if there is a setting in the BIOS to do so.

HP PCs - Installing and Using Intel Optane | HP® Customer Support

[MikeMac3]

Thanks Paul. I haven't purchased a SSD to replace either drive yet. I did disable the optane drive and did it make a huge difference. It really made a drastic difference in boot and other execution operations. So it does seem to work just not 100% of the time. I started this journey to resolve lag time when having multiple web browsers open and a few others such as a file explorer and a couple of word docs. 

I am definitely going to replace the optane SSD with a regular SSD so I should see full performance for everything on that drive.

Know just got to figure which model and size for sure to go with. The HDD was 1TB but I don't use anywhere near that but we shall see. 

Any advice on cleaning software or should I attempt a fresh install?

Thx again!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

I would go with a clean install of W10 on the SSD.

Normally, I'd recommend you use the HP cloud recovery tool to create a bootable USB recovery drive that will reinstall W10 the drivers and the software that originally came with your notebook, but what I don't know is if the tool is going to set up an image setup for models that come with Optane memory.

If that is the case, I don't think that would be good.

HP Consumer PCs - Using the HP Cloud Recovery Tool in Windows 11 and 10 | HP® Customer Support

If you want to try that you can see what happens.  I have zipped up and attached the cloud recovery tool program, below.

The other thing...do you plan on retaining the 2.5" drive or removing it?

If you plan on retaining it, you will need to temporarily disconnect the drive and set up Windows on the NVMe SSD and verify everything works right.

Otherwise, after you install windows on the SSD and restart the PC, the notebook is most likely going to boot from the 2.5" drive first and not the SSD.

That is because notebooks that come with dual drive configurations from the factory have no operating system on the hard drive.

If you don't plan on removing the 2.5" drive, then that would not be an issue.

To recap...before removing the Optane memory, disable it using the RST software and then disable it in the BIOS (if applicable).

Then install your NVMe SSD and temporarily/permanently disconnect the hard drive before installing Windows on the SSD.

[MikeMac3]

Thx. I'll check that out. On my C drive, I do have folders for windows etc. So it may be old enough to have the OS on the drive. Never heard of it not being on the HDD or and SSD. The 1TB drive is partitioned with a recovery drive section, if that helps to describe the configuration it has.

I also didn't see an option to disable Optane in the BIOS. It does have a Windows OS boot manager which when highlighted shows the option is the HDD which ironically is a Toshiba drive.