Replacing HDD by SSD in HP ENVY 15-u000 x360

[Wouter60]

I would like to replace the old - and slow - HDD in my neighbour's HP laptop by a faster solid state drive.

It's an HP ENVY 15-u000 x360 laptop. She bought it in 2015 (I guess). 

I found a video that covers replacement of the HDD. It shows a slim flatcable between the original HDD and the motherboard. Is there a SATA connector at the side of the HDD? That's not visible in the video. 

My question is: can I easily replace the 2,5 inch HDD by a 2,5 inch SSD with a standard SATA connector to it?

[banhien · Accepted solution]

@Wouter60 

You can use the existing cable. For older machines, this task won't take more than 5 minutes. Time to open the case may take longer. All standard 2.5" HDD's and SSD's have same physical size EXCEPT SSD's are normally thinner. But the machine supports 7mm or 7.2mm therefore no need a spacer. Just simply remove the old HDD and plug the new SSD to the same spot.

Regards.

[Wouter60]

Thanks a lot for the advice!

The video I found is this one: https://youtu.be/Mq78BY1xhLU?si=srTNWpaLj2nqWX7Y

Opening the case doesn't seem too difficult. 

Tonight I'm gonna give it a try. 

[Wouter60]

It was fairly easy. I took the old 500GB HDD out first, and I cloned it in a stand-alone cloning station that I have. That took nearly two hours. After that, I put the new SSD in the laptop. I didn't need the spacer that came with it. The HDD was a slim type harddrive, the SSD fits exactly. 

At the first boot, I got a bios error, which I could ignore with Enter. Then, there was a BSOD (Windows 10). But after that, Windows was started normally. 

The difference is spectacular! With the old HDD it took ages to start the laptop. It often freezed because it was too busy downloading and installing updates. Now, with the new HDD, it's usable again. My neighbour is very happy.