No luck upgrading Pavilion g6-1d21dx to SSD

[erico]

If you read the tutorial that I wrote and saw the steps you have to go through to prep an SSD, you would notice the differences between performing a clean install, using recovery media and the pure advantages of cloning to an SSD.

Installing an operating system to an SSD is not a simple process. The "usual method of installing an operating system", as you called it, just does not work. If it were you would already be using your operating system on your SSD.

If you would like to learn more about UEFI and legacy BIOS and disk type compatibilities, do as we have done, and start reading.

There are a number of different types of disks. There are even SSD disk types that your notebook is not physically compatible with.

[diamante]

Hi erico,

In your last message, you wrote "There are even SSD disk types that your notebook is not physically compatible with." Could you tell me what types are not physically compatible--or do you simply mean they are not physically compatible because they won't fit in the computer?

I have been able to do a clean install of Windows 10 on the SSD with the drive connected externally with an Apricorn cable, but I have not figured out how to get the computer to recognize the SSD when I install it internally. If you have any advice on how I might solve this problem, I would really appreciate it. I know that you recommend cloning, but when I upgraded the computer's original hard drive to Windows 10, the performance was so awful that I want to do a clean install.  I don't want to reformat the original hard drive, though, for a number of reasons (for example, in case I decide to go back to my old Windows 7 setup, or in case I need to refer to my old software settings, or in case there are files that I've forgotten to back up).

Thank you.

[erico]

Check in the BIOS for a secure boot setting and disable it.   The SSD drive you are using may be the wrong memory type for the  AMD chipset in your notebook's system board.

Crucial memory guarantees that an upgrade to the SSD drives on the following web document will work.

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/HP---Compaq/pavilion-g6-1d21dx 

An upgrade to Windows 10 gives you 29 days to rollback to the original operating system.

M.2 is one type your notebook is not compatible with. The Spectre 13-V000 Ultrabook I am typing this post on has one installed. I also have one installed as the boot drive in my desktop PC.

[diamante]

There is no secure boot setting in the BIOS. My BIOS version is F.49, in case it's relevant.

I followed all of the instructions in the tutorial--nothing worked.

I tried a clean install of Windows 10 two different ways. The first time was with the SSD installed internally. All the Windows files appeared to have been copied to the SSD successfully, but nevertheless the computer could not see the drive when restarted. It is interesting that Windows setup could access, format and write to the SSD installed internally, but then the computer couldn't do anything with it. The second time was with the SSD connected with the Apricorn cable. After installing Windows I could boot the computer from the SSD when it was connected with the Apricorn cable, but not when it was installed internally.

Given the above I did not see how cloning could possibly work, but I decided to give it a try. The cloning completed successfully with the Apricorn software, but with the drive installed internally the computer would not boot.

[erico]

Have you tried updating the SanDisk SSD firmware to the latest version available?

That can be done with it conected to a desktop PC.

When you prepped the SSD, did you use the MBR or GPT volume style?

MBR and GPR compared

http://www.howtogeek.com/193669/whats-the-difference-between-gpt-and-mbr-when-partitioning-a-drive/

[diamante]

I did update the SanDisk firmware toward the beginning of my troubleshooting work. That seemed to result in a different error message when I tried to boot the PC, but essentially the error messages said the same thing. I think initially they said something like operating system not found, and after the firmware update they switched to  something like disk read/write error.

As for the partitioning style, I just followed your instructions on disk prepping (using the commands in the image in your tutorial), or I let the Windows setup or the Apricorn software format the drive. I never got any prompts to select a partitioning style.

[diamante]

P.S. I assume given the age of the Pavilion G6 and the fact that it uses a BIOS and not UEFI, the partitioning style was MBR. Would you agree? Would the SSD presumably work either way, assuming there was no other basic incompatibility with the computer? I think it's safe to say at this point that the first-generation SanDisk Extreme SSD is not compatible with the G6, don't you?

By the way, I decided to try installing the SanDisk SSD in a much older Compaq CQ60-211DX, running 32-bit Windows Vista with 4GB of RAM. It worked like a charm with the Apricorn cloning software. The SSD has breathed new life into the old machine. The performance is so much better that I may see if I can get a copy of Windows 7 for it so that I can keep using it for a while longer.

By the way, one of the screws on the CQ60's original hard drive bracket is stripped and I can't get it off. Consequently the SSD is installed without any kind of bracket to support it. It seems snug enough, though. Which leads me to ask, given their lack of moving parts, do SSDs even need brackets? The Pavilion G6's HDD has a soft rubber bracket that is extremely snug with the SSD. Maybe an SSD in that machine would be better off without a bracket as well. I have ordered one of the Crucial drives (an MX300 525GB) for the G6. I'm hoping that it puts a quick end to this upgrading adventure.

[diamante · Accepted solution]

Here are the conclusions I've reached after spending a lot of time on this upgrade project:

At the beginning of this thread I was strongly advised to clone my old hard drive instead of attempting a clean install of Windows 10 on my SSD. I recommend the opposite unless your system is working perfectly with your old hard drive, because that way you can leave the system, software and data files on your old hard drive intact in case you realize you need to go back and check something or you decide to abandon the upgrade altogether. I found that there is no mystery to doing a clean install on an SSD as long as your SSD is compatible with your computer. I had upgraded my old HDD from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and after that upgrade I was getting error messages every other time I booted the computer (unexpected_store_exception, inaccessible_boot_device , and kernel_data_input_error). Since there are so many problems on my old HDD, I will probably roll it back to Windows 7 while I still can, in case I ever need to refer to my old setup. Microsoft's website says that once Windows 10 has been successfully activated on your computer, future Windows 10 installs on the machine will be activated automatically, even if you have rolled the machine back to Windows 7 or Windows 8.

If you do attempt a clean install, make sure you do so with a network cable attached. This made a huge difference for me. Doing a clean install without a network cable attached led to all kinds of problems, including a total lack of Internet access and some devices not being installed correctly. When I did a clean install with a network cable attached, all of my devices were installed automatically. This includes the Synaptics touchpad, the HP wireless button, the AMD Radeon display adapter and the Realtek card reader. I didn't need to install anything myself, and the Device Manager doesn't show any unknown devices. Without a network cable attached during the installation, even my Wi-Fi was not usable during or after the installation.

One final note: My Pavilion g6 is 64-bit capable, but I installed the 32-bit version of Windows 10 on it, because I use some old software that won't run under Windows 10 64-bit. So far, 32-bit Windows 10 seems to run just fine.

[diamante]

A few additional notes:

To get Windows 10 to function properly on this Pavilion g6-1d21dx, I ended up reverting to BIOS revision F.46, because this revision restores the computer's ability to go in and out of sleep and hibernate modes, which was broken in a later BIOS revision (that was a HUGE source of frustration). In the absence of other information about the BIOS revisions, I recommend that users go with revision F.46. The 32-bit version of Windows 10 runs beautifully with F.46 on my Pavilion g6-1d21dx.

Here's a summary of the only other issue I have encountered, in case I can save another user some time:

When I intalled Windows 10, the installer automatically installed the correct driver for the laptop's Radeon HD 6520G display adapter. Nevertheless, I was later prompted to upgrade to Radeon Software Crimson Edition. When I tried installing the update, though, nothing changed. The Catalyst Control Center was still installed, and there was no sign of any Crimson software. It was as though the system ignored the installation, even though I didn't get any error messages. I had a similar experience when I installed the Crimson "upgrade" after my first Windows 10 upgrade attempt (installing Windows 10 over Windows 7). That time, though, I opted to install a gaming component of the Crimson software along with the basic software. The gaming component did install, but it wasn't something I would ever use. No display adapter driver update was installed that time, either, though.

I recommend that anyone with this model not bother installing the Crimson Edition software--just select "don't tell me about this update again." AMD has stated on its website that no further driver updates will be released for the Radeon HD 6520G. Also, I found a few threads on AMD's user forum where people said that drivers for the Radeon HD 6520G need to be installed using Windows Update and that drivers downloaded from AMD won't work. The Windows Update driver would obviously be the same one that Windows installed automatically in the first place.