Replaced hard drive with SATA SSD. Should I disable Optane memory?

[PeteC22]

I replaced the mechanical hard drive in my Pavillion cs-2064st with a SATA SSD drive.  This laptop comes with Optane memory (16gb).  Should I disable Optane?  It is running fine with it but would I be better off disabling it? I know it is really intended to speed up a mechanical hard drive as a cache.

Also, would I have been better off taking out the Optane module and replacing it with a NVMe drive instead?

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

I would have removed the SATA hard drive and optane memory, and installed a NVMe SSD in place of both, or use the 2.5" SSD for storage, and the NVMe drive as OS drive.

For me, 500 GB for example, provides plenty of storage, so I would have elected to remove the SATA drive and just run the notebook off the NVMe drive.

NVMe drives provide superior performance over SATA III drives.

As far as removing the optane memory, unfortunately I don't know about disabling it.

I agree that it isn't needed, but I would just remove the optane hardware instead someday, and go with an NVMe drive.

[PeteC22]

Thank you!  Will I need to reset bios to boot to the NMVe?  Also, is there anything I need to know about selecting a NVMe drive?

I figure I should be able to do this, but I have never installed this type pf drive.  I know I can buy a NVMe interface so that I can clone with the NVMe through usb.  Or...could I install the NVMe, keep the sata ssd drive installed and clone from there?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Unfortunately, I don't know if you need to change any BIOS settings.

If you leave the operating system on the SATA SSD, I think the notebook will always try to boot from that first.

If you remove the SATA SSD the notebook should boot from the NVMe drive automatically.

Here is a link to the crucial memory/SSD report for a similar notebook model to yours...

https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/HP-Compaq/pavilion-15-cs2000no

If you click on the View More link under the SSD section, they list compatible NVMe drives that should work in your notebook.

I have never cloned an OS, so I can't help you with that.

I prefer to clean install the OS and reinstall the software when I replace a drive.

You could try making a recovery drive using the cloud recovery client utility to reinstall W10, the drivers and software that came with your PC.

Here is an info link for how to use the utility.

https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/c06162205

The only thing I don't know is if the cloud recovery client will work when you have completely changed the drive configuration.

But if you have a 32 GB USB flash drive, I suppose you have nothing to lose by trying it.

[PeteC22]

I always keep a very clean system and in the past simply cloned to the new drive, however, I don't have a NVMe to USB adaptor. I see them sold on Amazon, but perhaps this time I will try a clean reinstall.  If I remove the sata  ssd, and install the NVMe drive, how would the drive be recognized as it has no OS?  Can I do this with my USB recovery drive?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

As long as the BIOS sees the drive, you should be able to reinstall W10 on it.

W10 has the NVMe drivers built in to 'see' the drive and install.